Edward W. Formanek

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Edward William Formanek (born May 6, 1942)[1][2] is an American mathematician and chess player. He is a professor emeritus of mathematics at Pennsylvania State University,[3][4] and a FIDE International Master in chess.[1]

Mathematical career

Formanek earned his Ph.D. in 1970 from Rice University, under the supervision of Stephen M. Gersten.[5][6] He joined the Penn State faculty in 1978, and retired in 2009.[4]

In 1972, Formanek was one of two mathematicians to independently discover the central polynomials, which have applications to polynomial identity rings.[7] With Vesselin Drensky, Formanek is the author of the book Polynomial Identity Rings (Birkhäuser, 2004).[8]

In 2012, he became one of the inaugural fellows of the American Mathematical Society.[3][9]

Chess career

Formanek became a FIDE International Master in 1977.[2]

He has won the Pennsylvania State Championship five times, in 1984, 1993, 1997, 1998, and 2004.[10] However, his most famous result from this series may be in 1988, when he led the tournament going into the last round but was defeated by computer program HiTech,[11] becoming the first IM to lose a game to a computer.[12][13] Later the same year HiTech would also defeat grandmaster Arnold Denker.[13]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Player profile, World Chess Federation, retrieved 2015-02-02.
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  5. Edward W. Formanek at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
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  9. List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society, retrieved 2015-02-02.
  10. Pennsylvania State Championships Results, retrieved 2015-02-02.
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