Арнольд Денкер: Америкалық шахмат шеберінің өмірі мен жолы

American chess player

Arnold Sheldon Denker (February 21, 1914 – January 2, 2005) was an American chess 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, including in 2004 the highest honor, "Dean of American Chess".

Denker was born on February 21, 1914, in the Bronx, 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'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 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, Reuben Fine, and Isaac Kashdan as the strongest U. S. chess player. His first really strong international event was Syracuse, New York 1934, where Reshevsky won convincingly, with Denker placing just behind him. In 1940 Denker won the first of his six Manhattan Chess Club championships. He became U. S. Champion in 1944,

He became an International Master in 1950 (the year the title was first awarded by FIDE).

During World War II Denker played exhibitions at army bases and aboard aircraft carriers. In 1945, as U. S. champion, he played on board one in the US vs USSR radio match, losing both games to Mikhail Botvinnik, and in 1946 travelled to Moscow for the return match, losing both games against Vasily Smyslov. but this site is missing several of Denker's most important results.

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 (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 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, 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.