(I failed to learn chess from a rather height-challenged Swede with very dark hair: and I always had the stereotype in mind that they were tall and blond; but that must be you dazzling Finns!)

There are lots of blond people in Northern Europe, but it's not the only phenotype. Haha, I might be blond, but slightly below average (in Finland) in height at 175 cm, hair gives +1-5 cm pseudo-height though.

(I presume in your dictionary the nouns still retain gender?)

Nope, Finnish doesn't include articles or gender in words whatsoever (I think it's the same in other Finno-Ugric languages) – much more practical when talking about a person in 3rd person, we can just say "hän" if the person is unknown. Obviously, if we want to be specific with the gender then way say "mies" (man) or "nainen" (woman).