Kaarle Sakari Ojanen (4 December 1918 – 9 January 2009) was a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

player. Born in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the capital, primate, and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, and has a population of . The city ...

in 1918, he became a Finnish National Master in 1938 and was the leading Finnish player between

Eero Böök Eero Einar Böök (9 February 1910 – 7 January 1990) was a Finnish chess player and engineer. Chess career A five-time Finnish champion who represented his country six times in the Chess Olympiad, Böök was awarded the International Master t ...

and Heikki Westerinen. He was perhaps best known for defeating world championship candidate, grandmaster

Paul Keres Paul Keres (; 7 January 1916 – 5 June 1975) was an Estonian chess grandmaster and chess writer. He was among the world's top players from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s, and narrowly missed a chance at a World Chess Championship match on five ...

, at Helsinki, 1960. Ojanen earned the FIDE International Master (IM) title in 1952 and the

International Master of Correspondence Chess International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF) was founded on 26 March 1951 as a new appearance of the International Correspondence Chess Association (ICCA), which was founded in 1945, as successor of the Internationaler Fernschachbund (I ...

(IMC) title in 1981. He was the thirteen-time

Finnish Champion In Finland, the ''Suomen mestaruus'' (SM; ‘Finnish Champion’) is the winner of the highest level of national competition in a particular sport. ''Suomen mestaruussarja'' (Finnish for ‘Finnish Championship’) is the competition in which the w ...

, winning in 1950, 1951, 1951–2, 1952–3, 1957 through 1962, 1967, 1972, and 1983. Ojanen represented Finland in eleven

Chess Olympiad The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in 2020 an ...

s: 1937, 1950, 1952, 1956, 1958, 1960, 1962, 1966, 1968, 1970, and 1972, playing first board from 1956 through 1966, thereafter playing second, after Westerinen. Ojanen won the first board individual bronze medal at Havana 1966.17th Chess Olympiad: Havana 1966
at olimpbase.org In international play, he placed fourth at

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population ...

1939, third of ten at Helsinki 1946, and seventeenth at

Trenčianske Teplice Trenčianske Teplice (german: Trentschin-Teplitz; hu, Trencsénteplic) is a health resort and small spa town in western Slovakia, in the valley of the river Teplička, at the foothills of the Strážovské vrchy mountains, a few kilometres away ...

1949.

References

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External links

Kaarle S. Ojanen rating card at FIDE
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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ojanen, Kaarle 1918 births 2009 deaths Finnish chess players Chess International Masters Chess Olympiad competitors 20th-century chess players Sportspeople from Helsinki