Early Life
Born into a Polish Jewish family in Antwerp, Belgium, Koltanowski learned chess while watching his father play his older brother. He took up the game seriously at the age of 14, and was the top Belgian player after the death of Edgar Colle in 1932.
He gave up a fledgling career as a diamond cutter to play full-time.
He served a short stint in the Belgian army, where his primary duty was the peeling of potatoes. While he peeled away absent-mindedly, he studied chess positions. "Soldiers were going hungry", he said, "because I was peeling the potatoes into smaller and smaller cubes."
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