Rising Star
Denker was born on February 20, 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 cafetaria. 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.
In 1940 Denker won the first of his six Manhattan Chess Club championships. He became U.S. Champion in 1944, winning fourteen games (including one against Fine), drawing three, and losing none. (This 91 percent score was the best winning percentage in U.S. Championship history until Bobby Fischer scored 11–0 in 1963–64.) Denker successfully defended his U.S. title in a 1946 match against Herman Steiner, winning 6–4 at Los Angeles.
He became an International Master in 1950 (the year the title was first awarded by FIDE).
Read more about this topic: Arnold Denker
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