Arnold Denker
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Arnold Sheldon Denker (February 21, 1914 – January 2, 2005) was an American
chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...
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. US Chess administers the official national rating ...
, 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 a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
, 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 who was World Chess Champion for 27 years, from 1894 to 1921, the longest reign of any officially recognised World Chess Champ ...
'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 mid-1960 ...
,
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 Olymp ...
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, Onondaga County, New York, United States. It is the fifth-most populous city in the state of New York following New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffa ...
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 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 men, eventually ...
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 chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Championships at the age of 14. In 1964, he won with an 1 ...
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 his ...
, winning 6–4 at
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. 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 ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...
).


World War II years

During
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
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 facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a n ...
. In 1945, as U.S. champion, he played on board one in the USA vs USSR radio match, losing both games to
Mikhail Botvinnik Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik, ( – May 5, 1995) was a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster. The sixth World Chess Champion, he also worked as an electrical engineer and computer scientist and was a pioneer in computer chess. Botvinnik ...
, and in 1946 travelled to Moscow for the return match, losing both games against
Vasily Smyslov Vasily Vasilyevich Smyslov ( rus, Васи́лий Васи́льевич Смысло́в, Vasíliy Vasíl'yevich Smyslóv; 24 March 1921 – 27 March 2010) was a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster, who was World Chess Champion from 1957 to ...
. Also in 1946, he played at the very strong
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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 Champion, a title he held from 1935 until 1937. He served as ...
. 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 str ...
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 rating system. Implementation Chessmetrics is a weighted average of past performance. The score considers a player's win percen ...
.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. US Chess administers the official national rating ...
(USCF), and the U.S. Chess Trust – the driving force behind the prestigious
Denker Tournament of High School Champions The Denker Tournament of High School Champions is a chess tournament that occurs annually in the United States alongside the US Open, Dewain Barber National Tournament of Middle School State Champions, IM Ruth Haring National Tournament of Girls St ...
(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 quality, quantity, or some combination of both. Rating or ratings may also refer to: Business and economics * Credit rating, estimating the credit worthiness of an individual, c ...
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 research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...
, 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 largest city in Broward County with a population of 182,760 at the 2020 census, making it the tenth ...
.


Sample game

The following is Denker's favorite game, a brilliancy he played at age 15: Denker–Feit, New York 1929 Dutch Defense
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 (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
, Hypermodern Press, 1995, .


See also

*
List of Jewish chess players Jews, Jewish players and Chess theory, theoreticians have long been involved in the game of chess and have significantly contributed to the development of chess, which has been described as the "Jewish National game". Chess gained po ...


Notes


References

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External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Denker, Arnold 1914 births 2005 deaths American autobiographers American chess players American chess writers American male non-fiction writers Chess grandmasters Deaths from brain cancer in the United States Jewish chess players 20th-century American Jews Writers from New York City Writers from Fort Lauderdale, Florida New York University alumni 20th-century chess players 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American Jews