EN
Given a subset A of a topological space X, a locally convex space Y, and a family ℂ of subsets of Y we study the problem of the existence of a linear ℂ-extender $u: C_{∞}(A,Y) → C_{∞}(X,Y)$, which is a linear operator extending bounded continuous functions f: A → C ⊂ Y, C ∈ ℂ, to bounded continuous functions f̅ = u(f): X → C ⊂ Y. Two necessary conditions for the existence of such an extender are found in terms of a topological game, which is a modification of the classical strong Choquet game. The results obtained allow us to characterize reflexive Banach spaces as the only normed spaces Y such that for every closed subset A of a GO-space X there is a ℂ-extender $u: C_{∞}(A,Y) → C_{∞}(X,Y)$ for the family ℂ of closed convex subsets of Y. Also we obtain a characterization of Polish spaces and of weakly sequentially complete Banach lattices in terms of extenders.