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., after a night of blackjack, his second-favorite game.