Eero Einar Böök (9 February 1910 – 7 January 1990) was a Finnish

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

player and

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

Chess career

A five-time Finnish champion who represented his country six times in the

Chess Olympiad The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in FIDE Onli ...

, Böök was awarded the

International Master 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 ...

title in 1950 and became an honorary Grandmaster in 1984. His only significant international tournament victory was a tie for first place with

Gösta Stoltz Gösta Stoltz (May 9, 1904 – July 25, 1963) was a Swedish chess Grandmaster (chess), grandmaster. Stoltz won the Swedish championships at Halmstad 1951, Hålland 1952, and Örebro 1953. He was awarded the International Master title in 1950, and t ...

in the 1947 Nordic Championship in Helsinki. Perhaps his best tournament finish was sharing eleventh place in the category 14 interzonal, Saltsjöbaden 1948. Böök played many of the world's top players, and had a plus record against

Miguel Najdorf Miguel Najdorf ( ; born Mojsze Mendel Najdorf; 15 April 1910 – 4 July 1997) was a Polish-Argentine chess grandmaster. Originally from Poland, he was in Argentina when World War II began in 1939, and he stayed and settled there. He was a leadin ...

(+1 −0 =2). He beat

Max Euwe Machgielis "Max" Euwe (; May 20, 1901 – November 26, 1981) was a Dutch chess player, mathematician, author, and chess administrator. He was the fifth player to become World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion, a title he held from 1935 ...

with the black pieces in

Dubrovnik Dubrovnik, historically known as Ragusa, is a city in southern Dalmatia, Croatia, by the Adriatic Sea. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean, a Port, seaport and the centre of the Dubrovni ...

in 1950, as well as the

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

n chess player

Paul Keres Paul Keres (; 7 January 1916 – 5 June 1975) was an Estonian chess grandmaster and chess writer. He was among the world's top players from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s, and narrowly missed a chance at a World Chess Championship match on five ...

in the 1952 Helsinki Olympiad.Paul Keres vs Eero Einar Böök (1952)
/ref> Böök also wrote several chess books.

Sample game

Euwe–Böök,

1950:
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.g3 g6 3.Bg2 Bg7 4.c4 0-0 5.0-0 d5 6.d4 e6 7.b3 b6 8.Ba3 Re8 9.Nbd2 Bb7 10.Rc1 Nbd7 11.Re1 Ne4 12.Qc2 Rc8 13.Rcd1 f5 14.Bb2 Qe7 15.Ne5 Nxe5 16.dxe5 Red8 17.Nb1 dxc4 18.Qxc4 c5 19.f3 Ng5 20.Na3 a6 21.Qh4 b5 22.Rd6 Bf8 23.Bc1 Nf7 24.Qxe7 Bxe7 25.Rxe6 Rc7 26.f4 Bc8 27.Rb6 c4 28.Rb8 Bc5+ 29.e3 Bb4 30.Rf1 cxb3 31.axb3 Be6 32.Rb6 Bc8 33.Rc6 Rxc6 34.Bxc6 Be6 35.Nc2 Bc3 36.e4 Bxb3 37.Ne3 fxe4 38.Bxe4 a5 39.Rf3 b4 40.Nf1 a4 0–1

Private life and non-chess career

His father Emil Einar Böök was Finland's Minister of Social Affairs in 1924. Eero Böök graduated from the

Helsinki University of Technology Helsinki University of Technology (TKK; ; , HUT in international usage) was a technical university in Finland. It was located in Otaniemi, Espoo in the Helsinki metropolitan area, and it was one of the three universities from which the modern d ...

in 1940 and worked as an engineer for the ports of

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

Turku Turku ( ; ; , ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Southwest Finland. It is located on the southwestern coast of the country at the mouth of the Aura River (Finland), River Aura. The population of Turku is approximately , while t ...

and

Kotka Kotka (; ) is a town in Finland, located on the southeastern coast of the country at the mouth of the Kymi River. The population of Kotka is approximately , while the Kotka-Hamina sub-region, sub-region has a population of approximately . It is th ...

and for the Finnish State Railways until retiring in 1975.

Notes

References

External links

* 1910 births 1990 deaths Chess Grandmasters Chess Olympiad competitors 20th-century Finnish chess players 20th-century Finnish engineers Aalto University alumni {{finland-chess-bio-stub Engineers from Helsinki Sportspeople from Helsinki