The final ranking of the problems in this competition is partly based on the traditional values of originality, skill of presentation etc. and partly on the difficulty of solution. The latter has been evaluated according to the time Harri, an IM in solving, took for solving. In the table on p. 8 you can find the time used for solving each problem. Harri notes in his award that he found this method to be a little arbitrary, perhaps there should have been more solvers testing their wits with the problems?
Perhaps controversially, the award includes one problem that has already been published: Mr. Milan R. Vukcevich, 1st Prize Strategems 1998. Because the award of Hurme JT was delayed, the composer had according to the Codex the right to send his entry to another forum. However, Harri considers that he does not violate anybody´s rights by including the problem in his award, too.
The award will be sent in English to the participants abroad.
Our societys annual meeting takes place on 24th of February. Along with the meeting itself the Finnish Quick Solving Championship is organised (p. 4).
One of the best Finnish composers ever and a well-known figure in PCCC, Jan Hannelius, turns 85 on 7th of December 2001. Unfortunately we had omitted him from the list of anniversaries in ST 6/2000 (p. 4).
Two interesting books have recently come to our attention. John Beasley has published a small collection of his own problems and the first edition of the book on records in chess problems by Sir Jeremy Morse has been revised (p. 4).
Last autumn ST organised an informal meeting including a quick composing competition, convincingly won by Pauli Perkonoja with a traditional three-mover (p. 5). The theme of the competition was a simple one: in the initial position the king has no flights, but it will be mated on different square(s).
On p. 6 there are tourney announcements, both international and national ones.
In the originals section we have the usual selection of problems, however due to circumstances there are less solutions to the originals of a past issue. Therefore we have decided to postpone the publication of the points table. In the next issue we will return to normal procedure in this respect.
The solutions of Harri Hurme 50 JT are on p. 21, along with the information on the new address of ST web site: http://www.saunalahti.fi/~stniekat/st.
Henry Tanner has collected recently successful retro problems by Finnish composers on pp. 22-28. It is not surprising to see that Unto Heinonen has gained great success in this field, but also other composers have had their moments of glory.
The column "Small is beautiful" includes eighteen originals of various types.
Please note that in Jorma Pitkänen 60 JT the composing time ends on 2nd of April, not in May as mistakenly informed in ST 6/2000.
The second issue of 2001 is due to appear within a few months.
Published 22nd February 2001