"De Telegraaf" of June 27, 1939 and "Het Vaderland" of June 27 and 28, 1939 contain obituaries and a death notice: born August 9, 1871 in Leiden, and died on June 25, 1939 in Apeldoorn.

Moreover, we learn that he was a teacher for mathematics, zoology and botany. His schools are listed there, too. Among them the Rijks H.B.S. (Hoogere Burgerschool) in Amsterdam from 1908 to 1918. In 1910 the "Tijdschrift der Nederlandsche Dierkundige Vereeniging" (magazine of the Dutch zoological society) mentions Hendrik Gouwentak, teacher at the H.B.S. Oosterparkstraat, Amsterdam. So, his first name is known again! (When his wife died in May 1945, the "Hendrik" is mentioned once more.)

Gouwentak contributed to the third edition of an encyclopedia on plants and animals by Winkler Prins (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winkle...).

In chess he has been a player of the "hoofdklasse", the highest class in the Netherlands. He was a member of the managing board of the NSB, when his predecessor died (see below).

Among the good news, I have also to add a bad one: the game Lasker vs H Gouwentak, 1908 has been won by another Gouwentak, whose first name initial is "J." ( see "De Telegraaf" of December 30, 1908, and in "Het nieuws van den dag" of the following day, where one can verify that there have been indeed two Gouwentaks).

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It seems that not much is known about Gouwentak's predecessor, too: W.Peekema, whose presidency lastet from 1910 to 1912. Since he has no own page on cg, I post here what I found about him: Wiebe Peekema, born July 20, 1865 in Poppingawier, died March 26, 1912 in Amsterdam.

Here we have them together:

I would have liked to give the link to the game, too, but unfortunately I have just now (and have had recently several times) problems to access single issues or whole newspapers in that wonderful database.

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<Stonehenge>'s link states Hendrik is from Brussels, and J. is from Leiden. At the beginning of the same tournament in Leiden, both are associated to Leiden here: http://kranten.kb.nl/view/article/i.... Heendrik and his siblings were all born in Leiden, but I found no brother with an initial "J."

There are a Jakob and a Jan Gouwentak in Leiden around this time.

Ater WW I until approximatly 1926, "J." has visited and lived in the Dutch East Indies, and for some time he was even the president of the chess association there.

Maybe that help someone else to find him.

First it says that Lasker lost against bla bla and J Gouwentak. Then it says "Against Lasker <also> the following interesting game was won."