The cover of this issue combines past with present. The composer, Pentti Sola, (1907–1940) was probably the most influential Finnish composer of his time. Sola was a driving force behind the birth of our society. The composition on the cover won a major international competition and the award was published on the same year Suomen tehtäväniekat was founded, 1935. A symbolic helpmate, appropriate for Christmas time!
In this issue we catch up with missing awards from past. The first two of the four awards are for the years 2004–2005. Joose Norri agreed to judge both selfmates and fairies from those years and he responded quickly, see pp. 148–149 and 150–155 respectively. On the following pages we have Vladislav Nefjodov´s award for helpmates in 2½–3 moves, see pp. 156–163. The fourth award is for helpmate moremovers published in 2011–2014 with Kostas Prentos as a judge, see pp. 163–166. We are very grateful for all the judges for their volunteer work!
In the beginning of 2016, the annual meeting of ST and the Finnish Solving Championship, part of the World Solving Cup, will take place in Helsinki on February 27. The invitations are on p. 167.
Kari Valtonen continues his research on themes and terminology, this time dealing with blocks, see pp. 168–179. As previously, the article is in Finnish, but if you wish to receive information in English, please contact Kari by email. On pp. 180–181 we have the announcement for the FIDE Album 2013–2015, on the next page there is further information on Jorma Pitkänen 75 JT and the announcement for Yochanan Afek 64 JT.
In the quick composing competition of the autumn meeting of ST, Hannu Harkola came up with a good idea for a helpmate in two and found a correct setting within the short composing time. Later a search for anticipations revealed something interesting, see pp. 182–183. The Study of the Year 2013 has been selected and the honour went to Pavel Arestov of Russia. Pauli Perkonoja comments on this study, see p. 183. On the following three pages Neal Turner presents recently successful Finnish compositions. This is followed by several recent proof games by Per Olin, including Chess960 and A to B proof games. See pp. 187–191 for Per´s interesting ideas. On p. 191 we have Neal Turner´s solving challenge: Paha pähkinä, A Tough Nut to Crack. On the same page there is the invitation to the ISC on January 24, 2016, and the announcement for Milan Velimirovic MT. Mikael Grönroos is fascinated by neutral pieces, as you may notice from pages 192–195: fourteen dedication problems, all with neutral pawns.
The originals sections start on p. 196. As mentioned in the orthodox compositions column, this is the last issue with Mikael Grönroos as editor of this column. His successor is Kari Valtonen and his contact details are on p. 196. Please, send your originals to him or to other column editors!
The next issue is due to appear in March 2016.
Published 9th December 2015