Whitaker

In his new blog post (and I recommend reading all his blog posts), Two Janowsky Games,, simaginfan talks about the 8th American Chess Congress played in Atlantic City during July of 1921.

This put me in mind of Norman Tweed Whitaker, one of the most colorful personages to ever play chess at master level.  Here is his obituary from "Chess Life and Review" Aug. 1975 (Whitaker had died in May).

Here is the game referenced in the obit:

cool!

Whitaker, obviously brilliant, was also a criminal and did several years in various prisons, including Leavenworth and Alcatraz.

The man was certainly a character!! Not in the obituary is the fact that he represented the USA in the FIDE amateur championship at The Hague in 1928. There is Hilbert's book, 'Shady Side', about him as well as a good deal in book form and on the internet. Fascinating personality, and a genuinely strong player. Thanks batgirl!

There is a good article on Whitaker's correspondence chess by Neil Brennan, in Fiala's Quarterly for Chess History, vol. 5. His father appears to have been quite a character too

great!

Thanks.  Whitaker was indeed a rather unsavory character. I found it interesting that his obit in "Chess Life and Review" side-stepped the whole criminal issue.  Maybe an obituary is a vehicle for memorializing and honoring one's good side.

wow, This was something worth reading and the game was a masterpiece. and the ending was even classic pinning both the rooks and bishops no way to stop the h pawn.

wow!

WOW HE PLAYED THE JOBAVA ATTACK

Morning Batgirl. On obits - Potter, as you will see in my de vere post, had a different attitude!

I just learned that Whitaker was ironically from Shadyside, Md.:

Here's a photo of Whitaker from the above mentioned Southern Chess Association (SCA) Tournament held in Durham NC during July, 1950:

Here are some other famous players from that same tournament with the results:

@batgirl
I absolutely love the work and time that you put into your blogs. Thank you so much!
Through my google picture searches, I found this one a few years ago which caused me to research him a bit more. He indeed was quite the character!
International Master: Norman "The Fox" Whitaker
Alcatraz Prison Photo.

His biography is called ' Shady Side: The life and crimes of Norman Tweed Whitaker'

He came from an upper middle class family ,was a lawayer and held a degree in German literature.

He also had a masters degree in crime.

A list of his crimes include :

Whitaker was convicted for crimes such as interstate car theft, insurance fraud, extortion and blackmailing (he claimed to know the whereabouts of the kidnapped and murdered Lindbergh baby and was arrested when he tried to extort money for allegedly returning the baby), selling morphine and other drugs via mail, and finally also child molesting. (This list is not complete.)

Apparently he also became friends with Al Capone during his time in Alcatraz.

His life would probably make for a more interesting chess movie than anything done so far.

Whitaker wrote an article in the December 1969 Chess Life and Review.

They are pdf files.   Chess Life and Review December 1969

In that article he includes an endgame from a game he played in Cuba
in 1959.  I've read that this endgame appears in his book "365 Selected Endgames".
Does anyone have more information about that game?

Thanks.  I had never read that article. It's a good find and a worthwhile read.

The endgame came from a game played in Mexico City (a non-sequitur from his mentioning Havana)

I don't know anything about the game.

That ending is a standard text book draw - Polugaevsky pulled of the same trick once, but with the Pawn on f2 rather than g2, which is equally drawn.

I was looking for for more information about the game before I uploaded this article to my website. You might be interested in this.  Endgame Swindle