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

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

player and

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

Chess career

A five-time

Finnish champion In Finland, the ''Suomen mestaruus'' (SM; ‘Finnish Champion’) is the winner of the highest level of national competition in a particular sport. ''Suomen mestaruussarja'' (Finnish for ‘Finnish Championship’) is the competition in which the w ...

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 2020 and ...

, 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. Biography Stoltz played a few matches with strong chess masters. In 1926, he lost to Mikhail Botvinnik (+0 –1 =1) at a team match Stockholm – Leningrad in S ...

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–Argentinian 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 ...

(+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 Champion, a title he held from 1935 until 1937. He served as ...

with the black pieces in

Dubrovnik Dubrovnik (), historically known as Ragusa (; see notes on naming), is a city on the Adriatic Sea in the region of Dalmatia, in the southeastern semi-exclave of Croatia. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the Mediterran ...

in 1950, as well as the

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

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; fi, Teknillinen korkeakoulu; sv, Tekniska högskolan) was a technical university in Finland. It was located in Otaniemi, Espoo in the metropolitan area of Greater Helsinki. The university was founded in ...

in 1940 and worked as an engineer for the ports of

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

Turku Turku ( ; ; sv, Åbo, ) is a city and former capital on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River, in the region of Finland Proper (''Varsinais-Suomi'') and the former Turku and Pori Province (''Turun ja Porin lääni''; ...

and

Kotka Kotka (; ; la, Aquilopolis) is a city in the southern part of the Kymenlaakso province on the Gulf of Finland. Kotka is a major port and industrial city and also a diverse school and cultural city, which was formerly part of the old Kymi parish. ...

and for the

Finnish State Railways VR-Group Plc ( fi, VR-Yhtymä Oyj, sv, VR-Group Abp), commonly known as VR, is a government-owned railway company in Finland. VR's most important function is the operation of Finland's passenger rail services with 250 long-distance and 800 co ...

until retiring in 1975.

Notes

References

External links

* 1910 births 1990 deaths Chess grandmasters Finnish chess players Chess Olympiad competitors 20th-century chess players {{finland-chess-bio-stub