U.S. Chess Championship

The U.S. Chess Championship is an invitational tournament held to determine the national chess champion of the United States. Begun as a challenge match in 1845, the U.S. Championship has been decided by tournament play for most of its long history (Soltis, 2012). 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 [AF4C]) 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 Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis in St Louis has hosted the annual event since 2009.

America's national chess championship is the world's oldest.

Champions by acclamation 1845-1891

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
1871-1891	George Henry Mackenzie	Won the 2nd, 3rd and 5th American Chess Congress

Match Champions 1891-1935

G.H. Mackenzie died in April 1891 and, later that year, Max Judd proposed he, J.W. Showalter and S. Lipschütz contest a triangular match for the championship. Lipschütz withdrew so Judd and Showalter played a match which the latter won. A claim by Walter Penn Shipley that S. Lipschütz became US Champion as a result of being the top-scoring American at the Sixth American Chess Congress, New York 1889 is refuted in a biography of Lipschütz. The following US Champions until 1909 were decided by matches.

	Year	Winner	Loser	Result	Notes
1	1891-2	Jackson Showalter	Max Judd	+7 -4 =3	The final game was delayed until January 1892 because Judd was ill.
2	1892	Samuel Lipschütz	Jackson Showalter	+7 -1 =7
3	1894	Jackson Showalter	Albert Hodges	+7 -6 =4	Prior to the last game the players agreed to extend the match. Many sources classify this as the first of two matches instead of one extended match.
4	1894	Albert Hodges	Jackson Showalter	+5 -3 =1	Can be considered a match extension or a new match.
5	1895	Jackson Showalter	S. Lipschütz	+7 -4 =3
6	1896	Jackson Showalter	Emil Kemény	+7 -4 =4
7	1896	Jackson Showalter	John Barry	+7 -2 =4
8	1897	Harry Pillsbury	Jackson Showalter	+10 -7 =3	Pillsbury added to the conditions of the match : "... even if I should win, I shall leave Showalter the possession of his championship title".
9	1898	Harry Pillsbury	Jackson Showalter	+7 -2 =2	Contrary to the 1897 match, the title of U.S. champion was clearly at stake in 1898.
10	1909	Frank Marshall	Jackson Showalter	+7 -2 =3	Title reverted to Showalter after Pillsbury's death in 1906.
11	1923	Frank Marshall	Edward Lasker	+5 -4 =9	Marshall declined to play in the invitational tournament that began in 1936.

Tournament champions since 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. 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. The title of U.S. champion was not at stake. (Bisguier remains champion).
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	Fischer went 11-0 in the tournament, the only perfect score in its history
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
54	2010	Gata Kamsky	Kamsky won an Armageddon tie-break playoff against Yury Shulman
55	2011	Gata Kamsky
56	2012	Hikaru Nakamura
57	2013	Gata Kamsky	Kamsky won an Armageddon tie-break playoff against Alejandro Ramírez
58	2014	Gata Kamsky	Kamsky won a playoff rapid against Varuzhan Akobian after Akobian qualified by beating Aleksandr Lenderman on an Armageddon tie-break
59	2015	Hikaru Nakamura

Read more:

• U.S. Women's Chess Championship
• U.S. Open Chess Championship
• U.S. Women's Open Chess Championship
• American Chess Congress
• Golden Knights
• President's Cup