ANew York Times, New York, New York Wednesday, July 05, 1972 - Page 34
Mover in Finance and Chess: James Derrick Slater by Bernard Weinraub
London, July 4—Promptly at 10 A.M. a chauffeur-driven Rolls-Royce glides to a halt at a building in the shadow of St. Paul's Cathedral. The car door opens and Jim Slater, a lean, dapper figure steps out quickly to move into a waiting elevator that takes him to his office round of phone calls—to bankers in Hong Kong, Industrialists in South Africa, investors in Australia and, to chess experts in London.
The London phone calls clearly pleased the 43-year-old investment banker. He was assured that Bobby Fischer had finally flown to Iceland for the world championship match against Boris Spassky—a move spurred by Mr. Slater's offer of $125,000 to double the chess purse.
“I'm very delighted that Fischer has accepted my financial offer and I hop that the match will now proceed,” the millionaire said in a statement this morning. “I'm sure it will be a very interesting and exciting championship.”
The subdued words were a sharp contrast to yesterday's comment to Bobby Fischer, who was demanding more money. Mr. Slater said simply: “Fischer has said that money is the problem. “Well, here it is—my message to Fischer is: ‘Come on out and play.’”
Mr. Slater declined to speak to newsmen today, but his associates, who said he would be “tied up all day in conferences,” made clear that the chess-playing investment banker and chairman of Slater Walker Securities was exultant.
This, of course, was before it became known that the much-delayed match had been postponed again, this time because of Spassky.
“He had been waiting for so long for the match to take place and was so disappointed when Fischer didn't show up,” one associate said of Mr. Slater. “When he heard it was because of money, well, he wanted to put Fischer behind the eight ball and prove this was the reason.”
Another associate said of him: “He's absorbed by chess, he loves it. It's an intellectual exercise with him. He very much wanted the match to take place because, he felt, it would give chess a certain status in the world of competitive sports.”
Need for Special Gesture
A friend of Mr. Slater, Leonard Barden, a former British chess champion and a writer who arranged the deal with Mr. Fischer, said:
“This is not a case of a businessman jumping on a well-publicized act. He thought the whole chess world would be disappointed and some special gesture was required. He's a very clear-headed, outgoing person, and if he weren't such a good businessman he'd be a very good professional chess player.”
Although Mr. Slater sometimes manages to fit in a game at lunchtime, and still plays chess by correspondence, his principal activity is, of course, finance. He is known in the City—London's Wall Street—as one of the most razzle-dazzle investment bankers of the last decade.
In eight years, Mr. Slater has turned a mere £2,000 (about $5,000) of savings into an investment banking complex that is valued today at £220-million or $550-million. His personal fortune is estimated at more than $6-million.
“Slater needs Europe, and Europe needs Slater,” The Observer, a Sunday newspaper, said recently. “There is no one on this side of the Channel who has a better grasp of how the Continentals should start restructuring their finance and industry if they are to get the most out of Britain's entry into the Common Market in 1973.”
Early Interest in Game
James Derrick Slater was born March 13, 1929 in the town of Wirral in Cheshire. His father, Hubert, was a local businessman. Young Slater attended state schools, and, by the age of 11, had played his first game of chess. The game fascinated him: As a youngster he played against J.A. Fuller, who became British boys' champion, and later drew against a former British champion, Sir George Thomas.
Only when he started studying accountancy at 16 did he put his set away. “The game was too time-consuming,” Mr. Slater said. (He started playing chess again five years ago, and he usually plays his wife, the former Helen Wyndam-Goodwyn.)
After qualifying as an accountant, Mr. Slater began his career as a secretary with an engineering firm. He was later named director of a truck manufacturing company that eventually became a subsidiary of Leyland Motors, the giant British automotive company.
Set Up Own Concern
Mr. Slater became deputy sales director and the associate of Lord Stokes, now the corporation's chairman. In 1964, with Peter Walker, now Minister for the Environment, Mr. Slater formed Slater Walker Securities, which controls more than 250 companies around the world, and has a large stake in mutual fund companies.
Mr. Slater is somewhat publicity-shy and has, in the past, avoided public hoopla. He and his wife live in a sprawling home in Surrey with their four children, ranging in age from 1 to 7.
Although his surprisingly brief listing in Who's Who mentions gold and table tennis as recreations, the first item listed in clearly the most important: chess.
