James Macrae Aitken, Date of Birth, Date of Death
TweetJames Macrae Aitken
Scottish chess player
Date of Birth: 27-Oct-1908
Date of Death: 03-Dec-1983
Profession: chess player
Nationality: United Kingdom
Zodiac Sign: Scorpio 
About James Macrae Aitken
- James Macrae Aitken (27 October 1908 – 3 December 1983) was a Scottish chess player.
- 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'.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 Olympiads.
- He played top board at Stockholm 1937, scoring only 32.4% but he did defeat Swedish GM Gideon Ståhlberg and draw with American GM Samuel Reshevsky.
- 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 on board 8.
- Aitken defeated GM Savielly Tartakower at Southsea 1949 and GM Efim Bogoljubow at Bad Pyrmont 1951.During World War II, Aitken worked in Hut 6 at Bletchley Park on solving German Enigma machines.
- 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.
- Aitken wrote many book reviews for the British Chess Magazine.
- Aside from chess his hobbies included golf, philately, bridge, and watching cricket.
- He died in Cheltenham in 1983, aged 75.
Read more at Wikipedia