The annual WFCC congress has been held for the first time in Asia. The place
was Kobe in Japan and the event is the main topic of this issue. The introduction
is on the cover: a rather unusual chess set, photographed in Japan.
The congress events such as different competitions, decisions and a general
view on the congress are on the first pages. Hannu and Marja-Liisa Harkola represented
Finland, all other potential Finnish participants decided to concentrate on
future congresses. See pp. 112-122.
The award of fairies and retros, published in 2010-2011 in our magazine, is
on pp. 122-135. Hans Gruber is perhaps the most active judge of our time and
even this time he has succeeded in producing swiftly a well considered award.
There are many interesting and beautiful compositions to study and it is worth
while to read and learn of the judge´s comments.
The Encyclopedia of Chess Problems has been published, as shortly mentioned
in the previous issue. The book is on chess problem terms and themes, shortly
advertised on p. 128.
The 9th ISC, International Solving Contest, takes place on January 27, 2013.
The event is held simultaneously all over the globe according to the usual standards,
known to most of us from previous years. In Finland, this event takes place
at least in Helsinki. More information on p. 135.
Kenneth Solja has selected ten of his recent helpmates and commented them, see
pp. 136-142. During the past few years Kenneth has been composing actively and
with good results, as the article shows.
In the issue 6/2011 we had a selection of problems by Manfred Rittirsch. As
Murphy´s Law dictates, something had to go wrong. There was a diagram
error and the try to correct the error in TN 1/2012 was not successful. But
now Henry Tanner has taken the bull by the horns and shows us the correct diagram
with extensive comments on the problem, see pp. 143-144.
Jorma Paavilainen visited the chess composition event at Marianka in the start
of August. The trip to this small Slovak village was more than worth the effort
and participation in future meetings is warmly recommended. There is no other
event so packed with interesting lectures, spiced with composing competitions.
The solving competitions have a less prominent role than in most of such meetings,
which is a pleasant feature. The Marianka bulletin is not yet published, so
we have to manage with few problems from composing competitions and without
information on their ranking. See pp. 146-147.
Udo Degener has published a very valuable book on two-mover themes. Von Ajec
bis Zappas is evaluated on pp. 148-149 and Kari Valtonen finds it most interesting,
well compiled and organised. It is easy to agree and to recommend this book,
which offers, in short, excellent value for the money!
On the next page we announce a domestic composing competition for n#, studies,
helpmates or selfmates using the rules of Shatranj.
The sad news of the passing away of Tony Lewis reached us in the beginning of
November. The gentleman composer is remembered on p. 150.
The originals columns on pp. 152-161 offer the traditional menu: orthodox mates,
studies, helpmates, selfmates, fairy chess problems and retros. Unfortunately,
this time there are no selfmate originals, which the composers should note and
contribute. Please, note also that the end of this year marks also the end of
the FIDE album period. TN would be delighted to publish your masterpieces, which
would later find their way into the Album.
The next issue is due to appear before the end of this year.
Published 9th November 2012