Norman Tweed Whitaker - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Norman Tweed Whitaker was an International Master of chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

. After more than ten years of campaigning, he was awarded the title by FIDE in 1965 (at age 75), based on his earlier play . He was involved in a confidence trick

Confidence trick

A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. A confidence artist is an individual working alone or in concert with others who exploits characteristics of the human psyche such as dishonesty and honesty, vanity, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility,...

involving the Lindbergh kidnapping

Lindbergh kidnapping

The kidnapping of Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr., was the abduction of the son of aviator Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh. The toddler, 18 months old at the time, was abducted from his family home in East Amwell, New Jersey, near the town of Hopewell, New Jersey, on the evening of...

and went to prison several times. He was a lawyer but was disbarred for his criminal offenses. His picture appears on the cover of the December 1969 issue of Chess Life
Chess Life
Chess Life is a monthly chess magazine published in the United States. The official publication of the United States Chess Federation , it reaches more than a quarter of a million readers every month. A subscription to Chess Life is one of the benefits of Full Adult, Youth, or Life membership in...

magazine, which contains an article he wrote about his life.

Early life

Whitaker was taught to play chess by his father at age 14 and learned more watching Harry Nelson Pillsbury

Harry Nelson Pillsbury

Harry Nelson Pillsbury , was a leading chess player. At age 22, he won one of the strongest tournaments of the time , but his illness and early death prevented him from challenging for the World Chess Championship.- Early life :Pillsbury was born in Somerville, Massachusetts, moved to New York City...

play in 1905. By 1918, he was one of the strongest players in the country. He was scheduled to play a match for the U.S. Chess Championship

U.S. Chess Championship

The U.S. Chess Championship is an invitational tournament held to determine the national chess champion of the United States. Since 1936, it has been held under the auspices of the U.S. Chess Federation. Until 1999, the event consisted of a round-robin tournament of varying size...

with Frank Marshall, but did not show up. However, in 1927 he won a twelve player invitational event in Michigan, ahead of Samuel Reshevsky

Samuel Reshevsky

Samuel "Sammy" Herman Reshevsky was a famous chess prodigy and later a leading American chess Grandmaster...

. He was declared champion of the National Chess Federation, a predecessor of the United States Chess Federation

United States Chess Federation

The United States Chess Federation is a non-profit organization, the governing chess organization within the United States, and one of the federations of the FIDE. The USCF was founded in 1939 from the merger of two regional chess organizations, and grew gradually until 1972, when membership...

(USCF). In 1928, while on his honeymoon, he went to The Hague

The Hague

The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...

to play in the Amateur World Championship

2nd Chess Olympiad

The 2nd Chess Olympiad, organized by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between July 21 and August 6, 1928 in The Hague, Netherlands.The final results were as...

(round-robin tournament

Round-robin tournament

A round-robin tournament is a competition "in which each contestant meets all other contestants in turn".-Terminology:...

against the champions of 15 other nations). Despite being in a terrible train wreck which killed nine people and severely injured his wife, he finished 9½ - 5½ and won a prize. The winner was Max Euwe

Max Euwe

Machgielis Euwe was a Dutch chess Grandmaster, mathematician, and author. He was the fifth player to become World Chess Champion . Euwe also served as President of FIDE, the World Chess Federation, from 1970 to 1978.- Early years :Euwe was born in Watergraafsmeer, near Amsterdam...

, who became World Chess Champion seven years later.

Whitaker graduated with a Bachelor's degree

Bachelor's degree

A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...

from the University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...

and a law degree

Law degree

A Law degree is an academic degree conferred for studies in law. Such degrees are generally preparation for legal careers; but while their curricula may be reviewed by legal authority, they do not themselves confer a license...

from Georgetown University

Georgetown University

Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...

. He served for a time in the United States government as an Assistant Secretary of the Interior, in 1922. However, he was soon thereafter disbarred from the practice of law

Practice of law

In its most general sense, the practice of law involves giving legal advice to clients, drafting legal documents for clients, and representing clients in legal negotiations and court proceedings such as lawsuits, and is applied to the professional services of a lawyer or attorney at law, barrister,...

. He was convicted of several crimes, including auto theft, sending morphine

Morphine

Morphine is a potent opiate analgesic medication and is considered to be the prototypical opioid. It was first isolated in 1804 by Friedrich Sertürner, first distributed by same in 1817, and first commercially sold by Merck in 1827, which at the time was a single small chemists' shop. It was more...

through the mail, and sexual molestation

Sexual abuse

Sexual abuse, also referred to as molestation, is the forcing of undesired sexual behavior by one person upon another. When that force is immediate, of short duration, or infrequent, it is called sexual assault. The offender is referred to as a sexual abuser or molester...

of a minor. He often brought suit for false arrest

False arrest

False arrest is a common law tort, where a plaintiff alleges they were held in custody without probable cause, or without an order issued by a court of competent jurisdiction...

Lindbergh case and prison

In 1932 Whitaker gained notoriety during the Lindbergh kidnapping

Lindbergh kidnapping

. A former FBI Agent named Gaston Means

Gaston Means

Gaston Bullock Means was an American private detective, salesman, bootlegger, forger, swindler, murder suspect, blackmailer, and con artist....

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. What Whitaker was really convicted of was "attempted" extortion . He 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, he 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 time at several prisons, including Alcatraz, where he befriended the notorious Al Capone

Al Capone

Alphonse Gabriel "Al" Capone was an American gangster who led a Prohibition-era crime syndicate. The Chicago Outfit, which subsequently became known as the "Capones", was dedicated to smuggling and bootlegging liquor, and other illegal activities such as prostitution, in Chicago from the early...

. They had a falling out in 1936 when Capone refused to join in Whitaker's prison strike

Prison strike

A prison strike is a strike taking place inside a prison, involving either a hunger strike or a prison work strike. The California Code of Regulations states that "[p]articipation in a strike or work stoppage", "[r]efusal to perform work or participate in a program as ordered or assigned", and...

, but reconciled later on.

After his parole, Whitaker again became a full-time chess player. For several years he was one of the most active players in America and Europe. He played in many US Opens

U.S. Open Chess Championship

The U.S. Open Championship is an open national chess championship that has been held in the United States annually since 1900.-History:Through 1938, the tournaments were organized by the Western Chess Association and its successor, the American Chess Federation .The United States Chess Federation ...

with good results, tying for first in 1923 and 1930. However, he could only manage to finish 16th out of 20 in the 1948 U.S. Chess Championship

U.S. Chess Championship

in South Fallsburg, New York

South Fallsburg, New York

South Fallsburg is a hamlet in Sullivan County, New York, United States. The population was 2,061 at the 2000 census and 2,121 according to a 2007 estimate.South Fallsburg is located within the town of Fallsburg on Route 42....

.

Whitaker was skillful at resetting car odometers with a screwdriver. He supplemented his income with this and other confidence trick

Confidence trick

s .

Rating

Professor Arpad Elo

Árpád Élo

Arpad Emrick Elo is the creator of the Elo rating system for two-player games such as chess. Born in Egyházaskesző, Austro-Hungarian Empire, he moved to the United States with his parents as a child in 1913.Elo was a professor of physics at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was...

gave Whitaker a rating

Elo rating system

The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in two-player games such as chess. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-born American physics professor....

of 2420 in his authoritative work The Rating of Chess Players, Past and Present. Chessmetrics

Chessmetrics

Chessmetrics is a system for rating chess players devised by Jeff Sonas. It is intended as an improvement over the Elo rating system.-Implementation:...

gives him a peak rating of 2568 in 1928 and shows him as No. 25 in the world in 1918. In his later years he was usually listed by the USCF as a Master Emeritus, but in January 1972 (at age 81) Chess Life
Chess Life
Chess Life is a monthly chess magazine published in the United States. The official publication of the United States Chess Federation , it reaches more than a quarter of a million readers every month. A subscription to Chess Life is one of the benefits of Full Adult, Youth, or Life membership in...

listed his rating as 2142.

Later years

The last years of his life were spent driving around the country in his Volkswagen Beetle

Volkswagen Beetle

The Volkswagen Type 1, widely known as the Volkswagen Beetle or Volkswagen Bug, is an economy car produced by the German auto maker Volkswagen from 1938 until 2003...

playing in weak tournaments he could win in the South. In 1961, he was involved in a serious automobile accident in Arkansas

Arkansas

Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...

in which his friend Glenn Hartleb was killed, but Whitaker still continued to compete actively until his death in 1975 .

Books

365 Ausgewählte Endspiele: Eines Für Jeden Tag Im Jahr (Deutsch) 365 Selected Endings: One For Each Day of the Year (English) by Norman T. Whitaker and Glenn E. Hartleb (1960) ISBN 0-923891-84-6

External links

Official FBI Story about Norman T. Whitaker
The Chess Games of Norman Tweed Whitaker
http://www.jeremysilman.com/book_reviews_jd/jd_shady_side.html

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