Sidney Norman Bernstein was an American 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...

 master.

He tied for 2nd-4th in Marshall Chess Club

Marshall Chess Club

The Marshall Chess Club in New York City is one of the oldest chess clubs in the United States, located in Greenwich Village. The club was formed in 1915 by a group of players led by Frank Marshall. It is a non-profit organization.-History:...

 Championship at New York 1930/31 (Arthur Dake

Arthur Dake

Arthur Dake was an American chess master. He was born in Portland, Oregon and died in Reno, Nevada....

 won), tied for 6-7th in New York State Chess Championship at Rome

Rome, New York

Rome is a city in Oneida County, New York, United States. It is located in north-central or "upstate" New York. The population was 44,797 at the 2010 census. It is in New York's 24th congressional district. In 1758, British forces began construction of Fort Stanwix at this strategic location, but...

 1931 (Fred Reinfeld

Fred Reinfeld

Fred Reinfeld was an American chess master and a prolific writer on chess and many other subjects, whose books are still read today.-Biography:...

 won). He played board two, behind Reuben Fine

Reuben Fine

Reuben Fine was one of the strongest chess players in the world from the early 1930s through the 1940s, an International Grandmaster, psychologist, university professor, and author of many books on both chess and psychology.Fine won five medals in three chess Olympiads. Fine won the U.S...

, on the victorious CCNY team in the 1931-32 Intercollegiate championships. He took 11th in the American Chess Federation Congress (U.S. Open Chess Championship

U.S. Open Chess Championship

The U.S. Open Championship is an open national chess championship that has been held in the United States annually since 1900.-History:Through 1938, the tournaments were organized by the Western Chess Association and its successor, the American Chess Federation .The United States Chess Federation ...

) at Philadelphia 1936 (Israel Albert Horowitz won).

Bernstein was a participant in eight U.S. Chess Championship

U.S. Chess Championship

The U.S. Chess Championship is an invitational tournament held to determine the national chess champion of the United States. Since 1936, it has been held under the auspices of the U.S. Chess Federation. Until 1999, the event consisted of a round-robin tournament of varying size...

 events (1936, 1938, 1940, 1951, 1954, 1957, 1959 and 1961).

He played thrice in Ventnor City, as he shared 1st in 1940, tied for 5-7th (Jacob Levin

Jacob Levin (chess player)

Jacob Levin was an American chess master, born in Daugavpils, Latvia.He reached the best results of his career in Ventnor City. He tied for 2nd–3rd in 1939 , was a winner in 1941, took second behind Daniel Yanofsky in 1942, tied for 5th–7th in 1943, and won again in 1944...

 won) in 1941, and tied for 3rd-6th (Daniel Yanofsky

Daniel Yanofsky

Daniel Abraham Yanofsky, OC, QC was Canada's first chess grandmaster, an eight-time Canadian Chess Champion, a chess writer, a chess arbiter, and a lawyer.-Life in chess:...

 won) in 1942. He tied for 1st with Reinfeld in Manhattan Chess Club

Manhattan Chess Club

The Manhattan Chess Club in Manhattan was the second-oldest chess club in the United States . The club was founded in 1877 and started with three dozen players; membership later reached into the hundreds before the club ended its existence in 2002...

 Championship at New York 1942,
and took 8th in Manhattan CC in 1955 (Max Pavey

Max Pavey

Max Pavey was an American chess master and medical doctor. Pavey was of at least International Master strength.- Biography :...

 won).

His career was well chronicled in his book Combat: My 50 Years at the Chessboard (New York, 1977), but he was an infrequent writer on the game and was deeply involved in only two other volumes. In the late 1930s he co-edited with Reinfeld a book on the Kemeri 1937 chess tournament

Kemeri 1937 chess tournament

Kemeri 1937 was a chess tournament held in the resort town Ķemeri, Latvia, at the Gulf of Riga from 16 June to 8 July 1937. There were three co-winners: Samuel Reshevsky, Salo Flohr and Vladimir Petrov...

, and in 1947 the two collaborated on a revision of James Mason

James Mason (chess player)

James Mason was a famous chess player and writer. He was born in Kilkenny in Ireland. His original name is unknown: he was adopted as a child and only took the name James Mason when he and his family moved to the United States in 1861...

’s The Art of Chess.

Top players that he scored wins against were Donald Byrne

Donald Byrne

Donald Byrne was one of the USA's strongest chess players during the 1950s and 1960s.Born in New York City, he won the U.S. Open Chess Championship in 1953, was awarded the International Master title by FIDE in 1962, and played for or captained five U.S. Chess Olympiad teams between 1962 and 1972...

, multiple wins against 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....

, multiple wins against Frank James Marshall, Edmar Mednis

Edmar Mednis

Edmar John Mednis was an American International Grandmaster of chess born in Riga, Latvia. He was also a popular and respected chess writer.-Biography:...

, and Sammy Reshevsky, amongst others.

External links