Rein-Toomas Etruk (March 22, 1938 – November 11, 2012) was an

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 ...

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 who three times won the

Estonian Chess Championship The Estonian Chess Championship is played to determine the Estonian champion in chess. The first unofficial championship in Estonia was held in 1903 and was organized by a chess club from Tallinn (then Reval, Russian Empire). After World War I, ...

Biography

In 1954 and 1955, Etruk won the Estonian Junior chess championship. Etruk played for Estonia in various Soviet Team Chess Championships. He finished with the highest score on his board in 1958 and 1967 but in 1962, came third. Etruk won nine medals in the Estonian Chess Championship: three gold (1965, 1969, 1973), three silver (1964, 1966, 1970) and three bronze (1962, 1967, 1968). In 1974 and 1990, he won the Estonian Blitz Chess Championship. In 1971, Etruk finished sixth in the

Pärnu Pärnu () is the fourth-largest city in Estonia. Situated in southwest Estonia, Pärnu is located south of the Estonian capital, Tallinn, and west of Estonia's second-largest city, Tartu. The city sits off the coast of Pärnu Bay, an inlet of ...

tournament, which was won by

Leonid Stein Leonid Zakharovych Stein (; November 12, 1934 – July 4, 1973) was a Soviet Union, Soviet chess Grandmaster (chess), Grandmaster from Ukrainian SSR, Ukraine. He won three USSR Chess Championships in the 1960s (1963, 1965, and 1966), and was amo ...

, ahead of

Mikhail Tal Mikhail Tal (9 November 1936 – 28 June 1992) was a Soviet and Latvian chess player and the eighth World Chess Champion. He is considered a creative genius and is widely regarded as Comparison of top chess players throughout history, one ...

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 ...

and

David Bronstein David Ionovich Bronstein (; February 19, 1924 – December 5, 2006) was a Soviet chess player. Awarded the title of International Grandmaster by FIDE in 1950, he narrowly missed becoming World Chess Champion in World Chess Championship 195 ...

. Etruk was a graduate of the faculty of philology of the

University of Tartu The University of Tartu (UT; ; ) is a public research university located in the city of Tartu, Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is also the largest and oldest university in the country.

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References

External links

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player profile at OlimpBase.org (Soviet Team Chess Championship)

player profile at OlimpBase.org (Soviet Team Cup) 1938 births 2012 deaths Chess players from Tallinn Estonian chess players Soviet chess players University of Tartu alumni {{Estonia-sport-bio-stub