The 100th Independence Day of Finland took place on the publication date of this issue, December 6. Our society took part in the celebration with a solving competition. The event was for OTB players and had two groups, see pp. 195–199. In both groups, there were eight problems by Finnish composers. Our cover problem is from this competition. We celebrate also with a team composing match against the Netherlands, see pp. 180–182. The Dutch have proposed the section with Royal Dynasty, group B. Finland has set the theme for group A with possibly a new idea for a h#2, invented by Harri Hurme.
Our society´s annual meeting of 2018 takes place on February 24, see p. 183. On the same day we have the Finnish Championship in Solving, see the announcement on p. 182. For an invitation in English, please visit the WFCC website, as the competition is a part of the Solving World Cup.
On the following pages we report on the composing competitions of the Dresden congress, focusing on Finnish successes. On p. 187 we announce an international composing competition, Janne Syväniemi 50 JT. See the announcement, reprint and participate! Eleven recent successes by Finnish composers, collected by Neal Turner, are on pp. 188–190.
Herbert Grasemann was born 100 years ago, on December 21, 1917. Joose Norri describes Grasemann as an author and a composer, see pp. 190–195. On the next pages we have Henry Tanner´s article on symmetric helpmates with either symmetric or asymmetric solutions.
John Roycroft has recently published two books, EGEG and Stinking Bishops. We review the former in this issue, the latter in the next issue. EGEG is warmly recommended to anyone interested in the art of chess study, with a variety of topics presented with John´s trademark style! See p. 199.
The autumn meeting of our society attracted 12 participants, see pp. 202–203. The program included composing, lectures, discussions and solving. The composing competition was for any kind of compositions in which during one phase a piece A is pinned and piece B moves, in another vice versa.
The selfmates published in 2006–2007 was for a long time without an appointed judge. Recently Neal Turner volunteered, see the award on pp. 203–205. Thanks, Neal! Paha Pähkinä, a Tough Nut to Crack, selected by Neal, offers a tricky helpmate on p. 205. Olli Välikangas passed away in September at the age of 84. He was active as a solver and as a composer, see p. 207.
The originals columns start on p. 208. There have been changes in the editorship. One year ago, Antti Parkkinen started as the study originals editor. Now he has decided to quit, so we are searching for a successor. If you are interested, please let us know! In the fairy section Johan Beije takes over from Kenneth. Your contributions are welcome to all our originals columns!
Thank you, dear readers, for the year 2017!
The next issue is due to appear in March 2018.
Published 6th December 2017