Nils Johan Folke Ekström (12 October 1906, in
Lund
Lund (, , ) is a city in the southern Swedish provinces of Sweden, province of Scania, across the Øresund, Öresund strait from Copenhagen. The town had 91,940 inhabitants out of a municipal total of 121,510 . It is the seat of Lund Municipali ...
– 25 January 2000, in Saltsjobaden) was a
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
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 ...
(IM) of
chess and of
correspondence chess
Correspondence chess is chess played by various forms of long-distance correspondence, traditionally through the postal system. Today it is usually played through a correspondence chess server, a public internet chess forum, or email. Less common ...
(IMC). He won the Swedish Championships in 1947 and 1948; Swedish Correspondence Championships in 1941, 1964, and 1971; and the European Correspondence Championship V, 1967–1971.
Tournaments and matches
Ekström was active in high-level national Swedish and international chess during a short period of just over five years in the 1940s, with some very impressive successes. He won at
Stockholm
Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
1942, tied with
Stig Lundholm
Stig Gustav Lundholm (14 November 1917 – 19 May 2009) was a Swedish chess master.
Lundholm was born in Luleå, Sweden. He won at Stockholm 1942, tied with Folke Ekström, ahead of both Gösta Stoltz and Erik Lundin, took second place behind E ...
, ahead of both
Gösta Stoltz and
Erik Lundin
Erik Ruben Lundin (2 July 1904 – 5 December 1988) was a Swedish chess master.
In 1928, he won in Oslo, took 5th in Helsingborg, tied for 2nd-3rd in Stockholm (''Quadrangular'', Richard Réti won). In 1929, he took 2nd in Göteborg (Nordic Che ...
, both of whom became
Grandmasters later on. Then at Stockholm 1943/44, he won ahead of Lundholm. Ekström lost a 1944 match to the world-class grandmaster
Paul Keres by 5–1, following Keres' 'hors concours' appearance at the 1944
Swedish Championship, where he had placed second.
Ekström then finished second himself at the strong
Hastings 1945/46 tournament, just half a point behind grandmaster
Savielly Tartakower, with a score of 9/11. This was ahead of former
World Champion Max Euwe,
American champion Arnold Denker, and American Olympian
Herman Steiner, who all trailed well behind with 7 points. At
Zaandam 1946, Ekström shared second with
László Szabó, an eventual nine-time
Hungarian champion and three-time
Candidate, with 8½/11. The winner was Euwe, who made 9½/11. Swedish Olympian Stoltz was next with 8. Then, at
Stockholm
Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
1946/47, Ekström tied for first with Lundin. They scored 7/9, ahead of (among others) Swedish Olympian
Gösta Danielsson and
Finnish champion Eero Böök, who shared third with 6.
Ekstrom won the Swedish Championship in 1947 and 1948. In the late 1940s, he chose to pursue a civil career rather than become a chess professional, and this did not please the Swedish Chess Federation. Ekström was awarded the International Master title by
FIDE
The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...
, the World Chess Federation, in 1950.
Team play
Ekstrom represented Sweden on top board, ahead of Lundin (two) and Danielsson (three), in the two-day, ten-board team match against
Denmark, held at
Copenhagen in September 1947. Sweden won 12½–7½.
Other than a couple of minor Swedish team events, this seems to be the recorded extent of Ekström's competitive chess career in over-the-board play. He never represented Sweden in
Chess Olympiad competition, although he very well could have, based upon his successes, as he was finishing ahead of team members in tournaments during the 1940s. Chess Olympiad competition was dormant during Ekstrom's most active period, due to World War II.
Correspondence play
He played correspondence chess with success as well, earning the IMC title in 1971. Ekstrom was Swedish correspondence champion in 1941, 1964 and 1971. He won the European Correspondence Championship V, 1967–1971. He placed tied 7–8th in the 7th World Correspondence Championship, 1972–1976, with 9/17; the tournament was won by Soviet
Yakov Estrin.
[chessgames.com, the Folke Ekstrom player file; plus member posts on the file, providing additional information]
Legacy
The Ekström Variation of the
Queen's Gambit Declined is named for him. It runs 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nf3 c6 5.Bg5 dxc4 6.e4 b5 7.e5 h6 8.Bh4 g5 9.exf6 gxh4 10.Ne5.
References
External links
*Chessmetrics.com
Folke Ekström
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ekstrom, Folke
1906 births
2000 deaths
Swedish chess players
Chess International Masters
Chess theoreticians
20th-century chess players