Echesspedia

Founded in 1922 and represented by C. Tschepurnoff, Finland was one of the FIDE founder members at the Paris 1924 chess congress. Finland has participated in nearly all the Olympiads and hosted the 1952 Olympiad in Helsinki, which is where they won their best place with ninth position; this was also where the Soviet team had its first success.  In 1964 the country hosted the World Student Championship. Among the well known players from Finland are Kaarle Ojanen, who won the championship 13 times, Eero Böök and Heikki Westerinen, who was the first Finish player to get the Grandmaster title, and Tomi Nybäck the actual best player.
In 2010 Finland was ranked 57^th among the countries (2439) with five IGMs, nineteen IMs and a total of eighty-eight titled players.

The national champions were: 1922 Anatol Tschepurnoff, 1928 Anatol Tschepurnoff, 1931 Eero Böök, 1932 Ragnar Krogius, 1933 Birger Axel Rasmusson, 1934  Eero Böök, 1935 Eero Böök, 1936 Eero Böök, 1937 Thorsten Gauffin, 1938 Toivo Salo, 1939 Osmo Kaila, 1945 Hugo Ilmari Solin, 1946 Eero Böök, 1947 Jalo Aatos Fred, 1948 Aarne Ilmari Niemalä, 1949 Toivo Salo, 1950 Kaarle Ojanen, 1951 Kaarle Ojanen, 1952 Kaarle Ojanen, 1953 Kaarle Ojanen, 1954 Osmo Kaila, 1955 Jalos Aatos Fred, 1956 Toivo Salo, 1957 Kaarle Ojanen, 1958 Kaarle Ojanen, 1959 Kaarle Ojanen, 1960 Kaarle Ojanen, 1961 Kaarle Ojanen, 1962 Kaarle Ojanen, 1963  Eero Böök, 1964 Ilkka Antero Kanko, 1965 Heikki Westerinen, 1966 Heikki Westerinen, 1967 Kaarle Ojanen, 1968 Heikki Westerinen, 1969 Mauri Olavi Sirkiä, 1970 Heikki Westerinen, 1971 Ilkka Juhani Sarén, 1972 Kaarle Ojanen, 1974 Pertti Kalervo Poutiainen, 1976 Pertti Kalervo Poutiainen, 1978  Yrjö Aukusti Rantanen, 1980 Jorma Paavo Äijälä, 1982 Veijo Mäki, 1983 Kaarle Ojanen, 1984 Antti Pyhälä, 1985 Jouni Yrjölä, 1986 Aukusti Rantanen, 1987 M.Ebeling, 1988 Jouni Yrjölä, 1989 Antti Pyhälä, 1990 Veijo Mäki, 1991 Joose Norri, 1992 E. M. Hakulinen, 1993 M.Manninen, 1994 Joose Norri, 1995 Joose Norri, 1996 Joose Norri, 1997 A.Pihlajasalo, 1998 Tapani Sammalvuo, 1999 O.Salmensuu, 2000 A. Holmsten, 2001 Joose, Norr, 2002 Mika Karttunen, 2003 Heikki Lehtinen, 2004 Heikki Lehtinen, 2005 Tapani Sammalvuo, 2006 Mika Karttunen, 2007 Mika Karttunen, 2008 Tomi Nyback, 2009 Mika Karttunen, 2010 Mika Karttunen.

The national team in 2009