Arnold Sheldon Denker, a U.S. chess champion, author and philanthropist, died on Jan. 2 of brain cancer. He was 90.
The native New Yorker began playing chess in high school. He was only 15 when he won his first citywide championship and his first of six championships at the Manhattan Chess Club. After graduating from New York University, Denker gave exhibitions on military bases and aboard aircraft carriers during World War II. He won the 1944 U.S. Championship with a score of 15