May 12 2000
The Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, California, Friday, May 12, 2000
Arthur William Dake; Believed to Be World's Oldest Chess Grandmaster
Arthur William Dake, 90, believed to be the world's oldest chess grandmaster. Dake grew up in Portland, Ore., where he learned chess from a Russian immigrant living in the local YMCA. After high school and stints as a merchant seaman, he settled in New York City in 1929, opening a chess and checkers stand on Coney Island with a leading checkers player named Kenneth Grover. He began to play in tournaments, winning the prestigious Marshall Chess Club championship in 1931. He was subsequently invited to join the U.S. team in the 1931 world team championships in Prague and helped lead the team to victory. He also played on gold-medal-winning American teams in 1933 and 1935. His finest game came when he defeated the sitting world champion, Alexander Alekhine of France, in 1932. He was the first American to beat Alekhine, who ultimately won the tournament. After marrying in 1935, Dake quit chess and went to work for the Department of Motor Vehicles in Portland. He returned to tournament play intermittently from the 1940s through the 1960s and began to compete regularly after his retirement from the DMV in 1973. He was inducted into the United States Chess Federation hall of fame in 1991. On April 28 in Reno, Nev., he died after a night of blackjack, his second-favorite game.
Detroit Free Press, Detroit, Michigan, Friday, May 12, 2000
Detroit Free Press, Detroit, Michigan, Friday, May 12, 2000
Arthur William Dake
Helped U.S. win chess titles
Arthur William Dake, a chess grand master and one of the last of a talented crop of American players who won major competitions before World War II, died April 28 in Reno, Nev. He was 90 and lived in Portland, Oregon.
Mr. Dake had a brilliant although abbreviated career as a chess player. He learned the game at 17, very late for someone who would later become a top player. By the time he was 28, his career was essentially over as family responsibilities compelled him to look for a more stable and better-paying job.
In that short time, however, Mr. Dake had established himself as one of the country's best players, and he helped the American chess team win three world team championships.
Mr. Dake was born on April 8, 1910, in Portland. When he was 16, he went to work as a merchant seaman, sailing to Japan, China and the Philippines. He returned to Oregon in 1927 to go back to high school. He learned to play chess from a Russian immigrant living in a local YMCA. A year later, Mr. Dake again left home to work on a ship, this time returning to New York City in 1929.
The city was a hive of chess activity, and Mr. Dake quickly immersed himself in it. He joined leading checkers player, Kenneth Grover, in setting up a chess and checkers stand in Coney Island, where they took on all comers for 25 cents a game, but their customer base dried up with the stock market crash.
But in 1931, Mr. Dake won the championship of the prestigious Marshall Chess Club. As a result, he was asked to play on the U.S. team in the 1931 world championships in Prague. As No. 3 on the U.S. team, Dake scored five wins, two losses and seven draws, helping lead the United States team to victory.
Mr. Dake also played on U.S. teams that won world championships in Folkestone, England, in 1933 and in Warsaw in 1935. At the 1935 championships, Mr. Dake won 13 games, drew five and lost none, the best result among all the players in the event.
Mr. Dake also had some notable individual successes. He finished third in an international tournament in Pasadena in 1932, behind Alexander Alekhine, the world champion, and Isaac Kashdan, the best American player of the period.
Mr. Dake met his wife, Helen, on an oceanliner coming home from the U.S. team victory in Warsaw in 1935. He wrote years later, she “simply turned around and smiled at me. That's all.” Six weeks later they were married.
