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Article Number
LXHILSS

Shady Sides

481 pages, clothbound with jacket, Caissa Editions, 2000

€47.95
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Discontinued
What makes a man go bad? What compels the son of a respected, middleclass, high school principal, a graduate of three law schools, a federal patent attorney, to turn to crime? What makes the most promising young chess player of his generation steal cars, sell narcotics, hoodwink hundreds, blackmail celebreties, and do much, much worse?

Norman Tweed Whitaker, born to a good family, esteemed by teachers, fellow chess players, and almost everyone and almost everyone who knew him as a young man, simply could not walk a straight line through life. And the crooked line he did walk is admirably brought to life for the first time in John S. Hilbert's biography, Shady Side: The Life and Crimes of Norman Tweed Whitaker, Chess Master.

Whitaker lived a long and tortured life, moving from his parent's home in Philadelphia, where he was born in 1890, through a series of successes and damnations that would have tried the soul of many a less talented mortal. Along the way he encountered the likes of Charles Lindbergh, j. Edgar Hoover, Barbara Hutton, Major General Lucius D. Clay, and many others, not to mention Cuban world chess champion José Raúl Capablanca as well as a young Bobby Fischer, with whom Whitaker toured - playing first board during team chess matches ahead of Fischer's second! And far from the warmth of his childhood home, Whitaker learned lessons the hard way, at Leavenworth, Alcatraz, and a host of other federal and state penitentiaries.

Calling upon a treasure trove of thousands of personal letters, court papers, and chess scores discovered after Whitaker's death in 1975, Hilbert has meticulously pieced together the saga of this off-again, on-again chess champion, seducer, con artist, husband and criminal. A man of strong emotions, Whitaker in life could be the best of friends or the worst of enemies. In death he has become the subject of a compelling tale that winds its way throughout the world, a tale composed of love, hate, greed, deception and creative struggle, all intertwined, all brought back to life here, in Shady Side.

Although the heart of the book is the biography, for the specialist Hilbert has presented 570 of Whitaker's chess games, including his victories over some of the greatest players in the game's history.

What makes a man go bad? What compels the son of a respected, middleclass, high school principal, a graduate of three law schools, a federal patent attorney, to turn to crime? What makes the most promising young chess player of his generation steal cars, sell narcotics, hoodwink hundreds, blackmail celebreties, and do much, much worse?

Norman Tweed Whitaker, born to a good family, esteemed by teachers, fellow chess players, and almost everyone and almost everyone who knew him as a young man, simply could not walk a straight line through life. And the crooked line he did walk is admirably brought to life for the first time in John S. Hilbert's biography, Shady Side: The Life and Crimes of Norman Tweed Whitaker, Chess Master.

Whitaker lived a long and tortured life, moving from his parent's home in Philadelphia, where he was born in 1890, through a series of successes and damnations that would have tried the soul of many a less talented mortal. Along the way he encountered the likes of Charles Lindbergh, j. Edgar Hoover, Barbara Hutton, Major General Lucius D. Clay, and many others, not to mention Cuban world chess champion José Raúl Capablanca as well as a young Bobby Fischer, with whom Whitaker toured - playing first board during team chess matches ahead of Fischer's second! And far from the warmth of his childhood home, Whitaker learned lessons the hard way, at Leavenworth, Alcatraz, and a host of other federal and state penitentiaries.

Calling upon a treasure trove of thousands of personal letters, court papers, and chess scores discovered after Whitaker's death in 1975, Hilbert has meticulously pieced together the saga of this off-again, on-again chess champion, seducer, con artist, husband and criminal. A man of strong emotions, Whitaker in life could be the best of friends or the worst of enemies. In death he has become the subject of a compelling tale that winds its way throughout the world, a tale composed of love, hate, greed, deception and creative struggle, all intertwined, all brought back to life here, in Shady Side.

Although the heart of the book is the biography, for the specialist Hilbert has presented 570 of Whitaker's chess games, including his victories over some of the greatest players in the game's history.
More Information
EAN 0939433575
Weight 940 g
Manufacturer Caissa Editions
Width 16 cm
Height 23.7 cm
Medium Book
Year of Publication 2000
Author John S. Hilbert
Language English
ISBN-10 0939433575
Pages 481
Binding clothbound with jacket
i Introduction
iv Table of Contents

Section 1 Biography
001 Chapter 1 Youth and Early Success (1890-1909)
017 Chapter 2 Venom in the City of Brotherly Love (1910)
036 Chapter 3 From Washington to the Boardwalk (1911-1921)
061 Chapter 4 Crime and Punishment (1921-1925)
078 Chapter 5 Leavenworth (1925-1927)
096 Chapter 6 Life Between Prisons (1927-1931)
114 Chapter 7 The Lindbergh Scam (1932-1935)
133 Chapter 8 Alcatraz and the Dark Years (1935-1946)
156 Chapter 9 Whitaker's Cold War of Chess (1947-1949)
175 Chapter 10 Sex, Lies and Endless Red Tape (1949-1951)
190 Chapter 11 The Rating Game (1951-1953)
212 Chapter 12 Of Politics and Power (1953-1954)
227 Chapter 13 Whitaker vs. USCF, et al. (1954-1957)
247 Chapter 14 The Sweetness of Revenge (1957-1961)
266 Chapter 15 Recovery, Lurid Books, and Sugared Looks (1961-1968)
281 Chapter 16 "Sixty-five Years in American Chess," and More:
The Final Years (1968-1975)

Section 2 Recollections
298 Chapter 17 Whitaker: The River of Recollection
319 Chapter 18 My Recollections of Norman T. Whitaker
by Dale Brandreth

Section 3 Games
323 Chapter 19 Selected Games
338 Chapter 20 Whitaker's Collected Games (Including
Dale Brandreth's essay, "A Brief Survey of
Whitaker's Games and Chess Style")

Appendixes and Indexes
470 Whitaker's Major Tournament and Match Results
471 Chronology of Major Events in Whitaker's Life
472 Glossary of Major Figures in Whitaker's Life
476 Index of Opponents
480 Index of Openings