The Moscow PCCC took place in July-August. On the first pages you can find the results of the WCSC and the Open Solving, furthermore there are reports by Terho Jaatinen and Hannu Harkola. Terho writes from the solver's point of view, Hannu concentrates on official proceedings.
Our cover problem is a tribute to the driving force behind the congress, Andrei Selivanov. He is known as an inventive composer especially in the selfmate genre, a strong solver and an active person in chess organisations, for example he is the Vice President of FIDE. The solution is on p. 118.
In addition to organising the Moscow meeting with his wife Olga, Andrei achieved a perfect success in the solving competitions. It is not every day that a solver wins both the individual WCSC and is a member of the World Championship winning team. Congratulations!
In the next issue we plan to publish more material from the Moscow congress, for example successful problems from various solving competitions.
On pp. 128-143 there are altogether four ST awards from recent years. It should be noted that no judge was originally nominated for the selfmates 1996-1997, Unto Heinonen was appointed only a few months ago.
There are still a couple of awards from the 1990's which have not been published, but some day...
On pp. 144-145 Jorma Pitkänen describes the activity of the problem chess association in Lahti, which celebrates 10th anniversary after a few months. And as the readers are aware of, there is an international composition competition going on to celebrate the anniversary.
We are happy to publish in the helpmates originals column the first problems ever by Themis Argirakopoulos from Greece - welcome!
On pp. 156-158 The Selected Helpmates by Marko Ylijoki commemorates recently deceased composers, see also the previous issue of ST. Another sad news is the passing away of Edgar Holladay, reported on p. 158. Holladay was a well known composer especially in the field of helpmates, International Master in composing and an International Judge.
Kauko Väisänen celebrated his 70th anniversary in June, but the real celebration takes place in autumn. Three dedication problems are published on p. 158. The stipulation of the problem by Terho Jaatinen is: colour the pieces in such a way that the position is a mate in one with seven solutions. In the initial position the number of pieces is, of course, 7+0. Harri Hurme has dedicated a helpmate in two with setplay and Hannu Harkola, true to his habits, has composed a symbolic series helpmate in seven, where the number of different solutions is asked. You can guess the right number! In addition, the black pieces form "KV" in the course of the solution.
See also ST 3/2003 for a dedication problem to Kauko by Henry Tanner.
The RELO-ratings of solvers after the competitions in Moscow are on pp. 159-161. In addition, two Finnish competitions have been taken into account. The list includes all solvers who have taken part in rated competitions since the beginning of 2000.
Henry Tanner continues the Four Corner Project on pp. 162-167, now the time is ripe for the eight part.
ST 6/2003 is due to appear in December.
Published 1st October l 2003