The Denker Tournament of High School Champions is a chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

 tournament that occurs annually in the United States alongside the US Open and the Barber Tournament of K-8 Champions. The tournament is named for the founder, Arnold Denker

Arnold Denker

Arnold Sheldon Denker was an American chess player, Grandmaster, and chess author. He was U.S. Chess Champion in 1945 and 1946....

 and is usually referred to as "The Denker".

Qualifying

This chess tournament is by invitation only. Each state affiliate, and Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

, may send only one player. However, if there is an odd number of players the host state may allow another player to compete without winning any prizes.

Each United States Chess Federation

United States Chess Federation

The United States Chess Federation is a non-profit organization, the governing chess organization within the United States, and one of the federations of the FIDE. The USCF was founded in 1939 from the merger of two regional chess organizations, and grew gradually until 1972, when membership...

 sanctioned state affiliate can pick a player to go, using any method they choose. Many state affiliates have chosen to hold one tournament, usually the state championship tournament, as the qualifier. The highest finishing high school player from the high school championship division, is then chosen as the state representative. If no player is chosen, or for some reason cannot attend, the United States Chess Federation will instead contact the highest rated high school players within the state that are eligible to determine if they wish to attend.

Prizes

The tournament has multiple sponsors. University of Texas at Dallas

University of Texas at Dallas

The University of Texas at Dallas, also referred to as UT Dallas or UTD, is a public research university in the University of Texas System. The main campus is in the heart of the Richardson, Texas, Telecom Corridor, north of downtown Dallas...

 provides a full four-year scholarship to the winner. The US Chess Trust also provides scholarship money for the top players; based upon final rank. Mitchell Denker, son of Arnold Denker, provides $100 to meet travel expenses.

Players who are under the age of 16 are also eligible to win another scholarship. The Ursula Foster Scholarship provides $500 to the best finish by a competitor under 16. If there are no players under 16, it goes to the best finish by a player under 17.

Winners

• 1985: Alexander Fishbein
• 1986: Danny Edelman
• 1987: Vivek Rao
• 1988: Vivek Rao, Robby Adamson, Ilya Gurevich
  Ilya Gurevich
  Ilya Gurevich is a Soviet-born American chess grandmaster.He became a chess master at 12 years, 3 months. He was a student at Yeshiva Academy in Worcester, Massachusetts.In 1983, he won the U.S...
  
  
• 1989: Jesse Kraai
  Jesse Kraai
  Jesse Kraai is a chess Grandmaster living in Richmond, CA. Kraai reached GM status in 2007. At that time, he was the first American-born player to achieve the title since Tal Shaked in 1997. In 2007, he won the chess state championship of New Mexico for the fifth consecutive year...
  
  
• 1990: Alex Feldman, Jessie Kraai, Michael Lamon, Mathew Morgan
• 1991: Alan Stein
• 1992: Vadim Tsemekhman
• 1993: Alex Kalikshtyn
• 1994: Dean Ippolito, Josh Manion, Paul Rohwer, Dmitry Zilberstein, Aaron Wenger
• 1995: Charles Gelman
• 1996: John Bick
• 1997: Andrei Zaremba, Andrew Whatley
• 1998: Florin Felecan
• 1999: Andrei Zaremba, Steven Winer
• 2000: David John, John Cole, Matt Hoekstra, Joshua Zilmer
• 2001: Thomas Bartell
• 2002: Bruci Lopez
• 2003: William Aramil, Ryan Milisits
• 2004: Mackenzie Molner, Pieta Garrett
• 2005: Trevor Jackson, Zhi-Ya Hu, Josh Bakker
• 2006: Nelson Lopez
• 2007: Warren Harper
• 2008: Daniel Yeager, Julian Landaw, Scott Low
• 2009: Abby Marshall
  Abby Marshall
  Abby Marshall is a chess player from Columbus, Ohio, USA, who has resided in Virginia, USA since late 2005. She is a Woman FIDE Master and in 2009 won the Denker Tournament of High School Champions, the first female player ever to have attained the title...
  
  
• 2010: Steven Zierk
• 2011: Michael Vilenchuk