Vidrik Rootare

Who was Vidrik Rootare?

Vidrik "Frits" Rootare was an Estonian chess player. His wife, Salme Rootare, was also an Estonian chess player, 15-time Estonian Champion and a Women's International Master.

In 1942, in one of his best showings, he came in third in an Estonian Chess Championship behind Johannes Türn, in second place, and Paul Keres, in first. In the 1930s, he played in the Estonian Club championships. In 1930 his team won the silver medal, with Leho Laurine, Nedsvedski, and Karring. Frits, as Vidrik was known—short for Friedrich, the German spelling of his name that he used prior to Estonian independence after World War I, was a contemporary and friend of Estonia's greatest—and one of the world's greatest-ever chess players, Paul Keres, and several of their games against each other in tournament play are anthologised in chess history books and on the World Wide Web. He was also a contemporary of such Estonian players as Paul Felix Schmidt, Gunnar Friedemann, Ilmar Raud, and Tallinn-born Lithuanian international master and honorary grandmaster Vladas Mikėnas, who won the Estonian championship in 1930.