Our cover problem was victorius in a national quick composing competition,
arranged in connection of our society's autumn meeting. The theme called for
problems with duals, which are usually considered as serious faults. There were
altogether 16 entries, which were subjected to a joint judgement by all participants
of the meeting mentioned above. On the first pages of this issue we note the
passing away of Enrico Paoli and Hrvoje Bartolovic, both prominent problemists
in their fields of composition, pp. 292-293.
The annual meeting of our society, Suomen tehtäväniekat, is held in Helsinki
on Saturday, March 4, 2006. Prior to the meeting the Finnish solving championship
takes place - if you are interested in participating, please do not hesitate
to contact the editor of this magazine. See page 294 for details in Finnish.
On the next page there are announcements of topical international composition
competitions. Do keep in mind international competitions announced in previous
issues ST!
The originals columns start at p. 296 and offer many moments of enjoyment for
you!
Kari Valtonen discusses duals on pp. 306-312. In my humble opinion, this article
as his previous ones, too, is of a high class and we are happy to be able to
publish it.
One of the well-hidden secrets of Finnish solving success is probably the existence
of a Finnish solving championship, the so called "long" solving competition.
This competition lasted for more than one month and consisted of very challenging
problems. The first such competition was held in 1954-55, and the last one in
1999. The competition came to an end because of the presence of computers and
strong solving programs. The problems used in the very first competition are
on p. 317.
Marko Ylijoki continues his interesting series of articles `Selected helpmates`
on p. 318-319. This time he presents top scorers of the latest FIDE-album.
On the next pages there is a report on the traditional autumn meeting of Finnish
problemists. The meeting's program consists of solving, composing, lectures
and other kind of program, such as a chess quiz and a reconstruction competition.
See pp. 320-321.
The Grand Old Man of Swedish problems chess, Alexander Hildebrand passed away
in the autumn of 2005. To honour the memory of a great person and problemist,
Henry Tanner and Pauli Perkonoja both have written an article of Alexander.
Henry has also selected and commented 9 Alexander's problems. See pp. 322-325.
The Small is Beautiful by Henry Tanner continues strongly as ever, see pp. 326-330.
We close this issue with the recent FIDE list of solvers, dated January 1, 2006.
Finally, apologies for the lateness of this issue. We hope that this will turn
out to be an exception, not a rule!
The next ST issue is due to appear in March.
Published 16th January 2006