On p. 164 Hannu Harkola tells about the Finlandia prize, given annually in the PCCC meetings since 1996. Because of reasons unclear even to us, the prize was not awarded in 1998. The recipient(s) have excelled in a certain branch of problem chess, as the names reveal: Marjan Kovacevic in 1996; Bernd Ellinghoven & the FIDE album team in 1997; Bo Lindgren & the WCSC team in 1999; Macleod Whisky TT organisers in 2000.
Christian Poisson has developed further the well-known computer program Chloe. WinChloe is designed for solving and archiving of chess problems, allowing also extensive searches (p. 165).
GM Toma Garai writes entertainingly on what kind of problemists famous people and organisations would have been, if they had channelled their activity differently. Because of the character of the article it is not translated into Finnish (pp. 166-167).
The problem database PDB can now be accessed via the web. PDB will certainly prove to be a valuable tool for both composers and judges. With a common effort also the inevitable flaws in sources, names of the composers and keywords will be corrected (p. 167).
Internet has become an important media for problem chess fans. A few issues ago we presented a selection of worthwhile sites. Since that we have witnessed the reappearance of Mat Plus and two interesting new sites, one by the Danish Chess Problem Society and the other by Vaclav Kotesovec (p. 168). On the same page we inform on two books published by Friedrich Chlubna and a composing tourney dealing with one of them, Helpmates of the Future by C.J. Feather.
Please note two important changes to time limits: the composing time for Jorma Pitkänen 60 JT is extended until May 2nd 2001 and the time for claims for two ST informal tourney awards, fairies 1995 and h#2 1996, is continued until February 1st 2001.
Every now and then we present Finnish problems that have been recently successful in competitions. This time we turn our attention to selfmates, see pp. 169-172.
A non-traditional small solving contest is on p. 173, with quality problems for leisurely solving.
The originals section comprises of 25 originals. In addition, there are comparison problems and versions of earlier originals. The names of composers of two problems in the previous issue were incorrect, now this has been corrected.
On pp. 188-192 Henry Tanner continues to research the secrets of problems with pieces on each of the four corners of the board in the initial position. For the following pages Henry and Antero Harju have collected anagrams of Finnish composers and solvers.
This issue closes with presentations of the endgame study CD, based on work by Harold van der Heijden, and the collection of helpmates with eight pieces, compiled by André Minost.
The first issue of 2001 is due to appear within a few months.
Published 22nd December 2000