Niina Koskela (born 8 August 1971), married from 2004 to 2009 as Niina Sammalvuo, is 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 player. In 2006, she was the first Finnish woman to receive the

FIDE title FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

of Woman Grandmaster (WGM). She is a three-time winner of the Finnish Women's Chess Championship (1990, 2002, 2008). Since 2012, she has played for

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

Biography

Koskela was a participant in numerous Finnish Women's Chess Championships, an won three gold medals (1990, 2002, 2008) and three silver medals (1989, 1992, 1994). In 1991, in

Subotica Subotica ( sr-cyrl, Суботица, ; hu, Szabadka) is a List of cities in Serbia, city and the administrative center of the North Bačka District in the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. Formerly the largest city of Vojvodina region, ...

, Niina Koskela participated in Women's World Chess Championship Interzonal Tournament and ranked in 34th place. In 2000, Niina Koskela participated in

Women's World Chess Championship The Women's World Chess Championship (WWCC) is played to determine the world champion in women's chess. Like the World Chess Championship, it is administered by FIDE. Unlike with most sports recognized by the International Olympic Committee, wher ...

by a

knock-out A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking ...

system and in the first round won

Subbaraman Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman Vijayalakshmi (born 25 March 1979) is an Indian chess player who holds the FIDE titles of International Master (IM) and Woman Grandmaster (WGM), the first female player in her country to achieve these titles. She has won more medals ...

but in the second round lost to

Nana Ioseliani Nana Ioseliani ( ka, ნანა იოსელიანი; born 12 February 1962) is a Georgian chess player. She was awarded by FIDE the Woman Grandmaster title in 1980 and the International Master title in 1993. Already in 1978 she was su ...

. She played for Finland and Norway in the

Women's Chess Olympiad The Women's Chess Olympiad is an event held by FIDE (the International Chess Federation) since 1957 (every two years since 1972), where national women's teams compete at chess for gold, silver and bronze medals. Since 1976 the Women's Chess Olympia ...

s: * In 1990, at second board in the 29th Chess Olympiad (women) in

Novi Sad Novi Sad ( sr-Cyrl, Нови Сад, ; hu, Újvidék, ; german: Neusatz; see below for other names) is the second largest city in Serbia and the capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina. It is located in the southern portion of the Pan ...

(+4, =4, -5), * In 1992, at second board in the 30th Chess Olympiad (women) in

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

(+5, =5, -4), * In 1998, at second board in the 33rd Chess Olympiad (women) in

Elista Elista (russian: Элиста́, (common during the Soviet era) or (most common pronunciation used after 1992 and in Kalmykia itself);"Большой энциклопедический словарь", под ред. А. М. Прохорова. ...

(+7, =4, -1) and won individual bronze medal, * In 2002, at first board in the 35th Chess Olympiad (women) in

Bled Bled (; german: Veldes,''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 146. in older sources also ''Feldes'') is a town on Lake Bled in the Upper C ...

(+6, =6, -2), * In 2004, at first board in the 36th Chess Olympiad (women) in

Calvià Calvià () is a municipality on the island of Majorca, part of the Spanish autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. It is located in the southwestern part of the island of Majorca, between the Serra de Tramuntana and the Serra de Na Burgu ...

(+6, =6, -2), * In 2006, at first board in the 37th Chess Olympiad (women) in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

(+6, =6, -0), * In 2008, at first board in the 38th Chess Olympiad (women) in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

(+4, =2, -3), * In 2014, at fourth board in the 41st Chess Olympiad (women) in

Tromsø Tromsø (, , ; se, Romsa ; fkv, Tromssa; sv, Tromsö) is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Tromsø (city), city of Tromsø. Tromsø lies ...

(+5, =4, -0). Koskela played for Finland and Norway in the

European Team Chess Championship The European Team Championship (often abbreviated in texts and games databases as ''ETC'') is an international team chess event, eligible for the participation of European nations whose chess federations are located in zones 1.1 to 1.9. This more ...

s: * In 1992, at second board in the 1st European Team Chess Championship (women) in

Debrecen Debrecen ( , is Hungary's second-largest city, after Budapest, the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar County. A city with county rights, it was the largest Hungarian city in the 18th century and i ...

(+5, =3, -1) and won individual silver medal, * In 1999, at first board in the 3rd European Team Chess Championship (women) in

Batumi Batumi (; ka, ბათუმი ) is the second largest city of Georgia and the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, located on the coast of the Black Sea in Georgia's southwest. It is situated in a subtropical zone at the foot of th ...

(+1, =3, -4), * In 2003, at first board in the 5th European Team Chess Championship (women) in

Plovdiv Plovdiv ( bg, Пловдив, ), is the second-largest city in Bulgaria, standing on the banks of the Maritsa river in the historical region of Thrace. It has a population of 346,893 and 675,000 in the greater metropolitan area. Plovdiv is the c ...

(+3, =2, -3), * In 2007, at first board in the 7th European Team Chess Championship (women) in

Heraklion Heraklion or Iraklion ( ; el, Ηράκλειο, , ) is the largest city and the administrative capital of the island of Crete and capital of Heraklion regional unit. It is the fourth largest city in Greece with a population of 211,370 (Urban A ...

(+1, =1, -2), * In 2015, at second board in the 11th European Team Chess Championship (women) in Reykjavik (+3, =4, -1).

References

External links

* * * 1971 births Living people Finnish female chess players Finnish chess players Norwegian female chess players Norwegian chess players Chess woman grandmasters Chess Olympiad competitors Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Norway Norwegian people of Finnish descent {{finland-chess-bio-stub