The cover photo was taken in Batumi, Georgia, where the annual WFCC meeting took place in the end of September. Near to the congress hotel there was a chess club and an outdoor chess set. The size of the pieces is hopefully reproduced in the photo.
The Batumi congress consisted of official meetings and decisions, lectures and competitions in composing and solving. In addition, there was an excursion to the local botanical garden, possibilities to enjoy the company of like-minded people from different countries and to make new friends & renew old friendships. This issue concentrates on the Batumi congress with the expense of the original problems – the next issue will be packed with those.
Anna-Leena and Kari Karhunen write on pp. 140–141 on the unofficial program and general impressions on Batumi. This is followed by the report on the 37th World Chess Solving Competition, WCSC. The competition was once again a success for the Polish team led by Piotr Murdzia. The team competition was a superior win for the favourites, but the individual competition was very tough until the end. For the Finnish team of Hurme, Karhunen and Paavilainen the 4th place is the best one for a long time.
The WCSC results, problems and solutions are on pp. 142–148. On the next pages we have the report on the solving competitions by Harri Hurme. He finishes his seven-page report with a list of Finnish team & individual results in the past WCSCs.
On pp. 154–157 we have the results and problems of the open solving competition in Batumi, along with a report on the official decisions. As well known, in 2014 the ECSC will take place in Montenegro and WCCC in Switzerland, probably in the end of August.
The composers in Batumi had several possibilities to show their skills, as Kenneth Solja's report on pp. 158–163 shows. In addition to the Finnish problems Kenneth shows a selection of prizewinners.
On pp. 166–170 we have the award for the selfmates published in our magazine during the years 2010 and 2011. The judge Alexandr Azhusin included eleven problems to the award with instructive comments.
Next we have an article by Henry Tanner with six problems, five of which are by our most prolific composer, Jorma Pitkänen. During the past months he has published three leaflets with mainly his own, unpublished problems, though there are also originals by Unto Heinonen. For more details on these publications, please contact the author, postal address on p. 170.
In the recently concluded WCCT our most successful composer was Janne Syväniemi. He writes on pp. 172–175 of the development of a 2#-idea, which he was able to realize in an orthodox form after hard work and to his great delight. Unfortunately the ultimate fate was that the invaluable YACPDB, Yet Another Chess Problem Database by Dmitri Turevski, revealed a predecessor by John Rice.
The next pages belong to GM Kari Valtonen, our loyal contributor. First he reminds of two important anniversaries. Thomas Rayner Dawson presented two important fairy chess inventions in 1912–1913: the Grasshopper and Maximummer. On pp. 177–186 Kari writes about the Modena school of chess composition, which should provide for an enjoyable and educative reading!
Paha pähkinä, Tough Nut to Crack, is on p. 186, this time selected by Henry Tanner.
The next issue is due to appear before the end of this year.
Published 28th October 2013