James Macrae Aitken (27 October 1908 – 3 December 1983) was a
Scottish
Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including:
*Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland
*Scottish English
*Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...
chess player.
Aitken was born in
Calderbank
Calderbank is a village outside the town of Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It lies east of the M73 motorway, M73, on the west bank of the North Calder Water. The village lies east of Glasgow city centre and a ...
,
Lanarkshire
Lanarkshire, also called the County of Lanark (; ), is a Counties of Scotland, historic county, Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area and registration county in the Central Lowlands and Southern Uplands of Scotland. The county is no l ...
,
Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
. In 1938 he received a PhD from
Edinburgh University
The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the town council under the authority of a royal charter from King James VI in 1582 and offi ...
on the topic of 'The Trial of
George Buchanan
George Buchanan (; February 1506 – 28 September 1582) was a Scottish historian and humanist scholar. According to historian Keith Brown, Buchanan was "the most profound intellectual sixteenth-century Scotland produced." His ideology of re ...
Before the Lisbon Inquisition'.
Aitken learned chess from his father at age 10.
He was
Scottish champion in 1935, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1960, 1961 and 1965, the latter jointly with
PM Jamieson.
He was also London Champion in 1950.
In 1959 he had his best result in the
British Championship, finishing tied for seventh place.
Aitken represented Scotland in four
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 ...
s. He played top board at
Stockholm 1937, scoring only 32.4% but he did defeat Swedish GM
Gideon Ståhlberg
Anders Gideon Tom Ståhlberg (26 January 1908 – 26 May 1967) was a Swedish chess player. He was among the inaugural recipients of the title International Grandmaster from FIDE in 1950.
He won the Swedish Chess Championship of 1927, became No ...
and draw with American GM
Samuel Reshevsky
Samuel Herman Reshevsky (born Szmul Rzeszewski; November 26, 1911 – April 4, 1992) was a Polish chess prodigy and later a leading American chess grandmaster. He was a contender for the World Chess Championship from the mid 1930s to the late 1 ...
.
He played second board at
Munich 1958 and
Tel Aviv 1964, scoring 67.6% and 28.1% respectively. Aitken played sixth board at
Skopje 1972, scoring 38.9%.
Aitken represented Great Britain in matches against the USSR and Yugoslavia.
In the 1946
radio match between the United Kingdom and the USSR he lost his match with
Igor Bondarevsky
Igor Zakharovich Bondarevsky (; May 12, 1913 – June 14, 1979) was a Soviet Russian chess player, trainer, and chess author. He held the title of Grandmaster in both over-the-board and correspondence chess. Bondarevsky shared the 1940 Soviet t ...
on board 8. Aitken defeated GM
Savielly Tartakower
Savielly Tartakower (also known as ''Xavier'' or ''Ksawery'' ''Tartakower'', less often ''Tartacover'' or ''Tartakover''; 21 February 1887 – 4 February 1956) was a Polish chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster (chess), Internatio ...
at Southsea 1949
and GM
Efim Bogoljubow
Efim Bogoljubow, also known as Efim Dimitrijewitsch Bogoljubow (April 14, 1889 – June 18, 1952), was a Russian-born German Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster.
Early career
Bogoljubow learned how to play chess at 15 years old, and dev ...
at Bad Pyrmont 1951.
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, Aitken worked in
Hut 6
Hut 6 was a wartime section of the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, Britain, tasked with the solution of German Army and Air Force Enigma machine cyphers. Hut 8, by contrast, attacked Naval Enigma. Hut 6 w ...
at
Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park is an English country house and Bletchley Park estate, estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes (Buckinghamshire), that became the principal centre of Allies of World War II, Allied World War II cryptography, code-breaking during the S ...
on solving German
Enigma machine
The Enigma machine is a cipher device developed and used in the early- to mid-20th century to protect commercial, diplomatic, and military communication. It was employed extensively by Nazi Germany during World War II, in all branches of the W ...
s. On 2 December 1944 Bletchley Park played a 12-board team match against the
. Bletchley Park won the match 8–4 with
C.H.O'D. Alexander,
Harry Golombek
Harold "Harry" Golombek
OBE (1 March 1911 – 7 January 1995) was a British chess player, chess author, and wartime codebreaker. He was three times British chess champion, in 1947, 1949, and 1955 and finished second in 1948. Biography
He was ...
, and Aitken on the top three boards. Aitken wrote many book reviews for the ''
British Chess Magazine
''British Chess Magazine'' is the world's oldest chess journal in continuous publication. First published in January 1881, it has appeared at monthly intervals ever since. It is frequently known in the chess world as ''BCM''.
The founder and ...
''. Aside from chess his hobbies included golf, philately, bridge, and watching cricket.
He died in
Cheltenham
Cheltenham () is a historic spa town and borough adjacent to the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort following the discovery of mineral springs in 1716, and claims to be the mo ...
in 1983, aged 75.
Aitken variation of the Giuoco Piano
In 1937 he recommended a line in the Greco Variation of the
Giuoco Piano
The (; )Hooper & Whyld (1996), p. 153. ''Giuoco Piano''. "The name means 'quiet game' and until the 19th century was often applied to any opening that was not a gambit." is a chess opening beginning with the moves:
:1. e4 e5
:2. Nf3 Nc6
:3. ...
in the ''British Chess Magazine'', now called the Aitken Variation: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3 Nf6 5.d4 exd4 6.cxd4 Bb4+ 7.Nc3 Nxe4 8.O-O Nxc3 9.bxc3 Bxc3 10.Ba3.
References
Further reading
* ''British Chess Magazine'', 1984, pp. 64–65.
External links
Biography of Dr Aitken at the Chess Scotland website*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aitken, James Macrae
1908 births
1983 deaths
Bletchley Park people
Sportspeople from Cheltenham
Sportspeople from North Lanarkshire
Scottish chess players
Chess Olympiad competitors
Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
20th-century British chess players