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James Macrae Aitken (27 October 1908 – 3 December 1983) was a Scottish chess player.[1][2] Aitken was born in Calderbank, Lanarkshire, Scotland. In 1938 he received a PhD from Edinburgh University on the topic of 'The Trial of George Buchanan Before the Lisbon Inquisition'.[3]
Aitken learned chess from his father at age 10.[4] He was Scottish champion in 1935, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1960, 1961 and 1965, the latter jointly with PM Jamieson.[1] He was also London Champion in 1950.[1] In 1959 he had his best result in the British Championship, finishing tied for seventh place.[4] Aitken represented Scotland in four Chess Olympiads. He played top board at Stockholm 1937, scoring only 32.4% but he did defeat Swedish GM Gideon Ståhlberg[4][5] and draw with American GM Samuel Reshevsky.[4] 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%.[5]
Aitken represented Great Britain in matches against the USSR and Yugoslavia.[4] In the 1946 radio match between the United Kingdom and the USSR he lost his match with Igor Bondarevsky on board 8.[6] Aitken defeated GM Savielly Tartakower at Southsea 1949[4][7] and GM Efim Bogoljubow at Bad Pyrmont 1951.[4][8]
During World War II, Aitken worked in Hut 6 at Bletchley Park on solving German Enigma machines.[9] On 2 December 1944 Bletchley Park played a 12-board team match against the Oxford University Chess Club. Bletchley Park won the match 8–4 with C.H.O'D. Alexander, Harry Golombek, and Aitken on the top three boards.[10] Aitken wrote many book reviews for the British Chess Magazine.[11] Aside from chess his hobbies included golf, philately, bridge, and watching cricket.[4] He died in Cheltenham in 1983, aged 75.[2]
- ^ a b c Whyld, Ken (1986), Chess: The Records, Guinness Books, p. 128, ISBN 0-85112-455-0
- ^ a b Gaige, Jeremy (1987), Chess Personalia, A Biobibliography, McFarland, ISBN 0-7864-2353-6
- ^ Aitken, James M. (1939). The Trial of George Buchanan Before the Lisbon Inquisition. Edinburgh, London: Oliver and Boyd.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Sunnucks, Anne (1970), The Encyclopaedia of Chess, St. Martin's Press, p. 2, LCCN 78106371
- ^ a b Golombek, Harry, ed. (1977), "Aitken, Dr James Macrae", Golombek's Encyclopedia of Chess, Crown Publishing, p. 8, ISBN 0-517-53146-1
- ^ "The Radio Match Great Britain – URSS (1946)". Archived from the original on 25 September 2009. Retrieved 10 June 2010.
- ^ Southsea at www.365chess.com
- ^ Bad Pyrmont zt at www.365chess.com
- ^ Taunt, Derek (2001), "The German Naval Enigma", in Erskine, Ralph; Smith, Michael (eds.), Action This Day, Bantam, pp. 77–93, ISBN 0-593-04982-9
- ^ Chess Notes 4034. The code-breakers by Edward Winter; based on a report from CHESS, February 1945, p. 73.
- ^ Chess Notes 3766. James M. Aitken by Edward Winter