For the archive: My Reddit IAMA

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/5yztvn/iama_30_year_old_chess_composer_ama/

The AMA was held on 12 March 2017, 7 PM Berlin time.

Schafft die Zeitumstellung endlich ab! / Get finally rid of Daylight Saving Time!

Siehe Titel. See title.

Azerbaijan Chess Composition Tournaments 2017

Azerbaijan Chess Composition Tournaments 2017

Samir Badalov - 55 MT, 2017 (Studies)
(13.02.1962- 25.08.2011)
The Azerbaijan Chess Composition Commission announces an International Composing “Samir Badalov-55 MT”' memorial tournament for studies (free theme).
Judge: Muradkhan Muradov (Azerbaijan).
Send (please PGN) to tournament director: Elmar Abdullayev (Azerbaijan)
abdullaev-elmar@bk.ru
Closing date: 31. 05. 2017. The award – 2017.

Agshin Masimov - 55 JT, 2017 (Studies)
The Azerbaijan Chess Composition Commission announces an International Composing
“Agshin Masimov - 55”' jubilee tournament for studies (free theme).
Judge: Agshin Masimov (Azerbaijan). Send (please PGN) to tournament director: Elmar Abdullayev (Azerbaijan)
abdullaev-elmar@bk.ru
Closing date: 31. 05. 2017. The award - 2017.

Suleyman Abdullayev – 50 JT, 2017 (#2 - Miniature)
The Azerbaijan Chess Composition Commission announces an International Composing
“Suleyman Abdullayev – 50”' jubilee tournament for miniature twomovers (free theme).
#2 - Judge: Suleyman Abdullayev (Azerbaijan) . Send to tournament director: Elmar Abdullayev (Azerbaijan) abdullaev-elmar@bk.ru
Closing date: 31. 05. 2017. The award - 2017.

Islam Kazimov – 65 JT, 2017 (#2, #3)
The Azerbaijan Chess Composition Commission announces an International Composing
“Islam Kazimov – 65”' jubilee tournament for twomovers and threemovers (free theme).
Judge: #2, #3 - Araz Almammadov (Azerbaijan).
Send to tournament director: Vidadi Zamanov (Azerbaijan) vidadi_zamanov@mail.ru
Closing date: 31. 05. 2017. The award – 2017.

Raymond Smullyan (25.v.1919 - 6.ii.2017)

Raymond Smullyan, the author of the famous Sherlock Holmes chess book, died at the age of 97.

Since we only would be able to quote the famous problem by Smullyan, which is a rework of a previous problem, we instead asked the retro chess expert Andrew Buchanan for a short statement, which is reproduced in full below:

 "I am in touch with the NY logicians group that Smullyan belonged to. I enjoyed speaking with him by phone, but never met him face to face alas. I admired his simplifying approach to logic, which led naturally to his popularisation work. My favourite is "To Mock a Mockingbird" (1985) - a beautiful exploration of combinatory logic. There is no book like it. Another highly original book was the delightful "Chess Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes" (1980) an introductory to chess retrograde analysis, in the form of solutions conducted by the great detective to his Boswell. The challenge he implicitly leaves to us chess problemists is how, in an age where the game itself has great popularity, we can successfully communicate the delights of the compositional world, and grow the next generation of composers and solvers from the grass roots up."

EDIT, 16 Fabruary 2017: Minor correction.

Study of the Month (on ChessBase)

Readers will be excited about, in cooperation with the WFCC and ChessBase, a new monthly column "Study of the Month" by Yours Truly in which older but interesting studies will be explained in detail.

https://en.chessbase.com/post/study-of-the-month-the-pawn-is-the-soul-of-the-game

In the first issue, we take a look if a pawn can draw against queen and two pieces. The following columns are planned to appear around the beginning of each month.

Special thanks go to all members of the WFCC subcommitee for studies, especially Yochanan Afek, John Nunn and Martin Minski, as well as Frederic Friedel and Fernando Offermann from ChessBase to enable this project!


EDIT:
This post may serve as repository for the links. As SOTM 1 is linked above, here are the further links. All links open in a new window (tip: set them to open in a new tab in your browser settings instead for better navigation).

Study of the Month 2 - http://en.chessbase.com/post/study-of-the-month-an-impossible-move
Study of the Month 3 -  http://en.chessbase.com/post/study-of-the-month-a-knight-a-knight-my-kingdom-for-a-knight

RIP Ensemble ALEKSANDROV / Russian Red Army Choir

Really horrible news today!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Russian_Defence_Ministry_Tupolev_Tu-154_crash

Aleksandrov Ensemble & Leningrad Cowboys: Kalinka (Youtube)

64 members of the ensemble were on board, Wikipedia says.

(Let us call this "The Day The Music Died Again")

Hinweis bei Aufgabennachdruck etc.

Bitte immer ein Belegexemplar mit den relevanten Informationen schicken!