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| May-29-04 | | BaranDuin: Heiki Westerinen is one of my favourite players. I like him because I found much inspiration in his use of the king's bishop gambit (1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Lc4!)! |
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| Dec-14-04 | | kostich in time: Westerinen was an enterprising, but pretty spotty player.He wrote on a monograph on Nc6 in the Kings Indian, which is irionic, considering that his KID results were not inspiring. |
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Dec-15-04
 | | cu8sfan: <which is irionic, considering that his KID results were not inspiring.> Well, Fischer wrote "A Bust to the King's Gambit" and his results against it weren't inspiring either: Spassky vs Fischer, 1960 (-: As <BaranDuin> wrote: Gotta love this guy for playing the Opening of all Openings! |
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| Sep-14-05 | | DarrenR: I find Westerinen's game interesting, but I can't find anything about the player himself. I'd like to write an article about him. |
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| Apr-26-06 | | BIDMONFA: Heikki M J Westerinen WESTERINEN, Heikki M. J.
http://www.bidmonfa.com/westerinen_...
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Nov-20-06
 | | TheAlchemist: An article about Westerinen and some other players by GM Mikhalchishin. <Heikki Westerinen - The Knight of the King's Gambit> Experience has taught us that the climate and life style in a particular country heavily influences the character of the local chess players. The Finns have never, unlike e.g. Estonia, played a big role in chess, although the people of the two nations are very similar. In Finnish history one name stands at the top - Heikki Westerinen, their first Grandmaster. Before him, Finland had only two serious masters, Book and Ojanen. In the Olympiad in 1935 Krogius played for them, but it wasn't the famous Grandmaster, coach and psychologist, although it might have been one of his distant relatives. With Heikki, the popularity of chess grew in Finland. Soon after him, Rantanen and Yrjola became GMs. The latter was especially talented, he wrote a famous book on the Dutch Defence. Rantanen was a player with a very sharp style. We were good friends and we often played together in blitz games during tournaments. It was great fun during the 1985 days of Soviet-Finnish meetings in Helsinki, which I remembered, more than the blitz games, by the incredible drinking orgy on the train while returning home, when the accompanying KGB agents could finally relax as well. Heikki appeared on the international scene in 1960. The Finns are usually very calm, but in chess they explode (like the Estonians) and release all their repressed emotions. Their style is sharp and attacking. Heikki was fond of the King's Gambit from his early days, and loved King hunts. His positional play wasn't as good and that's why (apart from the GM title) he didn't achieve much, even though he played in many very strong tournaments in the 1960's. Of course he was accompanied by the eternal "Scandinavian chess problem" to. Alcohol, that is... The chess players from Scandinavia are especially renown for their incredible drinking "achievements". We know that the two legendary old masters Stoltz and Stahlberg almost drowned in alcohol. Once, Taimanov and Stahlberg played in Havana. Before the game, they went to lunch together, and during the meal, Stahlberg drank a whole bottle of cognac and 4 bottles of beer! Taimanov was convinced the game would last only a few moves into the middlegame, and then Stahlberg would fall asleep. Of course it ended in a totally different way and Taimanov had to work really hard for a draw. A lot of similar legends surround Heikki's name too. And today's generation isn't far behind either. Not a long time ago, I read in "64" that Grandmaster Kallio came to some of the games in junior World and European championships completely drunk and achieved very good results nonetheless. |
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Nov-20-06
| | TheAlchemist: But the Scandinavians aren't the only ones who are renown for their drinking. Famous GMs Jaan Ehlvest and Erik Lobron are regular guests in police stations all over the World, especially in cells for an "overnight rest". Here we occasionally witness such events too: in 1992 I played with the Croatian master David Gliksman in Bled in an open tournament. It was hard to play due to the annoying alcohol vapour that found its way across the board. It ended sadly - soon after move 30, Gliksman simply fell asleep and lost on time... later they told me that after every move - from move 1 on (!), Gliksman visited the bar nearby and drank a shot of cognac. In the Ukraine championships in 1972 two masters played a quick draw and then both leaned on their side of the board and fell asleep, completely drunk, of course. Imagine, how it was, when the arbiters dragged them out of the playing hall... In 1976 I played in the Karseladze memorial in Tbilisi. In the morning, Ratmir Kholmov paid me a visit and said: "Hey shorty, it's your birthday, we're gonna party like it's your birthday. Prepare yourself, because we're coming tonight!" That night, I was honord by the visit of Grandmasters Kholmov, Lutikov and Kuzmin. At midnight all the bottles were already empty (and I didn't "prepare badly"), so Kholmov went hunting for more. He somehow managed to convince a local police officer, who gave him a ride on his motorbike around town until they found a few bottles. My birthday celebration continued long into the night and into the morning, until the next round games. Before that Lutikov was taken to hospital where he was "revived", while Kholmov lasted until the actual game. He was Black, while the young and sharp Zurab Sturua was playing White. After 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nf3 Be7 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bh4 Ne4 7.Bxe7 Kholmov, whose eyes were almost completely closed by now, tokk the Bishop with the King, thinking it was the Queen. The hall quickly filled with noise and the organizers attacked me for organizing the drinking party last night. And that I've turned the tournament into a circus. The tension only mounted, as Sturua signed his resignation at move 25... |
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Nov-20-06
 | | WannaBe: <TheAlchemist> Bwahahahahaha... Great stories!! =) |
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| Nov-20-06 | | Karpova: Alekhine's great successors |
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Nov-20-06
 | | keypusher: This story is too good to be true, but also too good not to repost here: <May-14-04 Lawrence: Speaking of Ratmir Kholmov's tendency to "get altogether drunk" with greatly reduced chess powers, Suba talks about "a long list of stories and jokes arising from his habit," relating one passed on to him by Karpov: "The game starts 1.e4 Nc6 2.f4 b6 3.Nf3 e5 4.fxe5. At this point Ratmir plunges into deep thought, while whispering 'I've played the Grunfeld all my life and never got into such a bad position!'"from www.jeremysilman.com > |
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Nov-20-06
| | TheAlchemist: <keypusher> Great story, really funny. I bet he even won the game later :-) |
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| Apr-27-07 | | schnarre: Wouldn't that be something, eh!? |
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| Apr-27-07 | | MaxxLange: I have personally seen people play tournament chess on LSD with less evident loss of strength than drunk chess players show. Nothing kills chess ability like booze. |
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Apr-27-07
| | keypusher: <I have personally seen people play tournament chess on LSD with less evident loss of strength than drunk chess players show. Nothing kills chess ability like booze.> Sadly, I once lost a team game London in 15 moves to an opponent who put away 7-8 pints of beer in the process. Imagine if he'd been sober! |
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| Apr-27-07 | | MaxxLange: <keypusher> was his name Spielmann? or Alekhine? the fellow I am thinking of blundered a piece, but didn't notice, and went on to win the game |
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Apr-27-07
| | keypusher: <MaxxLange> No, alas. He was good, though! All our strong players were unavailable, which is why I was on first board. As Senator Kerry would say, the game is seared, SEARED in my memory. 1. e4 c6 2. Nc3 d5 3. Nf3 Bg4 4. d4 dxe4 5. Nxe4 Bxf3 6. Qxf3 Qxd4 7. Be3 Qxb2 8. Bc4?! e6? 9. 0-0 Nf6 10. Rab1 Qe5 11. Nxf6+ Qxf6 12. Rxb7! Qxf3 13. gxf3 Ba3? 14. Rd1 0-0? (sanctuary...?) 15. Rd3 (oops!) 1-0. I was a lot woozier than my opponent by the end. |
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| Apr-27-07 | | barbababa: <MaxxLange> I've played chess both drunk and with acid. I think that with small amounts the ability drops only a little, but after some limit it goes down fast in both cases. |
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Apr-27-07
 | | alexmagnus: <This story is too good to be true, but also too good not to repost here:
<May-14-04 Lawrence: Speaking of Ratmir Kholmov's tendency to "get altogether drunk" with greatly reduced chess powers, Suba talks about "a long list of stories and jokes arising from his habit," relating one passed on to him by Karpov: "The game starts 1.e4 Nc6 2.f4 b6 3.Nf3 e5 4.fxe5. At this point Ratmir plunges into deep thought, while whispering 'I've played the Grunfeld all my life and never got into such a bad position!'" from www.jeremysilman.com > >
Actually the game went on (4...Nxe5 5.Nxe5 6.Kxe5!!!!) and after the referee came and said that Kxe5 was an illegal move, Kholmov said "I've played the Grunfeld all my life and never knew it gets refuted so easily". |
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Apr-27-07
| | alexmagnus: BTW Westerinen was the first IM to use 1.e4 e5 2.Qh5 in a serious game:
[Event "Oslo CI"]
[Site "Oslo"]
[Date "1973.04.??"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Westerinen,Heikki MJ"]
[Black "Kristinsson,Jon"]
[Result "1/2"]
[Eco "C20"]
1.e4 e5 2.Qh5 d6 3.Bc4 g6 4.Qf3 Qe7 5.d3 Bg7 6.Nc3 Nf6 7.Bg5 c6 8.h4 h5
9.Nge2 Be6 10.0-0-0 Nbd7 11.Rd2 0-0 12.Rhd1 b5 13.Bxe6 fxe6 14.Qg3 b4 15.Nb1 Qf7 16.Rf1 d5
17.f3 c5 18.Rdd1 Nh7 19.Be3 Rac8 20.Nd2 c4 21.dxc4 dxc4 22.c3 a5 23.Kb1 Rc6 24.Rc1 Rfc8
25.f4 bxc3 26.Nxc3 exf4 27.Bxf4 Qe7 28.e5 Nhf8 29.Nde4 Qb4 30.Rc2 Nc5 31.Bg5 Nd3 32.Bf6 Bh6
33.Ka1 Rb8 34.Nd6 Rc7 35.Bg5 Bg7 36.Bf6 Bh6 37.Bg5 Bg7 1/2 |
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| Apr-27-07 | | Maatalkko: Hyvaa syntymapaivaa! |
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| Apr-28-07 | | MaxxLange: Tonight I raise a glass to the GM from Finland: his eclectic and brilliant play is known to me from "Inside Chess" magazine |
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| Aug-08-07 | | Octavia: Westerinen won against Korchnoi! Copied from chesslab:
[Event "EU-chT Seniors"][Site "Dresden GER"[Date "2006.19.2"White "Westerinen,H"][Black "Korchnoi,V"][Round "3" [Result "1-0"][WhiteElo "2382"]
[BlackElo "2608"][ECO "C14"]
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 5. e5
Nfd7 6. Bxe7 Qxe7 7. f4 Nb6 8. Nf3 Bd7 9. Be2
a6 10. O-O Nc6 11. b3 f6 12. Qd2 fxe5 13. fxe5
O-O-O 14. a4 Qb4 15. Nb1 a5 16. Qxb4 axb4 17. Bb5
Rdf8 18. Nbd2 Nd8 19. Ne1 Rxf1+ 20. Nxf1 Be8 21. Nd3
c6 22. a5 Na8 23. Ba4 Rf8 24. Nxb4 Rf4 25. c3
Bg6 26. Nd2 Bf5 27. Rf1 Rg4 28. Rf3 b5 29. axb6
Kb7 30. h3 Rg6 31. Kf2 h5 32. Rg3 Kxb6 33. Rxg6
Bxg6 34. Ke3 Nc7 35. Nd3 Bxd3 36. Kxd3 Ka5 37. Kc2
Na8 38. Kb2 Nc7 39. Nf3 Nb5 40. Ng5 Nc7 41. Nh7
c5 42. Bd7 cxd4 43. b4+ Kb6 44. cxd4 Nb5 45. Bxb5
Kxb5 46. Kc3 h4 47. Ng5 Ka4 48. Nf3 Nc6 49. Nxh4
Nxb4 50. Ng6 Na6 51. Nf4 Nc7 52. h4 Kb5 53. g4
Kc6 54. g5 Kd7 55. h5 Nb5+ 56. Kd3 Ke7 57. h6
gxh6 58. gxh6 Kf7 59. Nxe6 Kg6 60. Nf4+ Kxh6 61. Nxd5
Kg6 62. Kc4 Na3+ 63. Kc5 Kf7 64. Nf4 Nc2 65. d5
Ne3 66. d6 Nf5 67. Kc6 1-0
Korchnoi was very upset at the time.
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| Apr-27-08 | | brankat: Happy Birthday GM Westerinen! |
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| Jul-19-09 | | BoardLord: GM Westerinen will participate in Arctic Chess Challenge in Tromsø, Norway, in August 2009. In connection with this I have written a profile of him that you can read at my blog Sjakkfantomet. It's in English: http://sjakkfantomet.blogg.no/12480... |
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Sep-27-09
 | | Tabanus: Westerinen today is Nordic Champion for seniors 2009. Congratulations! http://www.sjakk.net/nordisk-2009/ |
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