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| Dec-26-04 |
| centercounter: I played him for the first time back in the mid-eighties (and got slaughtered). The thing that I remember about GM Arnold Denker is that once you meet him, you feel the aura of greatness, but GM Denker had a way of encouraging you, joking, and making you forget any apprehension. As a matter of fact, after my loss to Denker, I proceeded (as an 1800 then), on the strength of his encouragement, to play an excellent draw against a Master in the last round. It is my prayer that he gets better, but if he doesn't, that there is as little suffering as possible. I don't know the story about the title. I do know that the USCF (and FIDE) has awarded titles to recognize significant accomplishment (i.e. GM performance) prior to titles and modern ratings. GM Dake also earned the GM title in this manner (http://www.chesslinks.org/hof/dake....). |
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| Dec-27-04 |
| chesswhizkid: <MidnightDuffer: You're wandering about that? ? Are you really a whitkid?? Just registered??> What are you trying to say? If you are so smart, why don't you know the answer? And by the way, its wOnder, not wAnder. WONDER = to contemplate. WANDER = to roam around. And what the hell is a whit kid? The "t" is nowhere near the "z" on the keyboard, so dont tell me it's a typo for whiz kid. |
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Dec-27-04
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| Benzol: Arnold Sheldon Denker
Born 21st February 1914 in New York
Awarded the IM title in 1950 and the Emeritus GM title in 1981. He was US Champion in 1944.
I'm deeply saddened to hear that he's terminally ill. My best wishes to his family. |
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| Jan-02-05 |
| Phoenix: TWIC is reporting the death of Arnold Denker.
http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/twi...
Too sad. |
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| Jan-02-05 |
| MidnightDuffer: He appeared to have a long healthy life; my condolences to his family. |
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Jan-02-05
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| Joshka: What a gent and classy guy GM Denker was. My sincere best wishes to his family. I feel so fortunate to have been able to spend a little while conversing with this extraordinary individual. I'm sure he will be missed by everyone who knew him well. |
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Jan-04-05
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| cu8sfan: I just heard of his death. My condolences to his family. Good bye, <Thinker>, what a great name for a chess player! |
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| Jan-10-05 |
| Ryan49: I last played Denker in 2002 at a team tournament. He played a Petroff and I traded most of the pieces off and we agreed to a draw. Later he told me he had never played the Petroff before in his life. I was thinking to myself " What balls ! " He was always a gentleman and had great chess stories from old times to tell. I will truly miss him. |
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Jan-11-05
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| chessgames.com: I last saw him at the US Open in Ft. Lauderdale last August, when the photograph above was taken. He was speaking to some people in the hall about a book that he was writing. He was very affable, and sharp as a tack. |
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Jan-11-05
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| IMlday: I lost to him at Lone Pine once. A very friendly fellow and full of great stories from the past. He told me about a department store in NY that rented its display windows to chessmasters during the depression--they weren't doing business anyway. Passersby could play some very strong players for dimes. Once he had Capablanca and Reshevsky in adjacent windows. Humphrey Bogart made some of his fare to Hollywood there.
As I recall Denker's 15.5-1.5 1944 US Closed result was the best percentage until Fischer's 100% in 1964. He was ahead of Fine, considered one of the top ten players then. FIDE's early GM titles were all subject to Soviet political considerations. Obviously finishing even at Groningen made Denker one of the top 50 in the world
when the first GM's were nominated.
After 1946 he got a real job (not boxing or chess) but loved to play for the fun of it. |
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| Feb-21-06 |
| BIDMONFA: Arnold Denker DENKER, Arnold S.
History EU Championships
http://www.bidmonfa.com/campionats_...
_ |
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| Feb-21-07 |
| WTHarvey: Here are some of Denker's winning OTB combinations: http://www.wtharvey.com/denk.html |
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Feb-21-07
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| Marmot PFL: The U.S. doesn't seem to get players like Denker any more (except by immigration). In the '30s it was the dominant chess nation in each Olynpiad with Reshevsky, Fine, Denker, Kashdan, Horowitz etc. Now even the big Fischer boom generation has mostly left the game to get real jobs. The US is #4 by ratings of its top players, but of the top 15 US players, none were born here. I have no problem with that (not anti-immigrant) other than to wonder why the US can't seem to produce any players. |
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| Feb-21-07 |
| pokemaster: Marmot:
the best trainer the US has to offer is bruce pandolfini, whose uscf is probably around 1300 |
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Feb-21-07
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| Caissanist: Perhaps the most important difference between the thirties and now is that New York City has become too gentrified to nurture world class players the way it did for most of the last century. Except for a few years in the seventies, any American who wants to reach the very highest levels has always had to move to either New York or Europe. |
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Mar-27-08
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| Knight13: This is the same guy the Denker High School Championship or whatever that tournament's called is named after, right? |
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| Mar-27-08 |
| RookFile: Wow. I guess we're at the point now where people aren't sure who Arnold Denker was. Time flies. |
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Mar-27-08
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| Knight13: <RookFile> what do you mean? |
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Jul-04-08
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| Infohunter: I met Denker at the U.S. Open in Pasadena, California, in 1983 (I was a spectator, not a contestant). He autographed my copy of his book, _My Best Chess Games, 1929-1976_. He was most affable, even fresh from a loss to a young Joel Benjamin. I remember telling him that my favorite game in his book was Denker vs Fine, 1944. He told me that this was Smyslov's favorite in the collection as well. Gone but not forgotten. |
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| Jul-04-08 |
| eternaloptimist: He was the former dean of American chess & truly a legend. I've only heard positive statements made about him. He has quite a legacy. |
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| Jul-15-08 |
| myschkin: Arnold Denker, Chess Champ and Benefactor
(Audio by Madeleine Brand)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/... |
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| Feb-06-09 |
| jerseybob: I've heard of the 1946 Denker-Steiner match - though none of the games are in this database - but how could that have been for the title? There was an actual honest-to-goodness TOURNEY played in 1946 won by Reshevsky. |
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| Feb-07-09 |
| AnalyzeThis: Denker vs. Steiner apparently happenned first, with Denker defending his title, then for some reason they switched back to the tournament format, which Reshevsky won. Apparently, had Steiner won the match against Denker that year, he would have been US champion for about 15 minutes. |
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Feb-07-09
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| Phony Benoni: Well, more like five months; the match was played from May 18-June 1, the tournament from October 26-November 17.
Denker, in his book <If You Must Play Chess>, definitely describes it as a championship match. Apparently, the champion had the right to accept challenges in match play between the biennial tournaments. Reshevsky won a similar match against Horowitz in 1941. I'm just guessing, but it's possible the tournaments were arranged just to be sure there would be championship competition after Marshall held the title for 27 years (1909-1936) and defended it only once (Edward Lasker, 1923). |
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| Feb-21-09 |
| WhiteRook48: I have not heard of this player before |
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