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I ve always thought I had a good knowledge of chess culture and history but the chess world has a huge wealth of information. That said I'm always interested in learning more. Today I first learned of the popular Dutch player Eddie Scholl who won the Dutch Championship in 1970 and as a reward got to play in the IBM tournament where he drew Boris Spassky. Apparently Botviinik said he had all the tools to become a GM but GM titles were scarce in those days. Eddie Scholl played 55 years in the Dutch leagues. Thanks to IM Paul Littlewood on facebook for leading me to this interesting player.
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I knew a bit about Eddie Scholl, and have done a quick search on the web, seeking more, to post here.
Eddie Scholl won the Dutch title in 1970, and had several other good finishes in the Dutch Championship for about ten years, either side of 1970. He made a very good score on board one for the Netherlands in the 1970 Siegen Olympiad, B Final; this was a chessmetrics.com performance rating near 2550. He had a FIDE rating in the 2400s in the early 1970s, approaching the top 100, but never acquired an international title from FIDE, which I find is the most remarkable thing about his chess career. He was certainly playing at IM strength at least, during this period. His activity dropped dramatically from the early 1990s. He has just turned 81 years old (born 1944). His career away from chess was as a high school mathematics teacher.
Right around the time when he was rising to the prominence he attained, with play in western European events, Netherlands had several other players who were also getting quite strong, such as IM Robert Hartoch, GM Hans Ree, emigre GM Genna Sosonko (from USSR), and, a bit later, GM Jan Timman (born late 1951), who became one of the world's very best players for 20+ years. Netherlands also had GM Jan Hein Donner (born 1929, several times Dutch champion); the veteran GM Dr. Max Euwe (1901-1981), former world champion (1935-37), and FIDE president; and GM Lodewijk Prins. Holland is a small country, both in area and population, with many strong players, and perhaps there was not enough incentive, financial and otherwise, for Scholl to put more effort forward to reach an international title. As a very good player but not a standout, Scholl had to make his main living away from chess. Netherlands would soon make it into the A final. England, very nearby, was also producing a group of very strong young players in the same era -- GM Keene and IM Hartston -- and a bit later GM Miles, GM Nunn, GM Stean, GM Speelman, and others; they would emerge from the C Final into the A final, with the Olympiad run on a team Swiss format from 1976. West Germany, another close neighbor, was producing GM Hubner (born 1948), who became a world title candidate in 1970, amid other strong players. All this new young talent made for a very competitive chess scene in the region. The Fischer boom kicked in from the early 1970s.
The rise of a large number of international Open tournaments, and greatly expanded youth chess, were both still a few years away during Scholl's activity peak; these phenomena led to the enormous growth in title norms, which continues today. Scholl was unlucky to miss out on an international title, to be sure. Probably at least a dozen strong Canadian NMs (Jonathan Berry, Bruce Harper, Robert Hamilton, Sylvain Barbeau, Doug Bailey, Robin Girard, to name but a few) from the 1960s to the 1990s experienced the same phenomenon; the structure of practical earning of FIDE title norms was heavily stacked against strong Canadians, due to geographic remoteness, lousy sponsorship of major chess events, lack of player support sponsorship, and the lack of norm possibilities at the Canadian Opens, due to impractical tournament regulations structure.
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