US 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. From 1999 to 2006, the Championship was sponsored and organized by the Seattle Chess Foundation (later renamed America's Foundation for Chess) as a large Swiss system tournament. AF4C withdrew its sponsorship in 2007. The 2007 and 2008 events were held (again under the Swiss system) in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The 2009 event was held at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis in St Louis.

Champions by acclamation 1845-1889

Years	Champion	Notes
1845-1857	Charles Stanley	Defeated Eugène Rousseau in a match in 1845
1857-1871	Paul Morphy	Won the first American Chess Congress in 1857
1871-1889	George Henry Mackenzie	Won the 2nd, 3rd and 5th American Chess Congress

Match Champions 1889-1935

S. Lipschütz is regarded as the first US Champion of this period, as a result of being the top scoring American at the 6th American Chess Congress, New York 1889. The following US Champions until 1909 were decided by matches.

1889 - 1890 S. Lipschütz
1890 Jackson Showalter
1890 - 1892 Max Judd
1892 Jackson Showalter
1892 - 1893 S. Lipschütz
1893 - 1894 Jackson Showalter
1894 - 1895 Albert Hodges
1895 - 1896 Jackson Showalter
1897 - 1906 Harry Nelson Pillsbury
1906 - 1909 Jackson Showalter
1909 - 1935 Frank Marshall

Tournament champions 1936-

#	Year	Winner	Notes
1	1936	Samuel Reshevsky
2	1938	Samuel Reshevsky
3	1940	Samuel Reshevsky
-	1941	Samuel Reshevsky	Match victory over I.A. Horowitz
4	1942	Samuel Reshevsky	An erroneous ruling by the director allowed Reshevsky to tie for first with Isaac Kashdan.^[1] Reshevsky won a playoff match against Kashdan 6 months later.
5	1944	Arnold Denker
-	1946	Arnold Denker	Match victory over Herman Steiner
6	1946	Samuel Reshevsky
7	1948	Herman Steiner
8	1951	Larry Evans
-	1952	Larry Evans	Match victory over Herman Steiner
9	1954	Arthur Bisguier
-	1957	Samuel Reshevsky	Match victory over Arthur Bisguier
10	1957/8	Bobby Fischer	At 14, the youngest champion ever
11	1958/9	Bobby Fischer
12	1959/0	Bobby Fischer
13	1960/1	Bobby Fischer
14	1961/2	Larry Evans
15	1962/3	Bobby Fischer
16	1963/4	Bobby Fischer
17	1965/6	Bobby Fischer
18	1966/7	Bobby Fischer	A record eighth win (out of eight attempts)
19	1968	Larry Evans
20	1969	Samuel Reshevsky
21	1972	Robert Byrne	After playoff 9 months later against Samuel Reshevsky and Lubomir Kavalek
22	1973	Lubomir Kavalek John Grefe
23	1974	Walter Browne
24	1975	Walter Browne
25	1977	Walter Browne
26	1978	Lubomir Kavalek
27	1980	Walter Browne Larry Christiansen Larry Evans
28	1981	Walter Browne Yasser Seirawan
29	1983	Walter Browne Larry Christiansen Roman Dzindzichashvili
30	1984	Lev Alburt
31	1985	Lev Alburt
32	1986	Yasser Seirawan
33	1987	Joel Benjamin Nick de Firmian
34	1988	Michael Wilder
35	1989	Roman Dzindzichashvili Stuart Rachels Yasser Seirawan
36	1990	Lev Alburt	Knockout tournament
37	1991	Gata Kamsky	Knockout tournament
38	1992	Patrick Wolff
39	1993	Alexander Shabalov Alex Yermolinsky
40	1994	Boris Gulko	The only person to have held both the US and Soviet championships
41	1995	Nick de Firmian Patrick Wolff Alexander Ivanov
42	1996	Alex Yermolinsky
43	1997	Joel Benjamin
44	1998	Nick de Firmian
45	1999	Boris Gulko
46	2000	Joel Benjamin Alexander Shabalov Yasser Seirawan
47	2002	Larry Christiansen
48	2003	Alexander Shabalov
49	2005	Hikaru Nakamura	Tournament was played in 2004, but called the 2005 Championship, for legal reasons
50	2006	Alexander Onischuk
51	2007	Alexander Shabalov
52	2008	Yury Shulman
53	2009	Hikaru Nakamura

Notes

^ In an objectively drawn endgame against Arnold Denker, the flag on Reshevsky's clock fell, which should have resulted in him losing on time. The tournament director, who was standing behind the clock, flipped it around and, looking at Reshevsky's side of the clock (which he mistakenly thought was Denker's), announced "Denker forfeits!" He refused to correct his error, explaining, "Does Kenesaw Mountain Landis reverse himself?" William Lombardy and David Daniels, U.S. Championship Chess, David McKay, 1975, p. 22. ISBN 0-679-13042-X. Arnold S. Denker, My Best Chess Games 1929-1976, Dover, 1981, p. 121. ISBN 0-486-24035-5.

References

Soltis, Andy; McCormick, Gene H. (1997). "The United States Chess Championship 1845–1996" (Second ed.). McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-0258-2. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
Isaac Kashdan (1933). History of the United States Chess Championship. Chess Review, November-December, 1933, reprinted in The Best of Chess Life & Review 1933-1960. ISBN 0671619861.

External links

1998 Interplay US Championship official USCF site
2009 U.S. Championship official site

[1] In an objectively drawn endgame against Arnold Denker, the flag on Reshevsky's clock fell, which should have resulted in him losing on time. The tournament director, who was standing behind the clock, flipped it around and, looking at Reshevsky's side of the clock (which he mistakenly thought was Denker's), announced "Denker forfeits!" He refused to correct his error, explaining, "Does Kenesaw Mountain Landis reverse himself?" William Lombardy and David Daniels, U.S. Championship Chess, David McKay, 1975, p. 22. ISBN 0-679-13042-X. Arnold S. Denker, My Best Chess Games 1929-1976, Dover, 1981, p. 121. ISBN 0-486-24035-5.

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