Our cover problem was published thirty years ago by Unto Heinonen, already
then a well known composer. As informed in the previous issue, Unto has now
reached the magical number of 75 FIDE Album points and thus becomes the first
Finnish GM composer. In the next issue of ST we have an article by Unto, and
this issue includes a short presentation on our new GM (p. 158) and the column
Selected Helpmates (pp. 155-158) presents nine helpmates by him.
A large part of this issue is devoted to the Chalkidiki PCCC, excellently organised
by Harry Fougiaxis and his staff. We welcome the decision to have the next year's
congress also in Greece, preferably in Crete!
In the solving events our success was reasonable. In the Open Solving, Pauli
Perkonoja was quick and effective as usual, but a tiny mistake in the solution
of the 5# allowed Dolf Wissmann to overtake him. In the WCSC, a 3rd place is
the fourth Finnish medal in the team competition in succession. Only one point
separated us from the British team on 2nd place, with the Israeli team far ahead.
GM John Nunn won the individual competition, in which the medallists were clearly
superior to the rest. The competition was of a high level with almost all top
solvers participating. It was a surprise to see defending World Champions Russia
and Andrei Selivanov with rather modest results.
In the composing events successful Finnish composers were Harri Hurme, Hannu
Harkola and Unto Heinonen. On p. 138, Harri Hurme analyses his 2nd HM in the
Chalkidiki 2# Quick Composing competition.
Hannu Harkola turned 60 in September 21. Hannu did not want to celebrate with
a composing competition, therefore we must be satisfied with a short article
on p. 134, and dedication problems on the following pages.
We would like to remind you of two topical composing competitions. The Toma
Garai 70 JT requires helpmates in three with exactly three solutions. See ST
3/2004, p. 88, for details. Kari Valtonen 50 JT was announced in ST 1/2004 and
requires 2#s with multiple threat(s). See also ST 3/2004, pp. 90-93.
The "Paha Pähkinä - A hard nut to crack" by Neal Turner is on p. 140. This time
the centre of our attention is a recent Macleod Whisky TT 2nd Prize winner,
a h#2 by Harri Hurme. In Chalkidiki, the Finnish participants were baffled by
this puzzle, and the same happened with John Nunn and Colin McNab, who were
not able to solve this problem completely within the allotted time.
The reconstruction column edited by Harri Hurme is on p. 141. We learn that
the problem in the previous - and first - column was by Tapani Tikkanen. As
in the first column, there is a 2# now to be reconstructed, and only the main
variations are given.
On pp. 142-144 Jukka Tuovinen presents the n#-award of the recent 7th WCCT,
and Marko Ylijoki discusses the WCCT helpmate award on pp. 145-149.
The originals columns start from p. 150, once again without studies, selfmates,
fairies and mathematical chess problems. Once again, we apologize for this.
Olli Heimo has studied deeply the rules of chess and especially the 50 moves
rule. In his article on pp. 159-162 Olli proves that the theoretically longest
game, obeying the present rules saying that a draw can be claimed after 49.5
moves by a piece and without captures if there is a possibility to make the
50th move, lasts 5898 moves.
The next ST is due to appear in December.
Published 29th September 2004