Heikki Westerinen

Heikki Markku Julius Westerinen (* April 27, 1944 in Helsinki) is a Finnish chess player.

Life

Although Westerinen to mathematics, physics and chemistry studies had trained as a teacher upon one, he began the uncertain career of a professional chess player. In 1967 he was awarded the title of International Master. In 1975, he became the first Grand Master of Finland after his tournament victory at the Dortmund Chess days.

Even at the Chess Olympiad 1962 he represented his native Finland, since numerous other times. He is a multiple Finnish national champion (1965, 1966, 1968, 1970). His greatest successes are the victories in the tournaments Berlin 1971, Palma de Mallorca 1973, Dortmund 1973 and 1975, Stockholm 1975, London 1979.

Westerinen was one of the first foreign professional players in the German team championship in which he competed in the 1970s and 1980s for the Solingen SG 1868. For Solingen he played since 1973, In 1976 he was with the blades townspeople European champions.

His best historical Elo rating of 2597, he reached in July 1976 His current Elo rating is 2340 (as of September 2010)..

Theory contributions

After Heikki Westerinen a play in the King's Indian Defense is named: the Westerinen variant arises after the moves 1.d2 -d4 - f6 2.c2 - c4 Ng8 g7- g6 3.Sb1 - c3 Bf8 - g7 4.e2 -e4 d7 - d6 5.Sg1 -f3 0-0 6.Lf1 - e2 Bc8 - g4 -e3 Nf6 - d7 7.Lc1. Westerinen popularized his invention by frequent use in the 1970s. Even today it finds itself at the highest level trailer: the Azerbaijanis Şəhriyar Məmmədyarov brought them into his game against Loek van Wely in Wijk aan Zee 2006 on the application.

He also wrote a book about Abspiele of Sämisch system of the King's Indian Defense with early Sb8 - c6.