Arnold Sheldon Denker (February 21, 1914 – January 2, 2005) was an American
chess
Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...
player and author. He was U.S. champion in 1944 and 1946. In later years he served in various chess organizations, receiving recognition from the
United States Chess Federation
The United States Chess Federation (also known as US Chess or USCF) is the governing body for chess competition in the United States and represents the U.S. in FIDE, The World Chess Federation (FIDE). USCF administers the official national Chess ...
, including in 2004 the highest honor, "Dean of American Chess".
Rising star
Denker was born on February 21, 1914, in
the Bronx
The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...
, New York City,
in an Orthodox Jewish family. According to Denker himself, he learned chess in 1923 watching his elder brothers play, but took up the game seriously only in his freshman year in
Theodore Roosevelt High School, where his schoolmates played for a nickel a game in the cafeteria. After steadily losing his milk money for a long time, Denker discovered former world chess champion
Emanuel Lasker
Emanuel Lasker (; December 24, 1868 – January 11, 1941) was a German chess player, mathematician, and philosopher. He was the second World Chess Champion, holding the title for 27 years, from 1894 to 1921, the longest reign of any officially ...
's book ''Common Sense in Chess'' in the school library, studied the book, and soon "the nickels came pouring back with interest".
Denker was a promising
boxer Boxer most commonly refers to:
*Boxer (boxing), a competitor in the sport of boxing
* Boxer (dog), a breed of dog
Boxer or boxers may also refer to:
Animal kingdom
* Boxer crab
* Boxer shrimp, a small group of decapod crustaceans
* Boxer snipe ee ...
in his early years. He first gained attention in chess by winning the New York City individual interscholastic championship in 1929 at age 15. In the next decade he established himself as a leading rival to
Samuel Reshevsky
Samuel Herman Reshevsky (born Szmul Rzeszewski; November 26, 1911 – April 4, 1992) was a Polish chess prodigy and later a leading American chess grandmaster. He was a contender for the World Chess Championship from the mid 1930s to the late 1 ...
,
Reuben Fine
Reuben C. Fine (October 11, 1914 – March 26, 1993) was an American chess player, psychologist, university professor, and author of many books on both chess and psychology. He was one of the strongest chess players in the world from the mi ...
, and
Isaac Kashdan
Isaac Kashdan (November 19, 1905, in New York City – February 20, 1985, in Los Angeles) was an American chess grandmaster and chess writer. He was twice U.S. Open champion (1938, 1947). He played five times for the United States in chess Oly ...
as the strongest U.S. chess player. His first really strong international event was
Syracuse, New York
Syracuse ( ) is a City (New York), city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States. With a population of 148,620 and a Syracuse metropolitan area, metropolitan area of 662,057, it is the fifth-most populated city and 13 ...
1934, where Reshevsky won convincingly, with Denker placing just behind him.
In 1940 Denker won the first of his six
Manhattan Chess Club
The Manhattan Chess Club in Manhattan, New York City was the second-oldest chess club in the United States (next to the Mechanics' Institute Chess Club in San Francisco) before it closed. The club was founded in 1877 and started with three dozen m ...
championships. He became
U.S. Champion in 1944,
winning fourteen games (including one against Fine), drawing three, and losing none. Denker called his win over Fine from this event 'the game of my life'. (This 91% score was the best winning percentage in U.S. Championship history until
Bobby Fischer
Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943January 17, 2008) was an American Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Chess Champi ...
scored 11–0 in 1963–64.) Denker successfully defended his U.S. title in a 1946 challenge match against
Herman Steiner
Herman Steiner (April 15, 1905 – November 25, 1955) was an American chess player, organizer, and columnist.
He won the U.S. Chess Championship in 1948 and became International Master in 1950.
Even more important than his playing career were h ...
, winning 6–4 at
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
.
He became an
International Master
FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...
in 1950 (the year the title was first awarded by
FIDE
The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( , ), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national chess federations and acts as the Spor ...
).
World War II years
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
Denker played exhibitions at army bases and aboard
aircraft carriers
An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and hangar facilities for supporting, arming, deploying and recovering shipborne aircraft. Typically it is the capital ship of a fl ...
. In 1945, as U.S. champion, he played on board one in the
US vs USSR radio match, losing both games to
Mikhail Botvinnik
Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik (; ; – May 5, 1995) was a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster who held five world titles in three different reigns. The sixth World Chess Champion, he also worked as an electrical engineer and computer sci ...
, and in 1946 travelled to Moscow for the return match, losing both games against
Vasily Smyslov
Vasily Vasilyevich Smyslov (; 24 March 1921 – 27 March 2010) was a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster who was the seventh World Chess Champion from 1957 to 1958. He was a Candidates Tournament, Candidate for the World Chess Championship on ...
.
Also in 1946, he played at the very strong
Groningen
Groningen ( , ; ; or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen (province), Groningen province in the Netherlands. Dubbed the "capital of the north", Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of ...
tournament, the first major event following World War II, scoring 9.5 out of 19 and securing draws against Botvinnik and Smyslov, and losing after achieving a winning position against
Max Euwe
Machgielis "Max" Euwe (; May 20, 1901 – November 26, 1981) was a Dutch chess player, mathematician, author, and chess administrator. He was the fifth player to become World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion, a title he held from 1935 ...
.
David Hooper and
Ken Whyld
Kenneth Whyld (6 March 1926 – 11 July 2003) was a British chess author and researcher, best known as the co-author (with David Hooper) of ''The Oxford Companion to Chess'', a single-volume chess reference work in English.
Whyld was a st ...
note that Denker may have been unfortunate in that his best years came during World War II, when very little competitive chess was being played .
In 1947 Denker produced an autobiographical game collection in his book: ''If You Must Play Chess''.
Denker was never a full-time professional player. His peak results were scored from 1940 to 1947, in U.S. Championships and on his trips to Europe for tournaments at London, Hastings and Groningen. International ratings were introduced by FIDE only in 1970, more than a generation after Denker's best years. The website
chessmetrics
Chessmetrics is a system for rating chess players devised by Jeff Sonas. It is intended as an improvement over the Elo and Edo rating systems.
Implementation
Chessmetrics is a weighted average of past performance. The score considers a player's ...
.com retrospectively places Denker as high as 27th in the world in the mid 1940s,
but this site is missing several of Denker's most important results.
Later life
In 1981 FIDE made Denker an honorary
Grandmaster.
In later years, he was an important chess organizer, serving on the boards of the American Chess Foundation, the
United States Chess Federation
The United States Chess Federation (also known as US Chess or USCF) is the governing body for chess competition in the United States and represents the U.S. in FIDE, The World Chess Federation (FIDE). USCF administers the official national Chess ...
(USCF), and the U.S. Chess Trust – the driving force behind the prestigious
Denker Tournament of High School Champions (named in his honor).
He also served as a FIDE official. Denker also continued to play chess,
though at well below his earlier strength. (His last FIDE
rating
A rating is an evaluation or assessment of something, in terms of a metric (e.g. quality, quantity, a combination of both,...).
Rating or rating system may also refer to:
Business and economics
* Credit rating, estimating the credit worthiness ...
was 2293.) He wrote many chess articles and in 1995 the book: ''The Bobby Fischer I Knew and Other Stories'' (co-authored by
Larry Parr; Hypermodern Press).
In 1992 Denker was inducted into the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame. He received America's highest chess honor on June 11, 2004, when he became only the third person to be proclaimed "Dean of American Chess" by the USCF.
A graduate of
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
, he married the former Nina Simmons in 1936, a marriage lasting 57 years until her death in 1993.
They had three children: Richard, Mitchell and Randie.
Denker died of brain cancer on January 2, 2005, in
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Fort Lauderdale ( ) is a coastal city located in the U.S. state of Florida, north of Miami along the Atlantic Ocean. It is the county seat of and most populous city in Broward County, Florida, Broward County with a population of 182,760 at the ...
.
Sample game
The following is Denker's favorite game, a
brilliancy he played at age 15:
Denker–Feit, New York 1929
Dutch Defense
The Dutch Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves:
: 1. d4 f5
Black's 1...f5 stakes a claim to the e4-square and envisions an attack in the middlegame on White's ; however, it also weakens Black's kingside to some extent, especi ...
1. d4 f5 2. Nf3 e6 3. g3 b6 4. Bg2 Bb7 5. 0-0 Nf6 6. c4 Be7 7. Nc3 d6 8. d5 e5 9. Ng5 Bc8 10. e4 0-0 11. f4 exf4 12. Bxf4 fxe4 13. Ncxe4 Nxe4 14. Bxe4 Bxg5 15. Qh5 Rxf4 16. Qxh7+ Kf7 17. Bg6+ Kf6 18. Rxf4+ Bxf4 19. Qh4+ Bg5 20. Qe4 Be3+ 21. Kh1 Bh3 22. Rf1+ Kg5 23. Bh7 1-0
Books
*''If You Must Play Chess'', by Arnold Denker, David McKay Co, 1947.
*''The Bobby Fischer I Knew and Other Stories'', by Arnold Denker and Larry Parr,
San Francisco
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
, Hypermodern Press, 1995, .
See also
*
List of Jewish chess players
Jewish players and theoreticians have long been involved in the game of chess and have significantly contributed to the development of chess. Chess gained popularity amongst Jews in the 12th century. The game was privileged by dis ...
Notes
References
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External links
*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Denker, Arnold
1914 births
2005 deaths
American autobiographers
American chess writers
American male non-fiction writers
Chess Grandmasters
Deaths from brain cancer in Florida
Jewish chess players
20th-century American Jews
Writers from New York City
Writers from Fort Lauderdale, Florida
New York University alumni
20th-century American chess players
20th-century American male writers
21st-century American Jews
Sportspeople from Fort Lauderdale, Florida