Samuel Herman Reshevsky was a Polish chess prodigy born on November 26, 1911. He immigrantly moved to the United States at the age of 9. He was musical but his true gift was with chess. By age 8, he was giving simultaneous exhibitions and his family soon decided to exhibit his talent on an international stage.
Reshevsky struggled financially during the depression and as a result, he shifted his focus from chess to academics until he earned an accounting degree. Throughout his career, he continually declined full-time professional chess, prioritizing his accounting profession, but he was an occasional chess writer.
Reshevsky won the U.S. Championship in 1936 which marked the start of a 20-year rivalry with Reuben Fine. Reshevsky also won at Margate 1935 over the World Champion Euwe, and at Kemeri 1937.
His peak was probably the period from 1946 to 1956, when he played five matches against the world's top players. He was a serious contender for the World Chess Championship from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s, and was a candidate for the title on multiple occasions, throughout 1950, 1953, 1956, and 1968.
The largest drawback of Reshevsky's chess career was his inability to devote his time totally to the game. He was a very religious Orthodox Jew and would not play on the Jewish Sabbath. Despite this, his contributions and feats in chess have made him a prominent figure in the chess world.
Reshevsky participated in every U.S. Championship held during his adult life until 1981, winning or sharing the title eight times. He died in 1992 in New York, at the age of 80. His chess career spanning over seven decades has seen some of the most brilliant games and he's considered one of the greatest players in the history of chess who never became a world champion.