Hollywood 1952, A Long Forgotten International Tournament

Vladimir (Walter) Pafnutieff

     Herman Steiner was well known for his connection to Hollywood and his popularization of chess among movie stars. Steiner was also the driving force behind a number of tournaments held in Hollywood and this one has been long forgotten. 
     Chessmetrics lists the strongest tournament held between 1952 and 1953 as being the Soviet Championship held in Moscow in 1952. It included six of the top ten players in the world and the next strongest tournaments were Budapest 1952 and Havana 1952. So, this tournament in Hollywood hardly compares, being a very minor one, but I was surprised to find that even the California chess magazine gave it scant attention. A supplement was published with all the games though. Still, it had Gligorich and Pomar as participants. 
     This event was held in Hollywood from April 26 to May 8, 1952 and was won by Svetozar Gligorich from Yugoslavia with 6 wins and 4 draws by a half point over Arturo Pomar of Spain. On his way home Gligorich stopped in New York to play a match against Samuel Reshevsky who won with a score of +2 -1 =7. On the Chessmetrics April 1952 list Gligorich was ranked as number 11 in the world with a rating of 2705. The 20-year old Pomar weighed in at 2385 which placed him number 337 in the world. 
     Chessmetrics observed that 1952 was a great year for Reshevsky. He was the most dominant player that year, spending 7 months ranked number one on the site's rating list. The best individual event performance between 1952 and 1953 was by Alexander Kotov with a Chessmetrics Performance Rating of 2832 in Interzonal at Saltsjobaden in 1952. The next-best individual event performances were achieved by Mikhail Botvinnik (2808 performance) in Moscow (a USSR Training tournament) and by Samuel Reshevsky (2807 performance) in Najdorf-Reshevsky Match of that year. 
     The other players in the event were Arthur Dake of Portland, Oregon, Lionel B. Joyner of Canada who was living in Long Beach, California at the time. Joyner (1933-2001) was Canadian Champion in 1961 and represented Canada in the 1958 Olympics and the First World Junior Championship in 1951. He was also a very strong correspondence master, winning the Golden Knights Postal Championship in 1961-62.
     James B. Cross (born 1930) from Glendale, California was US Junior Champion in 1950 and the 1957 California State Champion. During the decade of the 1950s he was one of the state's strongest players ranked only behind Kashdan and Steiner. On the USCF's 1959 rating list (the 13th such list) he was ranked number 10 with a rating of 2425.
     Showing the effects of age (50 years old) and lack of practice Isaac Kashdan, then living in Tujunga, California, played poorly. Chessmetrics puts his 1951 rating at 2463, ranked number 231, which was a far cry from his peak rating of 2742 in 1931 when he was ranked number 2 in the world behind Alekhine. 
     Vladimir (Walter) Pafnutieff of San Francisco, California, passed away in San Mateo, California on May 22, 1999 at the age of 86. He authored a book of his best games which also served as an instruction manual titled How To Create Combinations which was published in 1986.  He was born in Russia and immigrated to the United States in the late 1920s, settling in San Francisco where he quickly became one of the best players in the state. In the early 1970s Pafnutieff and his wife moved to Kirkland, Washington where she opened a Russian restaurant. During the next few years he played in three Washington State Championships; his best finish was sharing second in 1978. 
     Ray Martin of Santa Monica, California (born November 7, 1924, died August 31, 2001 at the age of 76) won the 1969 American Open. Sonja Graf Stevenson of Los Angeles brought up the rear. The tournament was sponsored by Jacqueline Piatigorsky and Philip C. McKenna.

     What impressed me in this game was that Graf was cruising along with the better position, but missed a winning tactical shot at move 23. Even then she was doing well when, suddenly, at move 29 she failed to notice that her P at e3 needed extra defense because when Pafnutieff captured it, the recapture 30.fxe3 left her N on g3 hanging and black's Q lurking way back on b8 was able to capture the N with check.  After that the floodgates were opened against her K.  A very instructive game. 

Exciting Bisguier Game

     These days when young players see a gregarious 87 year old fellow whose rating is at its floor of 2200 they know he is an International Grandmaster. They probably also know that in 2005 the USCF proclaimed him "Dean of American Chess" but I wonder how many realize how good he was really was in his heyday. 
     Arthur Bisguier (born October 8, 1929) is a two-time U.S. Junior Championship (1948, 1949), three-time U.S. Open Champion (1950, 1956, 1959) and the 1954 U.S. Champion. He played for the United States in five Olympiads and two Interzonal tournaments (1955, 1962). 
     In 1950 at Southsea, England he tied for first with Tartakower in his first international success which resulted in his receiving the IM title. Mandatory Army service interrupted his career during 1951 to 1953, but he managed to get leave so he could play in two European events. He played at the Helsinki Olympiad 1952, and then won the third annual Christmas tournament at Vienna 1952 with a 9–2 score.  After a poor performance in the U.S. Open in 1953, he entered the Philadelphia Candidates' Tournament for the U.S. Championship and finished first with an over-2600 performance. 
     His meteoric rise culminated with his winning the 1954 U.S. Championship at New York. He also won the 2nd Pan American Championship at Los Angeles 1954. In 1956 at Oklahoma City, he added the U.S. Open Championship title to his U.S. Championship. 
     Bisguier became a Grandmaster in 1957. He tied with Bobby Fischer for first–second places at the U.S. Open at Cleveland 1957, but Fischer was awarded the title on tiebreak. Bisguier also served as a second to Fischer at several international events.  Most of Bisguier's play after the mid-1960s was limited to U.S. tournaments where he won many events. 
     His list of elite victims is too numerous to mention and his results might have been much better had it not been for his sometimes risky play and love of tactics. Another thing that probably hindered his tournament results was the fact that he truly enjoyed life outside the tournament room. 
     At the 1975 US Championship at a meet and greet with the players, Bisguier asked a couple of spectators where the nearest bar was and he was informed that alcohol was not sold in the college town. He immediately pulled out his wallet and handed the two young strangers he was talking to some money and asked them to drive to the nearest town saying, “Bring me a fifth of Jack Daniels.” In that event he scored +0 -0 =13!
     A short interview with Bisguier can be seen on Vimeo HERE. 
     His opponent in the following game was Dr. Orest Popovych (born Jan-18-1933) who is a FIDE master. Popovych won the championship of New Jersey in 1959, 1961, 1985, and 2001. In 1970, he tied for 1st place in the North American Central Open. He is a professor emeritus of Analytical Chemistry at Brooklyn College and has a PhD in chemistry.  His highest USCF rating was over 2400. Popovych was elected President of the Shevchenko Scientific Society in New York in 2006 and he has also translated the Ukrainian poet Vasyl Makhno into English. 
     In this game Bisguier comes close to trapping his opponent's Queen. Popovych managed to extricate it, but it cost him material. Still, the game wasn't over because later Popovych, using his B, N and Q, set up an attack against Bisguier's King, at one point threatening mate in one. Then Bisguier launched a counterattack, which after some excitement, culminated in a Q-sac that won the game.
 

Prominent Chess Player Arrested

1932 mug shot

I ran across this article in the February 26, 1922 edition of the New York Times and couldn't help posting it. It seems that criminal activity was a family business with the Whitakers.  It's not mentioned in the article, but besides Norman and sister Dorothy, his brother Roland and another sister, Hazel, had also been arrested.

They managed to delay the legal machine for a while, but on July 16, 1925 the headline ran -"WHITAKER GOES TO PRISON: Chess Player Leaves Philadelphia for Leavenworth in Auto Theft Case" 

An interesting excerpt from  the book  Shady Side: The Life and Crimes of Norman Tweed Whitaker, Chess Master by John S. Hilbert can be read at Chess Cafe.

James Mortimer

     I have not posted in a few days, mostly because of, among other more mundane things, Monday was my second cataract surgery. I am amazed at the results...for the first time in 60 years I can see without glasses, except for reading, of course. The actual surgery itself was next to nothing as I slept through the whole procedure which took 15-20 minutes. For reading, I purchased a half dozen non-prescription reading glasses that were on clearance for 99-cents at the local discount store to spread around the house at strategic locations and they work OK, but I turned loose of $20 at Target other day for a pair of ICU Eyewear reading glasses and they are well worth the extra money. They are sturdy and the scratch resistant lenses are of much better quality. If you need reading glasses then ICU is a good choice.
     On to Mr. Mortimer...James Mortimer (April 22, 1833 – February 24, 1911) was an American player, journalist, and playwright who spent the last 40 years of his life in Britain.
     Born in Richmond, Virginia, Mortimer graduated from the University of Virginia. As an attaché in the U.S. Diplomatic Service he was stationed in Paris from 1855 to 1860. Emperor Napoleon III awarded him the Cross of the Legion of Honor for his work. When Paul Morphy traveled to Paris in 1858, Mortimer met him and they became friends and as a result, Mortimer was one of the few who witnessed the famous 1858 Morphy match with Adolf Anderssen. 
     For those unfamiliar with the American Civil War, as the US was originally founded, the Federal government had very limited authority and, for the most part, people's loyalty was to their State. But, by the time of the Civil War the industrialized Northern states were leaning more towards a strong centralized Federal government whereas, in the mostly rural South, citizens still retained loyalty to their individual State. I have read that there were many reasons for the War; political, economic and social differences, taxation and States' rights, etc. While all those things did exist, they were only symptoms. The disease was slavery. Thus, Mortimer, as a Southerner, maintained loyalty to the Confederacy which led him to quit Federal service in 1860 and he remained in Paris working as a journalist. 
     He began his career as a journalist and at the age of 22 he was already the chief editor of a Philadelphia newspaper. In the same year, 1855, he was appointed attache of the United Slates Legation in Paris. In the following year he was sent as Vice Consul at Civita Yecchia, the port of Rome, then the capital of the Papal States. Three years later, in 1859, he was appointed second secretary of the American Legation in St. Petersburg. He left the diplomatic service in 1860 and returned to Paris, where he lived for the next ten years, resuming his profession of journalist as correspondent of the New York Express and other American journals. 
     When Napoleon III was deposed in 1870 Mortimer settled in England as did Napoleon. In London, Mortimer founded The London Figaro, the official newspaper of Napoleon's government in-exile. Although Napoleon died in 1873, Figaro continued as a magazine. It was often controversial and Mortimer made many enemies with his scathing theater reviews. 
     Once when sued for libel Mortimer chose to defend himself and acting as his own lawyer, he was unable to testify in his own defense. After he was convicted by the jury Mortimer was able to produce evidence to the judges that he had no personal knowledge of the libelous article, but it was too late. Rather than imposing the more common penalty of a fine, the court sentenced him to three months jail. Mortimer's public stature grew as a result because it was widely believed by the public that it was unfair. His imprisonment eventually caused him to sell Figaro and with that was the end of its excellent chess column written by Johann Lowenthal from 1872 to 1876 and World Champion Wilhelm Steinitz from 1876 to 1882.
     When Mortimer was released, he continued his career as a critic and a playwright. He wrote over 30 plays produced in London. 
     Mortimer had a very poor record in tournament play, nearly always finishing near the bottom of the field. At a London tournament in 1887, he finished last of ten players, losing all nine games he played. Still, Mortimer sometimes did play well in individual games against strong opponents. 
     In the London tournament of 1883, he beat Zukertort and Chigorin, but finished tied for last in a field of 14 with a score of 3–23. At London in 1886 he defeated Taubenhaus, Mason, Pollock, and Schallopp, but finished with a score of 4–8 and in 11th place of 13. At the age of 74 he played the 1907 Masters Tournament at Ostend and defeated Tartakower, Znosko-Borovsky, and Blackburne, but finished last of 29 with a score of 5–23. He also won tournament games against Bird and Mieses, and had draws with Steinitz and Mackenzie. It was said he simply did not have the temperament for the sustained effort required by tournament play. 
     Mortimer wrote two chess books published in London and the Mortimer Defense in the Ruy Lopez and the Mortimer-Frazier Attack in the Evans Gambit are named for him. 
     In his later years he was a regular participant in the City of London championship and regularly played in the Metropolitan Chess League. 
     In 1911 Mortimer, who was chess editor of the Daily Mail and the Evening Post, was traveling by train to the great tournament at San Sebastian. The train arrived in Paris at a late hour and he and his traveling companions went to the hotel and from there to the Cafe de la Regence. Upon arrival Mortimer was in high spirits and the next night he was also at the Cafe, but upon returning to the hotel he went straight to bed, saying he was very tired. The next morning he came down from his room complaining of having had a bad night and stated he was not feeling very well. Nevertheless, he insisted on leaving for San Sebastion at 10:30 a.m. thinking he would rest on the train during the eleven hour trip. It was not a good trip as he was very ill and upon arriving at the hotel in San Sebastion at a late hour, he went straight to bed and never left it. He died in the early afternoon the next day, presumably of pneumonia. 
 

Karel Treybal

     Treybal's name is long forgotten, but it shouldn't be. He was born on February 2, 1885 in Kotopeky, a village to the southwest of Prague in central Bohemia and by the early 1900s was one of the most prominent Czech masters. 
     By profession he was a lawyer and served as chairman (judge) of the district court in Velvary, a small village north of Prague. Although an amateur player Treybal participated in several major international tournaments. His older brother, František, was also a prominent Czech player. 
     For an amateur his results weren't bad: 1905 tied for third/fourth in the first Czech Championship. In 1907 tied for second/fourth in the second Czech Championship which was won by his brother. 1908- won the Prague B tournament. In 1909 he finished second, behind Oldrich Duras in the third Czech Championship and in 1921 he tied for first in the seventh Championship with Karel Hromádka and Ladislav Prokes. He also played for Czechoslovakia in three Chess Olympiads where he compiled a modest total score of +12 -8 =20. His greatest international success was sixth place with Nimzovich in 1923 at Karlovy Vary (Carlsbad) in which he defeated Alekhine.
     Treybal died during the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia. On May 30, 1941 he was arrested, imprisoned and charged with concealing weapons for use by resistance forces plus the illegal possession of a pistol. 
     A 1945 tribute to Treybal that appeared in the Czech chess magazine Sach stated that Treybal had been executed without trial and had "never occupied himself with politics". Ladislav Prokes verified that Treybal had been arrested on May 30, 1941 in his office and was escorted to the Pankrac prison in Prague and from there to prisons in Kladno and Terezin. Prokes also verified the charge but did not indicate as to whether or not they were true. He also testified that Treybal acted in a brave manner while in prison and offered whatever help he could to other prisoners. See the fascinating story Inside the Pankrac Prison HERE.
     Unfortunately for history, Treybal's death was not well documented and it is neither certain that he was guilty of the charges or that he received an actual trial at the hands of the Nazis. According to a report that ran in the New York Times on Oct. 3, 1941, the German occupation forces had, as of that date, executed nearly 1,000 people in Europe, in some cases shooting them by the carloads, in reprisal for a mounting violence in the occupied countries. 

This is the family Treybal left behind

     On Oct. 2nd German dispatches said 141 executions took place in Bohemia-Moravia during the week Treybal was shot. Along with Treybal (whose occupation was listed as a salesman), Josef Benes, manager of the Farmers’ Association at Raudnitz, Anton Kvarda, manager of the trades school at Rakonitz, Josef Smrkovsky, a business man and Manzel Svoboda, a former Czech Army lieutenant were all executed at the same time. Such executions were the Nazis answer to sabotage, espionage, armed resistance, murder, treason, arson, aiding the enemy, listening to the foreign radio, operating illegal markets, dynamiting and anyone accused of being a Communist.
     Treybal was known for his attacking style and you will enjoy this snappy little game which is worth taking the time to play over on an actual board and trying to visualize all the neat little tactical shots black has after white's 15th move. It's especially instructive to watch black's N as it has the opportunity to jump to f3 with a devastating check on several occasions.
 

The Hawaiian Orangutan Attack Revisited

     I have been fascinated with playing 1.h4 (or 1...h5) in online Blitz lately. At first I was bringing the R out immediately with 2.Rh3 (or 2...Rh6), but I discovered the “best” idea is to simply keep advancing the h-Pawn as far as possible. 
    The thing that amazes me is how most average players meet it. Their preferred method, thinking it can be immediately refuted, is to launch an “attack” with only one or two pieces. The other common mistake is to become overly concerned about the P-sac b6 (or ...b3). This, coupled with an inability to see elementary tactics has frequently resulted in the loss of the game, sometimes very quickly. 
     Sidebar:  When I say elementary tactics I'm not talking about anything deep; I'm talking about one or two movers that hang a piece or Pawn or miss a mate.  The best way to avoid dropping pieces is, after every move make a visual scan of ranks, files and diagonals.  You have to know where the pieces are and this simple technique helps a lot.  Years ago I had a bad habit of hanging pieces and one day realized it was because my vision was fixated on one small section of the board.  This board scan eliminated the problem almost immediately and even today if I blunder a piece it's because of the failure to make the scan though by now it's almost automatic.
     Unorthodox openings generally have a disregard for the center, either delay development or place pieces in awkward positions, give up the right to castle or somehow create a weakness in the position. That does not mean that they are always bad to the point of being unplayable, but that can't be said of the hideous 1.g4. 
     Every player knows that the objective of the opening is to control the center and get their pieces into play, but for some reason when confronted with something bizarre like 1.h4 they often forget that because of the desire to quickly punish their opponent. In the following game my opponent, who had an 1800+ rating, makes the mistake of ignoring sound opening principles and his position was soon in shambles.
 

Sir George Thomas

Thomas playing badminton

     George Alan Thomas was born on June 14, 1881. He inherited the title of 7th Baronet in 1918. His mother, Lady Edith Thomas (died in 1920), who taught him chess, participated and won one of the first women's tournament held in Hastings in 1895. 
     Thomas lived most of his life in London and Godalming. He never married, so the hereditary Thomas baronetcy ended on his death. Thomas was admired for his fine sportsmanship. 
     Though born in Istanbul, Turkey, Thomas grew up in a small town in England where there were no strong chess players and so he concentrated his efforts much more on tennis, badminton and hockey. Because of that Thomas said he never played in a really important tournament until 1923 and by then it was too late to do him much good. Actually, 1923 was the year he first won the British Championship though it was not his first try; that was in 1920. He won it again in 1934.
     Thomas’ prowess at tennis is less well-known than his achievements at chess and badminton, but he reached the quarterfinals of the singles and the semifinals of the men's tennis doubles at Wimbledon in 1911.
     All-in-all, he won the All-England Badminton championship 21 times. He was the founder President of the International Badminton Federation and for donating the men’s world team trophy. When he retired in the late 1920’s, men were beginning to wear shorts, women’s singles was expanding, and badminton spreading globally.
     Badminton's world men's team championships cup, equivalent to tennis' Davis Cup, is named Thomas Cup after him. He was the most successful player ever in the All England Open Badminton Championships, considered the unofficial World Badminton Championships, with 21 titles from 1906 to 1928. Four of those titles were in men's singles (consecutive titles from 1920–23), nine in men's doubles and eight in mixed doubles. He won his titles both before and after a hiatus in the competition from 1915 to 1919 due to World War I. 
     In 1934 he was co-founder of the International Badminton Federation (now Badminton World Federation), of which he was president from 1934 to 1955. Inspired by tennis' Davis Cup, first held in 1900, and football's World Cup, first held in 1930, Thomas had the idea of organizing an international competition for country teams in badminton and in 1939 he was presented the Thomas Cup, officially known as The International Badminton Championship Challenge Cup. The first tournament was originally planned for 1941-1942, but due to World War II it did not take place until 1948-1949, when ten national teams participated in the first Thomas Cup competition. Thomas was inducted into the World Badminton Hall of Fame as an Inaugural Member in 1996. 
     Also, Thomas once made a 250 mile trek across the then unmapped Mesopotamian desert on foot. 
     In chess, he was British Champion in 1923 and 1934. He shared first prize at the 1934/5 Hastings International Congress with the next world chess champion Max Euwe and leading Czech player Salo Flohr, ahead of past world champion Capablanca and the future champion Mikhail Botvinnik, whom he defeated in their individual games. For Capablanca, that was his first loss in tournament play for four years, and the first playing the white pieces for more than six years. Also in Hastings, eleven years later, Euwe would become the third world chess champion to be defeated by Thomas. 
     His lifetime scores against the world's elite were not so good though: he had minus scores against Emanuel Lasker, Capablanca (+1−5=3), Alekhine (−7=6), Bogoljubov (−5=3), Euwe (+1−9=2), Flohr (+2−9=4) and Tartakower (+3−9=10). He also fared badly against Edgar Colle (+1–9=8). 
     However, on the plus side, he had an even score against Botvinnik (+1−1), Richard Réti (+3−3=1) and Siegbert Tarrasch (+1−1=3). Against English players he had a plus score against his greatest rival Frederick Yates (+13 –11 =13). Against Vera Menchik his score was +7−8=7. 
     In 1946 Thomas was serving as President of the Chess Section of the Society for Cultural Relations with the USSR which inaugurated and organized the radio match against the Soviet Union. 
     Thomas was awarded the IM title in 1950 and in 1952 became an International Arbiter. In 1950 at the age 69 he gave up competitive chess. He passed away on July 23, 1972. 
     The following is a sparkling attack by Thomas against a minor master.

  

Gaston Means Partner in Crime with Norman T. Whitaker

     Gaston Bullock Means (July 11, 1879 – December 12, 1938) was an American private detective, salesman, bootlegger, forger, swindler, murder suspect, blackmailer, and con artist and partner of American Master Norman T. Whitaker, an unsavory character if ever there was one. 
     Means, along with Whitaker, also pulled off a con associated with the Lindbergh kidnapping. Politically Means was associated with members of the so-called Ohio Gang that surrounded President Warren G. Harding. 
     Means was born in Concord, North Carolina, the son of William Means, a reputable lawyer. He was also a great-nephew of Confederate General Rufus Barringer. He graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1903, became a schoolteacher, then a traveling salesman. His life avocation, however, was a con artist. He was not a nice man; he boasted to friends that he had been accused of every felony in the books, including murder. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover once called him "the most amazing figure in contemporary criminal history" because of his ability to weave a believable story. 
     In 1911, he talked himself into a job with a New York detective firm where he created reports that contained so many clues that they had either to be investigated further at a substantial cost or denounced and his reputation spread. 
     On the eve of World War I, he was asked to further Germany's interests in the then-neutral United States. He "uncovered" plots and counterplots rife with secret documents and skulking spies, all of which required investigation at his usual rate of $100 per day, or nearly $2,500 in today's dollars! 
     After America declared war with Germany, Means returned to being a private detective and was given a case involving the widow of a wealthy lumberman, Maude King, who had been taken by a swindler in Europe. She had been left $100,000 (nearly 2.5 million today) by her late husband, with the remainder of his estate intended for charity. She sued for more, and settled for $600,000 (over 14 million today). Means weaseled his way into her life, assisting her with business affairs. Pretending to make investments for her, Means actually deposited hundreds of thousands of dollars into his own account and invested heavily in cotton and the stock market; he also lost heavily. As a result of his losses, Means claimed to have found a new will that needed to be investigated and in the process of “investigating” managed to plunder her remaining funds. In the spring of 1917, Means had burned through Mrs. King's cash and he needed more money so he forged a new will which he then conveniently discovered and filed it. 
     In late August, Mrs. King vacationed with Means and his family in Asheville, NC. On August 29, 1917, Means and Mrs. King went rabbit hunting. They did not shoot any rabbits, but Means returned from the trip carrying Mrs. King's dead body, claiming that she had accidentally shot herself in the back of the head. The local prosecutor didn't believe him and indicted Means for murder. Lawyers from New York were hired to help prosecute Means. The defense counsel successfully played on local antipathies to outsiders and after a brief deliberation the jury acquitted Means. 
     But there was still the matter of the phony will. It turned out that on the day it was signed the witnesses were out of town and the typewriter used to type it hadn't yet been manufactured. Also, it was determined that the signatures were forgeries. 
     With things going so badly, Means concocted another story that was urgent than a forged will.  He declared he knew the location of a trunk filled with secret documents obtained from German spies. He made a deal with the US Army. In exchange for a letter to the judge attesting to his good character Means said he would hand over the trunk. An Army intelligence officer accompanied Means to locate the trunk which was sent to Washington D.C. and Means demanded his letter. But when the trunk arrived it was empty. Means promised to find the scoundrels and recover the lost papers.  However, the army investigated and discovered the weight of the trunk when sent was identical to its weight when opened. The thing was, Means had used the incident in order to escape the jurisdiction of the court and he never returned. 
     Despite his past, in 1921 Means was hired by the Bureau of Investigation, then led by William J. Burns, an ex-Secret Service man, private detective and friend of the Attorney General in the Harding administration which was rife with scandals. Means was hired because of his skill as an investigator, but he was later suspended from the Bureau because he was considered a loose cannon. 
     During the Harding administration Prohibition was in effect, but illegal alcohol was common and Means began selling his services to local Washington bootleggers claiming he could use his connections to "fix" their legal problems. 
     Curiously, President Warren G. Harding died on August 2, 1923 at age 58 in San Francisco at the same time the Western Chess Championship, forerunner of the US Open, was being played across the street from his hotel. Norman T. Whitaker tied for first and he happened to be Means partner. By the way, Means was a biographer of Harding who wrote The Strange Death of President Harding. 
     In a case involving the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby, Means and Whitaker swindled a Washington socialite Evalyn Walsh McLean, who was owner of the Hope Diamond, and a distant relative of the Lindbergh family. She contacted Means because she knew that he was a former FBI agent who operated on both sides of the law and she believed that he was in contact with the Lindbergh kidnappers. Means didn't deny her belief. 
     After a series of phone calls, she agreed to pay ransom money which, oddly enough, was much more than the real kidnapper was demanding. Means, having assured her that he could get in contact with the kidnappers, said his friend was the person who took the Lindbergh baby. Means then sent Whitaker disguised as "The Fox" to a resort in North Carolina to pick the money. 
     When the baby was not returned Mrs. McLean demanded the return of her money. Means agreed, but of course he never did return it. When confronted about his duplicity he claimed a messenger from Mrs. McLean had met him with right code word and he had turned over the money. This time the police were notified and Means was captured and sentenced to serve 15 years in a federal penitentiary. Means died in custody in 1938. Whitaker got 18 months and after serving his time he was soon convicted of another crime and served 15 years in Alcatraz. He died in 1969 at the age of 79. The money was never recovered. 
    It's odd, but Mrs. McLean offered her assistance to help Richard Hauptmann get an appeal and overturn his death sentence in the kidnapping case because she believed that Hauptmann was not a lone killer. She offered to pay any fees so that the investigation could continue.
     In the mid-1960s while playing in a tournament in North Carolina I arrived in the tournament room before the start of the round on Sunday morning and there was a likeable old fellow on crutches who was adjudicating a game and telling stories. I did not know who he was at the time, but it was Whitaker. He was there peddling his book, written with Glen Hartleb, titled 365 Selected Chess Endings. The book was written in both German and English and consisted of fairly difficult endgame studies. Whitaker was selling autographed copies for five dollars and promised, “If you learn everything in this book, you'll become a master.” Become a master...those were the magic words, so like a lot of guys I bought a copy. I really didn't like the book and never learned everything in it so maybe that's why I never became a master. Who knows? Or was it a Whitaker mini-swindle?