Denker Mauls Fine, Wins US Championship

    When it was time for the 1944 US Championship several of the top players were either in the military or working jobs that left little time for chess. Also, the young players before the war were now approaching middle age and many were no longer eager to devote the time and energy to compete in the championship tournament. 

    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. 

 

[Event "US Champ, New York"] [Site "New York, NY USA"] [Date "1944.04.22"] [Round "7"] [White "Arnold Denker"] [Black "Reuben Fine"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "E43"] [Annotator "Stockfish 16"] [PlyCount "49"] [EventDate "1944.??.??"] {E43: Nimzo-Indian: Rubinstein: 4...b6} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 {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. Bd3 Bb7 6. Nf3 {This is the main line, but Denker spent 15 minutes considering other moves!} Ne4 7. O-O {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.} Nxc3 {Usual is 7...f5. White gets adequate compensation for the sacrificed P.} 8. bxc3 Bxc3 9. Rb1 Ba5 {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. Ba3 {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 O-O 12. cxd6 cxd6 13. e4 ( 13. Qc2 h6 14. Bh7+ Kh8 15. Be4 Qd7 16. Ne5 dxe5 17. Bxb7 Qxb7 18. Bxf8 exd4 19. Bb4 {is equal. Zilberstein,D (2386)-Panchanathan,M (2537) Berkeley 2011}) 13... Re8 14. e5 dxe5 15. Nxe5 {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.} Qg5 {Not good. Now white does have a real advantage.} (15... a6 {A pass to demonstrate the threat.} 16. Bxh7+ Kxh7 17. Qh5+ Kg8 18. Qxf7+ Kh8 19. Rb3 {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. Qg4 Nd7 17. Bb5 Nxe5 18. dxe5 h5 19. Qg3 Qd5 20. Bxe8 (20. Rfd1 Qe4 {with equal chances.}) 20... Rxe8 21. Rbd1 Qe4 22. Rd7 {It appears that white is better here, but engine evaluate the position as equal A sample continuation...} b5 23. Bc5 Bd5 24. Rxa7 Bc3 25. Bd6 Bd4 26. Ra3 Rc8 {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 Bb6 28. Be7 Rc2 29. Rf3 Qe2 30. Rf4 Bc4 31. Ra1 Bd5 32. Bf6 Bc5 33. Rf1 {with equal chances!} (33. Qg5 Bxf2+ 34. Kh2 Be3 {mates in 8})) 16. g3 g6 17. Qa4 Qd8 {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. Rfc1 {[%mdl 128]} 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. Bxb5 {[%mdl 32]} Qd5 {[%csl Gb7][%cal Rd5h1]} 20. f3 Bb6 21. Rc5 $1 {[%mdl 512]} Bxc5 22. Bxc5 Rf8 23. Bc4 Bc6 24. Bxd5 Bxa4 25. Bxa8 { 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