Words of Greeting

 

100 years Nordic Chess Federation,

100 years of chess activities in the Nordic National Chess Federations !

 

Since the 11^th century the game of chess is known in Northern Europe and it was riginally a game played at the royal courts. A lot of time later it became known to the common people.

At the time of the meeting on August 20^th in 1899, where 50 delegates met in Copenhagen to found the Nordic Chess Federation, the number of chess clubs was still small.

Today there are more than 50 000 active members in the National Nordic Federations.

In the past the Northern Countries have played a great role in the FIDE. Folke Rogard from Sweden and Fridrik Olafson from Iceland were two outstanding personalities as FIDE presidents.

In Reykjavik in 1972 chess history was written at the legendary World Championship where Bobby Fischer played against Boris Spassky.

A Swede remarkably helped with the organization of the European Chess Federation:

Rolf Littorin was elected as the first President of the newly founded European Chess Union on August 30^th in 1985.

The European Chess Union congratulates the Nordic Chess Federation dearly to its 100^th birthday and wishes all the best for the future. We hope that it will continue playing an active role - together with the Nordic National Federations - in the European chesslife in the future.

 

Ljubljana / Berlin, August 13^th, 1999

 

Boris Kutin Horst Metzing

(President) (Secretary General)