<> ARNOLD Denker, a former United States chess champion who also had some spectacular setbacks at the chess board and later chronicled the lives of some of the game’s most colourful characters, died on Sunday. He was 90.
Denker was part of the best crop of players the US ever produced. From the late 1920s through the beginning of the Second World War, Denker, along with others, led the US to four consecutive world team championships.
Denker was of the romantic school of chess - always looking to attack. Al Horowitz, a top American player, wrote of Denker: "He can handle an attack with a fertility of ideas and a richness of imagination that are rare. Yet he frequently tries to attack where defence is necessary or where the position does not warrant aggressive tactics."
After winning the US championship in 1944, Denker was asked to lead the US team in its first radio match against the Soviet Union. It was a disaster. The match, in September 1945, was intended to foster better relations in the dawning months of the Cold War. The US team was favoured. Denker played against the Soviet champion Mikhail Botvinnik. He quickly lost both his games, and the US team lost the match by a score of 15.5 to 4.5. Later, Botvinnik became world champion, and it became clear that the Soviet players were better.
In 1981, Denker was awarded the title of grandmaster. This belated recognition ended up having a gray lining. In 1988, Denker became the first grandmaster to lose to a computer, called Hitech.
Despite such setbacks, Denker relished his chess career. He wrote two books. One, titled If You Must Play Chess (1947), was a collection of his best games. The other, The Bobby Fischer I Knew and Other Stories (1995), written with Larry Parr, documented many of his experiences and the people he met.
Arnold Sheldon Denker was born in 1914, in the Bronx. He learned chess by watching his older brothers play. He began playing against a neighbour and, soon, against the neighbour’s nephew, Irving Chernov, a master. Denker joined the Manhattan Chess Club in 1928.
In was an auspicious time to plunge into the New York City chess scene. American chess was entering its heyday, and the city was the epicentre of activity. With the Depression descending, young players were forced to live by their wits and that usually meant hustling games.
At one point, Denker and Horowitz shared a room in a hotel managed by a fellow member of the Manhattan Chess Club who let them stay without paying rent. During the day, Denker and Horowitz would hustle games, and whoever came home with a few quarters would buy dinner.
Denker enjoyed being a full-time chess player, but family responsibilities intervened. In 1936, the violinist Max Rosen, a member of the Manhattan Chess Club, introduced him to Nina Simmons, whom he soon married. He got a job in a meat-packing company, but continued to play in tournaments on weekends. By 1948, when the couple had two children, he decided he could no longer play even that regularly.
A friend of his owned a meat-packing company and offered Denker a job. When the friend died, Denker took over and found that he had a knack for business. "We were doing $900,000 a year in sales when I got there," he said. "We were doing $38 million when I left." That was 26 years later, in 1974.
He began playing competitive chess again in 1971, tying for seventh place in the US Open. He continued to play in tournaments into his 80s, tying for sixth place at the United States Open in 1995.
He organised and sponsored a tournament of high school champions in 1984. The tournament, named after him, became an annual event.
In 1992, the US Chess Federation inducted Denker into its hall of fame. Last year, the federation gave him the title of Dean of American Chess. He was the third person to receive this title.
Denker’s wife died in 1993. He is survived by two sons, a daughter and three grandchildren.