Neal Turner is well known both internationally and in Finland. Born in Blackburn,
he moved to Finland after marrying Leena. In spite of leaving Blackburn for
good, he is still very strongly attached to the Blackburn Rovers football team!
Neal has contributed in many ways to the Finnish problem chess life: he has
worked as tournament director in composing competitions, directed successfully
solving competitions both in Finland and abroad, composed, solved and participated
in various problem chess events - and even organised them. See p. 184 for examples
of his problems.
Neal has edited Paha pähkinä, A Hard Nut To Crack, for many years.
Try your skill or luck with the latest toughie, no. 35, on p. 186. As a modest
man Neal refused the attempts to organise a JT for his anniversary - but you
can find a bunch of dedication problems on p. 185-186.
The cover problem is the 1st prize winner of Henry Tanner 50 JT. The competition
was for helpmates or helpstalemates in at least 4,5 moves with one or more fairy
pieces and/or fairy condition(s). The problems should be solvable with the most
common solving programs. There were many entries and the judging process must
have been a difficult one. How to evaluate the pros and cons of problems with
greatly varied length and use of more or less exotic fairy elements? On pp 168-181
you can see how Henry dealt with the challenge. There are many interesting problems
to be enjoyed and wealth of ideas to explore.
Kauko Virtanen turned 75 and celebrated with a domestic composing competition.
There were 11 entries presenting the theme: in the solution, a chessman is captured
from a square and later in the course of the solution a similar chessman arrives
to this square. See pp. 182-3.
The annual meeting of our society takes place on February 21, 2009, in Helsinki.
The Finnish Championship in Quick Solving is held before the meeting and you
are warmly welcome to participate! For details, contact our chairman.
The European Championship in solving takes place in Belgrade in the beginning
of May 2009. This event will surely be an enjoyable one and we look forward
to it!
The originals columns start from p. 188. We appreciate your contributions and
so do our solvers and readers! This time there are no orthodox mates, but this
situation is surely temporary one. Please note that we have a new helpmate editor,
Terho Marlo. See p. 190 for his contact details and introduction. The previous
editor resigned without informing us, which led to an unpleasant situation -
luckily Terho was available and we are happy to have him as the new editor.
Let us keep him busy!
The next ST is due to appear after the winter. Have a very good year 2009!
Published 3rd February 2009