Main
Date: 26 May 2007 17:50:38
From: samsloan
Subject: Introduction to 365 Selected Chess Endings by Hartleb and Norman T. Whitaker
Introduction to 365 Selected Chess Endings by Hartleb and Norman T.
Whitaker

I am in the process of re-printing the book 365 Selected Chess
Endgames, One for Each Day of the Year by Norman T. Whitaker and Glenn
E. Hartleb, ISBN 0-923891-84-6. It is a bi-lingual book. The title in
German is 365 Ausgewahlte Endspiele, Eines Fur jeden Tag Im Jahr .

What is especially rekable about this book is that, in spite of
having been co-authored by a famous International Chess Master, Norman
T. Whitaker, almost nobody has ever heard of it. I have asked around
among collectors of chess books and only one person, Grandmaster
William Lombardy, has ever heard of or seen this book. Lombardy knew
about the book the same way that I did. Whitaker had given him a copy.

It is certainly a useful book, worthy of study. The endgames come from
a variety of sources. Some were played over-the-board in grandmaster
tournaments. Others are compositions. Only a few were composed by
Whitaker or Hartleb. The rest are by major composers such as Grigoriev
and Triotzky.

One good thing is that, unlike other collections in which the problems
are so difficult that nobody could ever solve them, many of these
endgames can be solved by normal humans. Even I was able to solve a
few of them.

Only a few are easy to solve, however. There is obviously a program to
set aside a few hours every day to study one of the end games. The
answers are in the back. The answers are in German algebraic notation,
which is a minor inconvenience that most readers will be able to get
past without much difficulty. One need only remember that S stands for
knight, T for rook, L for bishop and D for queen.

As to why such a useful and important work is not better known, the
answer obviously lies in the fact that Hartleb was killed and Whitaker
seriously injured in a car accident shortly after publication. Also,
the press run must have been small. Otherwise, more would have reached
the ket place.

Whitaker published one of his own games in the introduction. His
opponent was Alfonso Ferriz, a master who was many times Champion of
Mexico. The game was played in Mexico City in 1959.

White (Whitaker) had a king on h2, rooks on e4 and e6 and pawns on g2
and a4. Black (Ferriz) had a king on d3, a queen on f2, a knight on f5
and pawns on c6 and h5.

In this position, Black played Nd4, threatening Nf3+ followed by
checkmate. Whitaker responded by 44. Rxd4+ Qxd4 45. Rxc6 and claimed a
draw, saying that he can get his rook to f3 and then he has a fortress
situation in which the black king cannot penetrate to give checkmate.
Whitaker reported, "Neither black nor the spectators believed it
possible."

I do not believe it possible either. I think Black had a win there. It
is just that I have not been able to find it (and I have not tried
hard either).

I met Norman T. Whitaker at my first big-time chess tournament, the
1956 Eastern States Open in Washington DC. Whitaker was the director.
I did not know it at the time, but I have since learned from the
biography of Whitaker, "Shady Side: The life and crimes of Norman
Tweed Whitaker, Chessmaster" by John Samuel Hilbert ISBN
0-939433-57-5, page245, that this tournament was an important come-
back for Whitaker. Whitaker had just settled his court case against
the United States Chess Federation two days earlier. The court case
arose over the fact that the USCF had kicked Whitaker out, not because
of the Lindbergh kidnapping, but rather because of a more important
reason, that Whitaker had said bad things about Montgomery Major, the
Editor of Chess Life magazine.

My picture is in Hilbert's book in two places: pages 211 and 246. In
the picture on page 246, I am the kid sitting on the floor on the
lower right hand corner. This picture is incorrectly identified as
being from the 1957 New Western Open in Milwaukee. It is actually from
the 1956 Eastern States Open in Washington DC.

I created a big sensation in that tournament because I had just turned
12 years old and I checkmated a well known player named Arthur Abbott
in 15 moves in the first round. I lived in Lynchburg Virginia and
nobody had heard of me and this accomplishment got my picture on the
front page of the Washington Post the next morning.

However, my 15 minutes of fame lasted exactly that long, because I
lost all the rest of my games in the tournament and finished dead
last.

During the tournament, Whitaker wore his prison stripes for one of the
rounds. He was certainly not hiding the fact that he had served time.
Indeed, he often said that he was from "Shady Side" yland. He did
not really live in Shady Side. He just liked to use that name so that
everybody would know that he was a shady character.

An announcement was made before one of the rounds of the tournament
that Whitaker had settled his suit against the USCF and was back in as
a member in good standing. I never found out what that was about until
Hilbert's book came out 44 years later.

Perhaps because Whitaker had been kicked out of the USCF, this
tournament was not advertised in Chess Life magazine. I had found out
about it because I had received a mailing. Most likely, Whitaker had
obtained my address because I had played in the 1956 North Carolina
Open in Southport NC and in the 1956 Virginia Championship in
Charlottesville. However, the lack of publicity was what made this
tournament so strong. The tournament offered a phenomenal prize fund,
including a $300 first prize. This huge first prize by the standards
of that time brought all the big names down from New York City to
play. It was probably the strongest tournament held in the United
States that year. Because of the lack of publicity, only the top
players who had heard about the $300 first prize played. Patzers did
not come. The tournament was won by Hans Berliner. Fischer, Lombardy,
Rossolimo and Feuerstein tied for second.

After that, I often saw Whitaker in tournaments in North Carolina. I
lived in Lynchburg, Virginia, but the club in Lynchburg folded in 1959
after Captain Abernathy and all the other old geezers who played every
week died. I was the last champion of the Lynchburg Chess Club. I won
the championship at age 14. There was little chess activity in
Virginia at that time, except for the annual state championship,
except that I did once play in the Virginia Open Championship in
Newport News, directed by Claude Bloodgood!!!

Every year, the North Carolina 30-30 was held in Raleigh. Whitaker and
Hartleb played there almost every year. Sometimes, I would play
without even my parents knowing about it. I would leave home and get
out on the road early in the morning. I would hitchhike 152 miles to
Raleigh, play in the six round one day tournament, and then hitchhike
back to Lynchburg, arriving back late at night and making up some
story as to where I had been.

In one of those tournaments, I played Glenn Hartleb. I no longer have
the score sheet. What I remember about the game is I was black in a
Benoni type position. Hartleb had pawns on c4 and d5. I had pawns on
c5, d6 and e6. I played exd5 assuming that he would play cxd5.
Instead, he thought for a long time and played Qd1xd5. I was shocked,
as I had not thought of that possibility and I lost quickly.

In one of these North Carolina 30-30 events(perhaps the same one), I
was pared against a player named Davis who was Champion of the State
of Georgia. I had white. In those tournaments, we played 30 moves in
30 minutes and then, if the game was not finished, a committee of
strong players would come around and adjudicate the games. In my game
against Davis, nothing much had happened in the opening and few pieces
had been exchanged. However, after 30 moves, I did have a small
advantage. Whitaker, being the strongest player, was on the Committee.
When the committee came around to my game, Whitaker looked at it for
about 15 seconds and then adjudicated the game a win for me!

Whitaker and the rest of the committee moved on to the next game.
Davis was not happy. He analyzed the game with me and showed to my
satisfaction that he had adequate defenses to my attacks. At least, I
could not demonstrate a win. Davis then went to Whitaker and started
pestering him, claiming that the game should be adjudicated a draw.
Whitaker just kept waving him away, saying that it was ridiculous.

I have often wondered whether Whitaker gave me a win as a favor, or
was the adjudication proper. Actually, since I really did have an
advantage, although a small one, perhaps I really did have a win with
absolute best play by both sides. However, Davis was a better player
than I was and, if the game had been played out, he probably would
have won.

In the 1961 Carolinas Open in Fayetteville NC, Whitaker lost his first
round game to Dr. Albert Warshawer, an 1800 player. Coming from
Virginia, my father and I arrived late for the tournament and had
lunch with Whitaker. He was not happy about the loss. The game was
later published in the Carolina Gambit, the magazine of the North
Carolina Chess Association, but it is not in Dr. Hilbert's book.
Hilbert is apparently not aware of this publication. By the way, I am
now on the Executive Board of the United States Chess Federation and
the board has just voted to give Dr. Hilbert the Distinguished Service
Award priily because of this book.

Later in the tournament, when I was not around, Whitaker offered my
father to drive me to the 1961 US Open Chess Championship in San
Francisco. I had already played in the 1959 US Open Championship in
Omaha Nebraska, in the 1960 US Open in St. Louis and in the 1958 US
Junior in Homestead Florida. My father knew that I would want to play
in the 1961 US Open in San Francisco, so he immediately agreed to let
me go.

However, when my father told me about this, I told him that I did not
want to go. The invitation was declined.

My father was surprised. I never told him the reason. The reason was
that I was familiar and every other chess player in America was
familiar with the book "The FBI Story" by Don Whitehead, with a
forward by J. Edgar Hoover. On pages 94-96 of this book is described
the famous scam in which Gaston B. Means convinced a wealthy heiress
named Evalyn Walsh McLean that he was in contact with the Lindbergh
Kidnappers and he could get the Lindburgh baby back upon payment of
$100,000 in ransom money plus $4,000 for expenses.

Even though I knew that Whitaker had nothing to do with the Lindbergh
kidnapping, it was nevertheless a fact that he was a career criminal
and had spent many years in prison, principally for auto theft.

In 1932, Whitaker had gained fame during the Lindbergh Kidnapping. A
former FBI Agent named Gaston B. Means had concocted a scheme to
swindle $104,000 from a wealthy heiress by claiming to be in contact
with the kidnappers. Means intended to use Whitaker as the bagman to
pick up her money, but both were arrested and convicted. According to
Shady Side: The Life and Crimes of Norman Tweed Whitaker, Chess
Master, by John Samuel Hilbert, page 121, what Whitaker was really
convicted of was "attempted" extortion. He or Means had claimed that
the Lindbergh kidnappers had refused $49,500 of the ransom money paid
by Mrs. McLean because the serial numbers on the money had been
published. Therefore, they demanded replacement money in the amount of
$35,000, in exchange for which he promised to return the original
$49,500 plus the baby. That was when the FBI was finally called in.
Whitaker never got any of the money and, when asked what happened to
the money, Whitaker replied, "I do not know and I wish I did".
Whitaker got out in just 18 months, but was soon arrested again. He
served 15 years at several prisons, including Alcatraz, where he
befriended the notorious Al Capone. They had a falling out in 1936
when Capone refused to join in Whitaker's prison strike, but
reconciled and became friends again later on.

The book by Dr. Hilbert contains a major discovery that changes the
entire story. The "FBI Story" by Don Whitehead says that Whitaker was
given the code name, "The Fox". However, Dr. Hilbert's book suggest
that Mrs. McLean knew his identity but was mistaken about his name.
She knew that he was a famous international chess master, but thought
that he was another International Chess Master named Albert Fox. Thus,
Mrs. McLean called him "The Fox" because that was what she thought his
real name was. Probably, if this case were tried today, Whitaker would
beat the charges.

What really made me decide not to go with Whitaker and Hartleb to San
Francisco was the length of the trip. It involved a 3,000 mile auto
trip from Virginia to San Francisco and then back and a 12 round US
Open played over 14 days. This trip would take at least three weeks
and probably longer. In addition, I was beginning to wonder whether
Whitaker and Hartleb might be homosexual. They were, after all, two
men traveling all over the US in Whitaker's Volkswagen Beetle playing
in chess tournaments, with no woman ever around. I had to wonder
whether it would be a good idea to share hotel rooms with them.

I will never know the answer because on this trip that I would have
taken, there was a horrific auto accident in which Hartleb was killed
and Whitaker was seriously injured.

I saw Whitaker once after that. I played in the 1962 North Carolina
Open in Charlotte NC (or possibly it was the Queen City Open as I
played in both tournaments that year and both were played in
Charlotte). In the last round, I got into a major time pressure
dispute with Peter Gamm. I got in the same dispute in both tournaments
with the same player. In one tournament, my flag fell but he did not
have a complete score sheet. In the other tournament, his flag fell
but I did not have a complete score sheet. There was a lot of yelling
and screaming both times and I do not know how the director ruled.
However, I resolved never to get in another time pressure dispute and
from then on, from that day to this, I have never been involved in a
dispute in a tournament chess game.

I asked Whitaker to give me a ride home in his Volkswagen. He said
that he would give me a ride, but he was traveling to Washington DC by
way of Richmond, Virginia, not by way of Lynchburg or Roanoke. I told
him that I would be happy if he could take me to Petersburg, Virginia
and then I could hitchhike home to Lynchburg.

On the trip, he told me about the car accident. He said that after the
US Open in San Francisco, as they were driving back, they were
crossing Arkansas. Whitaker and Hartleb had been driving all the way
and both were tired. They had a 16-year-old boy in the car with them.
As I had been 16 years old, that could have been me. I never found out
the name of the boy.

Whitaker said that while he was asleep, Hartleb, being tired too,
decided to let the boy drive. The boy did not have a drivers license.
Shortly after Hartleb put the boy behind the steering wheel, the boy
drove into a ditch and crashed. Hartleb, in the right front seat, was
killed immediately. Whitaker, asleep in the back seat, was seriously
injured. The boy who had been driving escaped uninjured.

Whitaker, who was in crutches, said that he was maimed for life and
would never walk again. He reserved his worst reks for the doctor
in Arkansas who had treated him. He said that the doctor was a quack.

After Whitaker left me off in Petersburg, I hitchhiked home to
Lynchburg. The following month, I enrolled in the University of
California at Berkeley and hitchhiked 3000 miles across the country to
attend college there. I hitchhiked more than 30,000 miles over a
period of several years, coming home to Lynchburg most summers and
going back to Berkeley in the Fall.

I never saw Whitaker again but from then until his death died on May
20, 1975 at age 85 Whitaker remained active in chess. His prognosis
that he would never walk normally again proved not to be true as many
players since have reported him walking, although with a cane.

This story keeps coming up again in unpleasant ways. In the 1963-1964
school year at the University of California at Berkeley, I allowed Tom
Dorsch to rent a room in my apartment at 2119 Carleton Street in
Berkeley. I told him the story about how Whitaker and Hartleb had
invited me to travel with them from Virginia to the 1961 US Open in
San Francisco, but I had been afraid to go with them on such a long
trip because I feared that they might be homosexual. I do not know
what perverted reason Tom Dorsch has for doing this, but he has turned
the story around to make it that I was Whitaker's Toy Boy or something
like that. I want to state categorically that this was absolutely not
true. I never went anywhere with Whitaker. I never spent the night in
a hotel room with Whitaker. The only time I was ever even alone with
Whitaker was in 1962 when he drove me from Charlotte North Carolina to
Petersburg Virginia, giving me a part-way ride back to Lynchburg. By
the way, I like girls.

Nevertheless, Tom Dorsch brings this up every time I run for election,
which includes right now.

As to the question of whether Whitaker really was homosexual, I can
see from reading Dr. Hilbert's book that Whitaker had a devoted wife,
so he certainly must have fooled her. Beatrice Ussing Whitaker
(1906-1944) was an exceptionally devoted woman. She was his constant
companion when he traveled the world to play in chess tournaments.
During the long years when Whitaker was in prison, she remained
devoted to him and wrote him often.

Unfortunately, she got an especially horrific case of cancer and
suffered horribly until she died at age 38.

When Whitaker gave me a copy of this book, 365 Selected Endings, he
told me that Hartleb wanted to write another book, but that Whitaker
did not want to do so, because writing a book is a lot of work and
there is little money to be made from it.

As to the book Whitaker gave me, my mother and I have been involved in
litigation with my brother Creighton since 1986. In 1994, my brother
sold my mother's house at 917 Old Trents Ferry Road in Lynchburg and
had all the contents of the house deposited in a trash dump. This
included all my chess books. The owner of the Haunted House Book Store
in the Fort Hill section of Lynchburg heard about all these chess
books in the landfill and went to the dump and recovered them. By the
time I found out about this, all the good books had been sold as used
books in his store.

Recently, when I decided to reprint Whitaker's book, I called him to
see if he knew who had bought it. He did not know.

I searched the Internet for months and could not find this book for
sale anywhere. Finally, I found a used book dealer in Los Angeles who
had the book. I called him and he said that the book had been found in
the estate of a Latvian man who had died in 2006. I bought the book.

I have been trying ever since to find out the name of that Latvian
man, without success.

Last week, a friend told me that he had found Whitaker's book on sale
at a used bookstore in Virginia! I think that this might turn out to
be the very book that Whitaker gave me. He said that he had ordered
the book and was waiting to receive it.

I am waiting to find out if this is true.


Sam Sloan
June 1, 2007





 
Date: 02 Jun 2007 13:42:39
From: samsloan
Subject: Re: Introduction to 365 Selected Chess Endings by Hartleb and Norman T. Whitaker
I sent this book to the printers yesterday, June 1, 2007. It should be
printed and ready for sale on Amazon within about ten business days,
so you can expect to find it for sale by about June 13.

When it becomes available, you will find it offered for sale at the
following address:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0923891846

You should bookk this page to receive notification of when it
becomes for sale.

Sam Sloan



 
Date: 31 May 2007 02:36:51
From: help bot
Subject: Re: Introduction to 365 Selected Chess Endings by Hartleb and Norman T. Whitaker

> This sort of thing is covered in the MAMS book that I just
> reviewed..... And it looks to me like Whitaker was correct.

Just to be perfectly clear, here is the description
of the correct position directly quoted from the post
by Sam Sloan:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Whitaker published one of his own games in the introduction. His
opponent was Alfonso Ferriz, a master who was many times Champion of
Mexico. The game was played in Mexico City in 1959.

White (Whitaker) had a king on h2, rooks on e4 and e6 and pawns on g2
and a4. Black (Ferriz) had a king on d3, a queen on f2, a knight on f5
and pawns on c6 and h5.

In this position, Black played Nd4, threatening Nf3+ followed by
checkmate. Whitaker responded by 44. Rxd4+ Qxd4 45. Rxc6 and claimed a
draw, saying that he can get his rook to f3 and then he has a fortress
situation in which the black king cannot penetrate to give checkmate.
Whitaker reported, "Neither black nor the spectators believed it
possible."

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now, aside from the Mexican champion's overwhelming
material advantage even before the sac on d4, it is simply
not possible to reach the fortress position because the
Rook cannot safely get there from c6. In other words, the
fortress itself only "works" in Mr. Whitaker's mind, not in
reality.

Take a look:

1) After Whitaker's ...Qxa4, the Rook cannot get to f3.

2) After ...Qf4+ or ...Qh4+ or ...Qe5+, the Rook is not
getting to f3.

3) And after ...h4, the Rook is not going to f3.

Q: So how does Mr. Whitaker plan to achieve his fortress
defense? A: By avoiding annoying details via a preemptive
draw claim which circumvents his Rook being picked off on
the open board! LOL

Black wins.


-- help bot













 
Date: 29 May 2007 22:22:45
From: help bot
Subject: Re: Introduction to 365 Selected Chess Endings by Hartleb and Norman T. Whitaker
On May 28, 8:29 am, SBD <[email protected] > wrote:

> > > > I do not believe it possible either. I think Black had a win there.
>
> > > Sam Sloan is obviously correct. (Take note, for
> > > I only type those words about once in a decade.)
>
> > > > It is just that I have not been able to find it (and I have not tried
> > > > hard either).
>
> > > That's probably because it doesn't exist. White is
> > > clearly winning.
>
> > What I *meant* to say here was that Black is clearly
> > winning (not White).
>
> > The fact that White still has a pawn on a4 means
> > there are no annoying stalemates for Black to worry
> > about, and he can therefore concentrate on weaving
> > a mating net or just picking off the loose Rook. For
> > a human, this may take a bit of effort, but I'll wager
> > a modern chess computer can pull it off *effortlessly*.
>
> > -- help bot
>
> Actually it seems to me that it is a fortress white is trying to build
> - the a4 pawn is just let go.

The analysis as given by SS included the capture of
this pawn, which, used as a decoy, was supposedly
the means by which White effected the crucial transfer
of his Rook to the square f3. It is critical to note that
this transfer cannot be forced, and because of this the
idea of an impenetrable fortress is moot unless and
until that position can be reached by White.


> .. The idea is not stalemate but a fortress.

Um, the idea of stalemate relates to any attempt by
White to do a desperado Rook trick. This idea was
seen in the famous game in which GM Evans saved
a dead lost position against Sammy Reshevsky,
only in that game, it was a desperado Queen.

Unlike some, I have not made the mistake of just
accepting -- without question -- the claim that the
fortress position is key. As told by Sam Sloan, that
was not the position in question, but an earlier one
where the White Rook still sat elsewhere and a
White pawn remained on a4.


> Finding these things are neat - recently, in one of my un-
> but soon to be published studies, I found a fortress of B+2P that
> draws vs a queen (and a similar one in the same problem that didn't -
> it was tons of fun)
>
> but a position like Kh2 Rf3 g2/ Ke2 Qa4 h6(FEN: 8/8/7p/8/q7/5R2/3k2PK/
> 8 w - - 0 1)- can this work - seems hardly possible with the h pawn
> there to cause trouble (attack g2 w/K+Q, and play the P to h4 to drive
> the R from g3, etc). That's from the human perspective, and is quite
> wrong.
>
> But yes, a modern chess computer can pull it off effortlessly - just
> look it up in the Nalimov tablebases

It never occurred to me that such a position would
be in the tablebases. It seemed rather complex for
that. No doubt, much progress has been made
here that I am not aware of.


> - it is a draw with white or
> black to move. Practically, black would have some good winning
> chances, but with *best play* it is drawn.

What is drawn, exactly? The fortress position that
only occurred in the mind of Mr. Whittaker? I was
talking about the actual position as it occurred in
the game, as told by SS. I flat-out reject the "helpful"
line given by Mr. Whittaker as being best play for his
opponent; I would like to see it demonstrated that
the White Rook can forcibly occupy f3 without any
negative consequences.


> However, Fritz and others evaluate this position as "lost" for White,

Again, it would be helpful if you specified the
exact position to which you refer.


> down by a factor of 5. But that is because all the computer can do is
> count; it cannot play chess.

Exactly. This is why, apart from being checkmated,
GM Kramnik was beating that computer, if we back
up to where he had earlier blundered into a draw.



> Would it beat you? Probably, but....
>
> This sort of thing is covered in the MAMS book that I just
> reviewed..... And it looks to me like Whitaker was correct.

Please re-evaluate this using the correct position;
that is the one which occurred in the game, and not
merely in Mr. Whittaker's rather optimistic imagination!

-- help bot






 
Date: 28 May 2007 05:29:54
From: SBD
Subject: Re: Introduction to 365 Selected Chess Endings by Hartleb and Norman T. Whitaker
On May 28, 3:48 am, help bot <[email protected] > wrote:
> On May 27, 5:10 am, help bot <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > > I do not believe it possible either. I think Black had a win there.
>
> > Sam Sloan is obviously correct. (Take note, for
> > I only type those words about once in a decade.)
>
> > > It is just that I have not been able to find it (and I have not tried
> > > hard either).
>
> > That's probably because it doesn't exist. White is
> > clearly winning.
>
> What I *meant* to say here was that Black is clearly
> winning (not White).
>
> The fact that White still has a pawn on a4 means
> there are no annoying stalemates for Black to worry
> about, and he can therefore concentrate on weaving
> a mating net or just picking off the loose Rook. For
> a human, this may take a bit of effort, but I'll wager
> a modern chess computer can pull it off *effortlessly*.
>
> -- help bot

Actually it seems to me that it is a fortress white is trying to build
- the a4 pawn is just let go... The idea is not stalemate but a
fortress. Finding these things are neat - recently, in one of my un-
but soon to be published studies, I found a fortress of B+2P that
draws vs a queen (and a similar one in the same problem that didn't -
it was tons of fun)

but a position like Kh2 Rf3 g2/ Ke2 Qa4 h6(FEN: 8/8/7p/8/q7/5R2/3k2PK/
8 w - - 0 1)- can this work - seems hardly possible with the h pawn
there to cause trouble (attack g2 w/K+Q, and play the P to h4 to drive
the R from g3, etc). That's from the human perspective, and is quite
wrong.

But yes, a modern chess computer can pull it off effortlessly - just
look it up in the Nalimov tablebases - it is a draw with white or
black to move. Practically, black would have some good winning
chances, but with *best play* it is drawn.

However, Fritz and others evaluate this position as "lost" for White,
down by a factor of 5. But that is because all the computer can do is
count; it cannot play chess. Would it beat you? Probably, but....

This sort of thing is covered in the MAMS book that I just
reviewed..... And it looks to me like Whitaker was correct.



 
Date: 28 May 2007 01:48:33
From: help bot
Subject: Re: Introduction to 365 Selected Chess Endings by Hartleb and Norman T. Whitaker
On May 27, 5:10 am, help bot <[email protected] > wrote:

> > I do not believe it possible either. I think Black had a win there.
>
> Sam Sloan is obviously correct. (Take note, for
> I only type those words about once in a decade.)
>
> > It is just that I have not been able to find it (and I have not tried
> > hard either).
>
> That's probably because it doesn't exist. White is
> clearly winning.

What I *meant* to say here was that Black is clearly
winning (not White).

The fact that White still has a pawn on a4 means
there are no annoying stalemates for Black to worry
about, and he can therefore concentrate on weaving
a mating net or just picking off the loose Rook. For
a human, this may take a bit of effort, but I'll wager
a modern chess computer can pull it off *effortlessly*.

-- help bot



 
Date: 27 May 2007 02:10:28
From: help bot
Subject: Re: Introduction to 365 Selected Chess Endings by Hartleb and Norman T. Whitaker
On May 26, 8:50 pm, samsloan <[email protected] > wrote:

> One good thing is that, unlike other collections in which the problems
> are so difficult that nobody could ever solve them, many of these
> endgames can be solved by normal humans. Even I was able to solve a
> few of them.

So then, both normal and abnormal humans are
able to solve the problems. Good!


> Whitaker published one of his own games in the introduction. His
> opponent was Alfonso Ferriz, a master who was many times Champion of
> Mexico. The game was played in Mexico City in 1959.
>
> White (Whitaker) had a king on h2, rooks on e4 and e6 and pawns on g2
> and a4. Black (Ferriz) had a king on d3, a queen on f2, a knight on f5
> and pawns on c6 and h5.

This position is an elementary win for White, due
to his overwhelming preponderance of material.


> In this position, Black played Nd4,

Obviously, the simple ...h4 wins.


> threatening Nf3+ followed by
> checkmate.

No, it doesn't threaten mate, but it does however
threaten ...Nf3+, Kh3 Ng5+ -- winning a Rook.


> Whitaker responded by 44. Rxd4+ Qxd4 45. Rxc6 and claimed a
> draw, saying that he can get his rook to f3 and then he has a fortress
> situation in which the black king cannot penetrate to give checkmate.
> Whitaker reported, "Neither black nor the spectators believed it
> possible."

Generally speaking, one should not claim that
one "can" do this sort of thing; one should instead
demonstrate it OTB, and THEN ask for a draw. In
this case, the fortress would require a good bit of
cooperation from the opponent, I think.


> I do not believe it possible either. I think Black had a win there.


Sam Sloan is obviously correct. (Take note, for
I only type those words about once in a decade.)


> It is just that I have not been able to find it (and I have not tried
> hard either).

That's probably because it doesn't exist. White is
clearly winning.


> My picture is in Hilbert's book in two places: pages 211 and 246. In
> the picture on page 246, I am the kid sitting on the floor on the
> lower right hand corner. This picture is incorrectly identified as
> being from the 1957 New Western Open in Milwaukee. It is actually from
> the 1956 Eastern States Open in Washington DC.

Books are full of such errors. I find it amusing
that so many self-professed "academics" will
insist on such sources as "proof" of facts, when
they are no proof at all.


> The tournament offered a phenomenal prize fund,
> including a $300 first prize.

To put this in perspective, that's more than all
the money I had earned in my life up to that time.
But then, I was not yet born.


> It was probably the strongest tournament held in the United
> States that year. Because of the lack of publicity, only the top
> players who had heard about the $300 first prize played. Patzers did
> not come. The tournament was won by Hans Berliner. Fischer, Lombardy,
> Rossolimo and Feuerstein tied for second.

With opposition like this, why did you finish in
last place, again? ; >D


> In one of these North Carolina 30-30 events(perhaps the same one), I
> was pared

Ouch! I bet that hurt.


> against a player named Davis who was Champion of the State
> of Georgia. I had white. In those tournaments, we played 30 moves in
> 30 minutes and then, if the game was not finished, a committee of
> strong players would come around and adjudicate the games. In my game
> against Davis, nothing much had happened in the opening and few pieces
> had been exchanged. However, after 30 moves, I did have a small
> advantage. Whitaker, being the strongest player, was on the Committee.
> When the committee came around to my game, Whitaker looked at it for
> about 15 seconds and then adjudicated the game a win for me!

That's an awfully quick time control for the
good old days.

-- help bot





 
Date: 27 May 2007 00:18:59
From: samsloan
Subject: Re: Introduction to 365 Selected Chess Endings by Hartleb and Norman T. Whitaker
Introduction to 365 Selected Chess Endings by Hartleb and Norman T.
Whitaker

I am in the process of re-printing the book 365 Selected Chess
Endgames, One for Each Day of the Year by Norman T. Whitaker and Glenn
E. Hartleb, ISBN 0-923891-84-6. It is a bi-lingual book. The title in
German is 365 Ausgewahlte Endspiele, Eines Fur jeden Tag Im Jahr .

What is especially rekable about this book is that, in spite of
having been co-authored by a famous International Chess Master, Norman
T. Whitaker, almost nobody has ever heard of it. I have asked around
among collectors of chess books and only one person, Grandmaster
William Lombardy, has ever heard of or seen this book. Lombardy knew
about the book the same way that I did. Whitaker had given him a copy.

It is certainly a useful book, worthy of study. The endgames come from
a variety of sources. Some were played over-the-board in grandmaster
tournaments. Others are compositions. Only a few were composed by
Whitaker or Hartleb. The rest are by major composers such as Grigoriev
and Triotzky.

One good thing is that, unlike other collections in which the problems
are so difficult that nobody could ever solve them, many of these
endgames can be solved by normal humans. Even I was able to solve a
few of them.

Only a few are easy to solve, however. There is obviously a program to
set aside a few hours every day to study one of the end games. The
answers are in the back. The answers are in German algebraic notation,
which is a minor inconvenience that most readers will be able to get
past without much difficulty. One need only remember that S stands for
knight, T for rook, L for bishop and D for queen.

As to why such a useful and important work is not better known, the
answer obviously lies in the fact that Hartleb was killed and Whitaker
seriously injured in a car accident shortly after publication. Also,
the press run must have been small. Otherwise, more would have reached
the ket place.

Whitaker published one of his own games in the introduction. His
opponent was Alfonso Ferriz, a master who was many times Champion of
Mexico. The game was played in Mexico City in 1959.

White (Whitaker) had a king on h2, rooks on e4 and e6 and pawns on g2
and a4. Black (Ferriz) had a king on d3, a queen on f2, a knight on f5
and pawns on c6 and h5.

In this position, Black played Nd4, threatening Nf3+ followed by
checkmate. Whitaker responded by 44. Rxd4+ Qxd4 45. Rxc6 and claimed a
draw, saying that he can get his rook to f3 and then he has a fortress
situation in which the black king cannot penetrate to give checkmate.
Whitaker reported, "Neither black nor the spectators believed it
possible."

I do not believe it possible either. I think Black had a win there. It
is just that I have not been able to find it (and I have not tried
hard either).

I met Norman T. Whitaker at my first big-time chess tournament, the
1956 Eastern States Open in Washington DC. Whitaker was the director.
I did not know it at the time, but I have since learned from the
biography of Whitaker, "Shady Side: The life and crimes of Norman
Tweed Whitaker, Chessmaster" by John Samuel Hilbert ISBN
0-939433-57-5, page 245, that this tournament was an important come-
back for Whitaker. Whitaker had just settled his court case against
the United States Chess Federation two days earlier. The court case
arose over the fact that the USCF had kicked Whitaker out, not because
of the Lindbergh kidnapping, but rather because of a more important
reason, that Whitaker had said bad things about Montgomery Major, the
Editor of Chess Life magazine.

My picture is in Hilbert's book in two places: pages 211 and 246. In
the picture on page 246, I am the kid sitting on the floor on the
lower right hand corner. This picture is incorrectly identified as
being from the 1957 New Western Open in Milwaukee. It is actually from
the 1956 Eastern States Open in Washington DC.

I created a big sensation in that tournament because I had just turned
12 years old and I checkmated a well known player named Arthur Abbott
in 15 moves in the first round. I lived in Lynchburg Virginia and
nobody had heard of me and this accomplishment got my picture on the
front page of the Washington Post the next morning.

However, my 15 minutes of fame lasted exactly that long, because I
lost all the rest of my games in the tournament and finished dead
last.

During the tournament, Whitaker wore his prison stripes for one of the
rounds. He was certainly not hiding the fact that he had served time.
Indeed, he often said that he was from "Shady Side" yland. He did
not really live in Shady Side. He just liked to use that name so that
everybody would know that he was a shady character.

An announcement was made before one of the rounds of the tournament
that Whitaker had settled his suit against the USCF and was back in as
a member in good standing. I never found out what that was about until
Hilbert's book came out 44 years later.

Perhaps because Whitaker had been kicked out of the USCF, this
tournament was not advertised in Chess Life newspaper. I had found out
about it because I had received a mailing. Most likely, Whitaker had
obtained my address because I had played in the 1956 North Carolina
Open in Southport NC and in the 1956 Virginia Championship in
Charlottesville. However, the lack of publicity was what made this
tournament so strong. The tournament offered a phenomenal prize fund,
including a $300 first prize. This huge first prize by the standards
of that time brought all the big names down from New York City to
play. It was probably the strongest tournament held in the United
States that year. Because of the lack of publicity, only the top
players who had heard about the $300 first prize played. Patzers did
not come. The tournament was won by Hans Berliner. Fischer, Lombardy,
Rossolimo and Feuerstein tied for second.

After that, I often saw Whitaker in tournaments in North Carolina. I
lived in Lynchburg, Virginia, but the club in Lynchburg folded in 1959
after Captain Abernathy and all the other old geezers who played every
week died. I was the last champion of the Lynchburg Chess Club. I won
the championship at age 14. There was little chess activity in
Virginia at that time, except for the annual state championship,
except that I did once play in the Virginia Open Championship in
Newport News, directed by Claude Bloodgood!!!

Every year, the North Carolina 30-30 was held in Raleigh. Whitaker and
Hartleb played there almost every year. Sometimes, I would play
without even my parents knowing about it. I would leave home and get
out on the road early in the morning. I would hitchhike 152 miles to
Raleigh, play in the six round one day tournament, and then hitchhike
back to Lynchburg, arriving back late at night and making up some
story as to where I had been.

In one of those tournaments, I played Glenn Hartleb. I no longer have
the score sheet. What I remember about the game is I was black in a
Benoni type position. Hartleb had pawns on c4 and d5. I had pawns on
c5, d6 and e6. I played exd5 assuming that he would play cxd5.
Instead, he thought for a long time and played Qd1xd5. I was shocked,
as I had not thought of that possibility and I lost quickly.

In one of these North Carolina 30-30 events (perhaps the same one), I
was pared against a player named Davis who was Champion of the State
of Georgia. I had white. In those tournaments, we played 30 moves in
30 minutes and then, if the game was not finished, a committee of
strong players would come around and adjudicate the games. In my game
against Davis, nothing much had happened in the opening and few pieces
had been exchanged. However, after 30 moves, I did have a small
advantage. Whitaker, being the strongest player, was on the Committee.
When the committee came around to my game, Whitaker looked at it for
about 15 seconds and then adjudicated the game a win for me!

Whitaker and the rest of the committee moved on to the next game.
Davis was not happy. He analyzed the game with me and showed to my
satisfaction that he had adequate defenses to my attacks. At least, I
could not demonstrate a win. Davis then went to Whitaker and started
pestering him, claiming that the game should be adjudicated a draw.
Whitaker just kept waving him away, saying that it was ridiculous.

I have often wondered whether Whitaker gave me a win as a favor, or
whether the adjudication was proper. Actually, since I really did have
an advantage, although a small one, perhaps I really did have a win
with absolute best play by both sides. However, Davis was a better
player than I was and, if the game had been played out, he probably
would have won.

In the 1961 Carolinas Open in Fayetteville NC, Whitaker lost his first
round game to Dr. Albert Warshawer, an 1800 player. Coming from
Virginia, my father and I arrived late for the tournament and had
lunch with Whitaker. He was not happy about the loss. The game was
later published in the Carolina Gambit, the magazine of the North
Carolina Chess Association. It is not in Dr. Hilbert's book. Hilbert
is apparently not aware of this publication. By the way, I am now on
the Executive Board of the United States Chess Federation and the
board has just voted to give Dr. Hilbert the Meritorious Service Award
priily because of this book.

Later in the tournament, when I was not around, Whitaker offered my
father to drive me to the 1961 US Open Chess Championship in San
Francisco. I had already played in the 1959 US Open Championship in
Omaha Nebraska, in the 1960 US Open in St. Louis and in the 1958 US
Junior in Homestead Florida. My father knew that I would want to play
in the 1961 US Open in San Francisco, so he immediately agreed to let
me go.

However, when my father told me about this, I told him that I did not
want to go. The invitation was declined.

My father was surprised. I never told him the reason. The reason was
that I was familiar and every other chess player in America was
familiar with the 1956 book "The FBI Story" by Don Whitehead, with a
forward by J. Edgar Hoover. On pages 94-96 of this book is described
the famous scam in which Gaston B. Means convinced a wealthy heiress
named Evalyn Walsh McLean that he was in contact with the Lindbergh
Kidnappers and he could get the Lindbergh baby back upon payment of
$100,000 in ransom money plus $4,000 for expenses.

Even though I knew that Whitaker had nothing to do with the Lindbergh
kidnapping, it was nevertheless a fact that he was a career criminal
and had spent many years in prison, principally for auto theft.

In 1932, Whitaker had gained fame during the Lindbergh Kidnapping. A
former FBI Agent named Gaston B. Means had concocted a scheme to
swindle $104,000 from a wealthy heiress by claiming to be in contact
with the kidnappers. This scheme worked because Charles Lindbergh
refused to co-operate with the FBI, hoping thereby to get his baby
back. Means intended to use Whitaker as the bagman to pick up the
money, but both were arrested and convicted. According to Shady Side:
The Life and Crimes of Norman Tweed Whitaker, Chess Master, by John
Samuel Hilbert, page 121, what Whitaker was really convicted of was
"attempted" extortion. He or Means had claimed that the Lindbergh
kidnappers had refused $49,500 of the ransom money paid by Mrs.
McLean, because the serial numbers on the money had been published.
(That was how the real kidnapper was eventually caught.) Therefore,
they demanded replacement money in the amount of $35,000, in exchange
for which they promised to return the original $49,500 plus the baby.
Whitaker drove Mrs. McLean from Aiken, South Carolina to El Paso Texas
on the pretext that he would meet with the kidnappers across the
border in Mexico and exchange the new money for the old money plus the
baby. Mrs. McLean was involved in divorce and alimony proceedings
while this was going on and when she tried to pawn her jewelry to
raise the money, her ex-husband's attorneys found out about it. That
was when the FBI was finally called in.

Whitaker never got any of the money and, when asked what happened to
the money, Whitaker replied, "I do not know and I wish I did".
Whitaker got out of prison in just 18 months, but was soon arrested
again. He served 15 years at several prisons, including Alcatraz,
where he befriended the notorious Al Capone. They had a falling out in
1936 when Capone refused to join in Whitaker's prison strike, but
reconciled and became friends again later on.

The book by Dr. Hilbert contains a major discovery that changes the
entire story. The "FBI Story" by Don Whitehead says that Whitaker was
given the code name, "The Fox". However, Dr. Hilbert's book suggest
that Mrs. McLean knew Whitaker's identity, but was mistaken about his
name. She knew that he was a famous international chess master, but
thought that he was another International Chess Master named Albert
Fox. Thus, Mrs. McLean called Whitaker "The Fox" because that was what
she thought his real name was. Probably, if this case were tried
today, Whitaker would beat the charges.

In 1961, what really made me decide not to go with Whitaker and
Hartleb to the San Francisco US Open was the length of the trip. It
involved a 3,000 mile auto trip from Virginia to San Francisco and
then back and a 12 round US Open played over 14 days. This trip would
take at least three weeks and probably longer. In addition, I was
beginning to wonder whether Whitaker and Hartleb might be homosexual.
They were, after all, two men traveling all over the US in Whitaker's
Volkswagen Beetle playing in chess tournaments, with no woman ever
around. I had to wonder whether it would be a good idea to share hotel
rooms with them.

I will never know the answer because on this trip that I would have
taken, there was a horrific car accident in which Hartleb was killed
and Whitaker was seriously injured.

I saw Whitaker once after that. I played in the 1962 North Carolina
Open in Charlotte NC (or possibly it was the Queen City Open, as I
played in both tournaments that year and both were played in
Charlotte). In the last round, I got into a major time pressure
dispute with Peter Gamm. I got in the same dispute in both tournaments
with the same player in the same round. In one tournament, my flag
fell but he did not have a complete score sheet. In the other
tournament, his flag fell but I did not have a complete score sheet.
There was a lot of yelling and screaming both times. I do not know how
the director ruled. However, I resolved never to get into another time
pressure dispute and from then on, from that day to this, I have never
been involved in a dispute in a tournament chess game.

I asked Whitaker to give me a ride home in his Volkswagen. He said
that he would give me a ride, but he was traveling to Washington DC by
way of Richmond, Virginia, not by way of Lynchburg or Roanoke. I told
him that I would be happy if he could take me to Petersburg, Virginia
and then I could hitchhike home to Lynchburg.

On the trip, he told me about the car accident. He said that after the
US Open in San Francisco, as they were driving back, they were
crossing Arkansas. Whitaker and Hartleb had been driving all the way
and both were tired. They had a 16-year-old boy in the car with them.
As I had been 16 years old, that could have been me. I never found out
the name of the boy.

Whitaker said that while he was asleep, Hartleb, being tired too,
decided to let the boy drive. The boy did not have a drivers license.
Shortly after Hartleb put the boy behind the steering wheel, the boy
drove into a ditch and crashed. Hartleb, in the right front seat, was
killed immediately. Whitaker, asleep in the back seat, was seriously
injured. The boy who had been driving escaped uninjured.

Whitaker, who was in crutches, said that he was maimed for life and
would never walk again. He reserved his worst reks for the doctor
in Arkansas who had treated him. He said that the doctor was a butcher
and a quack. He was planning to sue.

After Whitaker left me off in Petersburg, I hitchhiked home to
Lynchburg. The following month, I enrolled in the University of
California at Berkeley and hitchhiked 3000 miles across the country to
attend college there. I hitchhiked more than 30,000 miles over a
period of several years, coming home to Lynchburg most summers and
going back to Berkeley in the Fall.

I never saw Whitaker again, but from then until his death on May 20,
1975 at age 85 Whitaker remained active in chess. His prognosis that
he would never walk normally again proved to be not true as many
players since have reported seeing him walking, although with a cane.

This story keeps coming up again in unpleasant ways. In the 1963-1964
school year at the University of California at Berkeley, I allowed Tom
Dorsch to rent a room in my apartment at 2119 Carleton Street in
Berkeley. I told Tom the story about how Whitaker and Hartleb had
invited me to travel with them from Virginia to the 1961 US Open in
San Francisco, but I had been afraid to go with them on such a long
trip because I feared that they might be homosexual. I do not know
what perverted reason Tom Dorsch has for doing this, but he has turned
the story around to make it that I was Whitaker's Toy Boy or something
like that. I want to state categorically that this was absolutely not
true. I never went anywhere with Whitaker. I never spent the night in
a hotel room with Whitaker. The only time I was ever even alone with
Whitaker was in 1962 when he drove me from Charlotte, North Carolina
to Petersburg, Virginia, giving me a part-way ride back to Lynchburg.
By the way, I like girls.

Nevertheless, Tom Dorsch brings this up every time I run for election,
which includes right now.

As to the question of whether Whitaker really was homosexual, I have
learned from reading Dr. Hilbert's book that Whitaker had a devoted
wife, so he certainly must have fooled her. Beatrice Ussing Whitaker
(1906-1944) was an exceptionally devoted woman. She was his constant
companion when he traveled the world to play in chess tournaments.
During the long years when Whitaker was in prison, she remained
devoted to him and wrote him often.

Unfortunately, she got an especially horrific case of cancer and
suffered horribly until she died at age 38.

When Whitaker gave me a copy of this book, 365 Selected Endings, he
told me that Hartleb wanted to write another book, but that Whitaker
did not want to do so, because writing a book is a lot of work and
there is little money to be made from it.

As to the book Whitaker gave me, my mother and I have been involved in
litigation with my brother Creighton since 1986. In 1994, my brother
sold my mother's house at 917 Old Trents Ferry Road in Lynchburg
Virginia and had all the contents of the house deposited in the local
trash dump. This included all my chess books. The owner of the Haunted
House Book Store in the Fort Hill section of Lynchburg heard about all
these chess books in the landfill and went to the dump and recovered
them. By the time I found out about this, all the good books had been
sold as used books in his store.

Recently, when I decided to reprint Whitaker's book, I called the
owner of the Haunted House Book Store to see if he knew who had bought
it. He did not know.

I searched the Internet for months and could not find this book for
sale anywhere. Finally, I found a used book dealer in Los Angeles who
had the book. I called him and he said that the book had been found in
the estate of a Latvian man who had died in 2006. I bought the book. I
have been trying ever since to find out the name of that Latvian man,
without success.

Last week, a friend told me that he had found Whitaker's book on sale
at a used bookstore in Virginia! I think that this might turn out to
be the very book that Whitaker gave me. He said that he has ordered
the book and is waiting to receive it.

I am waiting to find out about this and see if this is true.


Sam Sloan
June 2, 2007



  
Date: 27 May 2007 01:33:42
From: Paul Rubin
Subject: Re: Introduction to 365 Selected Chess Endings by Hartleb and Norman T. Whitaker
samsloan <[email protected] > writes:
> Sam Sloan
> June 2, 2007

Besides his chess and political wizardry, Sam Sloan has also
invented the time machine.


 
Date: 26 May 2007 18:30:54
From:
Subject: What's the story with the Sloan slate? Sloan, Jones, Lux and Goodall
Is this the slate (Sloan, Jones, Goodall and Lux) that you will run
with? What about Schultz? Who will leak confidential crap to you now?