As a result, this was one of the weakest championship tournaments to be held in many years. Only one or two players of Grandmaster strength had even competed in several years and many of the tailenders were much weaker than those of the 1930’s.
Reshevsky was studying for his examinations to become a certified public accountant and passed up the tournament. Isaac Kashdan, after making plans to play, he had to withdraw on doctor's orders.
Of course, in the absence of Reshevsky, Reuben Fine was expected to win. Herman Steiner, Al Horowitz, Albert Pinkus and Denker were given only a remote chance of upsetting him. The remaining players were barely of master strength.
The finals consisted of those who qualified from the preliminaries. Only 18 players entered the preliminaries which was far fewer than in pre-war years. As a result, Louis Persinger, a violin teacher with many famous students and who was a member of the Juilliard School of Music faculty qualified. Persinger was nowhere near a master and scored only one draw in 17 games in the finals.
Not surprisingly, the top five players were Fine, Steiner, Pinkus, Horowitz and Denker. They all began with a string of victories and were soon far ahead of the field. Only George Shainswit managed to stay fairly close, but even he finished three points behind the leaders.
The initial pace was set by Denker and Horowitz with 3-0 scores while Fine got intotrouble in the very first round against Albert Pinkus and barely managed to save a lost game.
The seventh round meeting of the two was such that Denker could afford a draw but Fine could not and their encounter is the featured game.
After Fine’s loss to Denker there were still ten rounds to go and several moderately strong players for Denker to face.
In the next round he faced Weaver Adams and got a very bad position and offered a draw several times. Adams was unable to find a win and ended up blundering away the game.
After that close call Denker reeled off nine straight wins before drawing with George Shainswit.
Denker did have a close call in the 12th round against an amateur named Aaron Rothman. Rothman had been massacred in an earlier game by Fine in 15 moves. It was so bad Rothman said the game reminded him of a recent gangland assassination of a mob boss that had taken place in the same hotel.
Rothman got a great game against Denker, but had one of those positions with so many good moves he ended up playing none of them and lost.
Denker scored an amazing 14.5 points in 15 rounds and so coasted to victory by accepting early draws in his last two games.
This was the tournament of his life for the 30-year old Arnold Denker had been slowly improving from his 12th place finish in 1936 to equal sixth in 1940 and then a tie for third behind Kashdan and Reshevsky in 1942.
Arnold Denker–Reuben Fine1–0E43US Champ, New York7New York, NY USA22.04.1944Stockfish 16
E43: Nimzo-Indian: Rubinstein: 4...b6 1.d4 f6 2.c4 e6 3.c3 b4 Denker
was probably surprised by this defense because Fine had never played the
Nimzo-Indian against him, so Denker was likely expecting a QGD. 4.e3
Denker considered playing the sharp Saemisch (4.a3), but deveoded against it,
thinking tht Fine knew it better than he did. b6 5.d3 b7 6.f3 This is
the main line, but Denker spent 15 minutes considering other moves! e4 7.0-0 At the time the standard move was 7.Qc2 defending the N and at the same time
threatening black's N, but Denler didn't think it was a good ides to determine
the position of the Q so early. xc3 Usual is 7...f5. White gets adequate
compensation for the sacrificed P. 8.bxc3 xc3 9.b1 a5 According to
Bobby Fischer 9... Nc6 leaves White with no compensation for his P. Engines do
not agree with Fischer; they prefer the text move and regard the N move as
inferior. 10.a3 This hinders black's castling and forces him to play the
rather passive 10...d6 d6 Fine hopes to keep the position closed, but Denker
quickly blasts it open with his next move. 11.c5 0-0 12.cxd6 cxd6 13.e4 13.c2 h6 14.h7+ h8 15.e4 d7 16.e5 dxe5 17.xb7 xb7 18.xf8 exd4 19.b4 is equal. Zilberstein,D (2386)-Panchanathan,M (2537) Berkeley 2011 13...e8 14.e5 dxe5 15.xe5 After this move Denker walked over to the TD
and informed him, "Right now Fine is busted higher than a kite." I am not
real sure the metaphor Denker used was exactly correct, but the meaning was
clear. He went on to add, "But that doesn’t mean to say I’ll win it. You
know me!" His his immediate threat is 16. Bxh7. Actually, Fine is NOT lost!
After 11...gf6 white is only slightly better. g5 Not good. Now white does
have a real advantage. 15...a6 A pass to demonstrate the threat. 16.xh7+ xh7 17.h5+ g8 18.xf7+ h8 19.b3 and all black can do is delay the
mate. 15...g6 After the game a controversy occurred in print between Fine
and Denker over the merits of this move which was Fine’s suggested defense.
Suffice it to say that Stickfish agrees with Fine. 16.g4 d7 17.b5 xe5 18.dxe5 h5 19.g3 d5 20.xe8 20.fd1 e4 with equal chances. 20...xe8 21.bd1 e4 22.d7 It appears that white is better here, but engine
evaluate the position as equal A sample continuation... b5 23.c5 d5 24.xa7 c3 25.d6 d4 26.a3 c8 It seems white can find no way to take
advantage of his excgange to the good as black';s two Bs and his R and Q are
just too active. 27.h4 b6 28.e7 c2 29.f3 e2 30.f4 c4 31.a1 d5 32.f6 c5 33.f1 with equal chances! 33.g5 xf2+ 34.h2 e3 mates in
8 16.g3 g6 17.a4 d8 After the game the TD Kenneth Harkness wrote,
"It was obvious from the way in which Fine was squirming and twisting in his
chair that he did not like his position. As time went by his face became
redder and redder as he tried to find some way of extricating himself." Fine
called this, "Almost the worst move on the board." and the old engine
Houdini agreed, but not Stockfish; 19...Qd8 is its first choice. It really
does not matter because at this point white has a winning advantage. 18.fc1 b5 This try for counterplay clears b6 for black’s B so that it
will no longer be vulnerable on a5 and will gain time by attacking the d-Pawn.
To make matters worse for Fine, Denker has cleverly shifted from a K-side
attack to play on the other side and Fine’s time was now down to 23 minutes
for 22 moves/ 19.xb5 d5 20.f3 b6 21.c5! xc5 22.xc5 f8 23.c4 c6 24.xd5 xa4 25.xa8
With his flag hanging and 16 moves to go, Fine resigned thus ending all but
his last try for the championship. Fine was the strongest US player who never
won it. 1–0
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