U.S. Chess Championship
Year Winner Loser Result Notes
1 1891-92 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
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. Hikaru Nakamura is the current champion.