| US Chess Championship | |
| Givenfor: | Winner of the US Championship |
| Presenter: | United States Chess Federation |
| Country: | United States |
| First: | 1891 |
| Mostrecent: | Fabiano Caruana (2023) |
The US Chess Championship is an invitational tournament organized by the United States Chess Federation to determine the country's chess champion.[1] It is the oldest national chess tournament.[2] The event originated as a challenge match in 1845, but the champion has been decided by tournament play under the auspices of the USCF since 1936.[2] The tournament has fluctuated between a round-robin tournament and a Swiss system. From 1999 to 2006, the championship was sponsored and organized by the Seattle Chess Foundation (later renamed America's Foundation for Chess) and featured a larger body of competitors, made possible by the change to a Swiss-style format. After the Foundation withdrew its sponsorship, the 2007 and 2008 events were held in Stillwater, Oklahoma, still as a Swiss system, under tournament director Frank K. Berry. Rex Sinquefield's Saint Louis Chess Club has hosted the championship since 2009. Since 2014, the championship has used a round-robin format.
As of 2023, twelve players are invited to compete: the reigning US champion, as well as the respective winners of the US Open Chess Championship, the US Junior Championship, and the US Senior Open Championship, with the remaining players chosen by highest invitational rating, in addition to wildcards chosen by the organizer.[3] Fabiano Caruana is the current US chess champion.
| Years | Champion | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1845–1857 | Defeated Eugène Rousseau in a match in 1845 | ||
| 1857–1871 | Won the first American Chess Congress in 1857 | ||
| 1871–1891 | Won the 2nd, 3rd and 5th American Chess Congress |
George Henry Mackenzie died in April 1891 and, later that year, Max Judd proposed he, Jackson 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.[4] The following US Champions until 1909 were decided by matches.
| Year | Winner | Loser | Result | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1891–92 | +7−4=3 | The final game was delayed until January 1892 because Judd was ill. | |||
| 2 | 1892 | +7−1=7 | ||||
| 3 | 1894 | (2) | +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 | +5−3=1 | Can be considered a match extension or a new match. | |||
| 5 | 1895 | (3) | +7−4=3 | |||
| 6 | 1896 | (4) | +7−4=4 | |||
| 7 | 1896 | (5) | +7−2=4 | |||
| 8 | 1897 | +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".[5] | |||
| 9 | 1898 | (2) | +7−2=2 | Contrary to the 1897 match, the title of US champion was clearly at stake in 1898.[6] | ||
| 10 | 1909 | +7−2=3 | Title reverted to Showalter after Pillsbury's death in 1906. | |||
| 11 | 1923 | (2) | +5−4=9 | Marshall declined to play in the invitational tournament that began in 1936. |
| № | Year | Winner(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1936 | ||
| 2 | 1938 | (2) | |
| 3 | 1940 | (3) | |
| - | 1941 | (4) | Match victory over I.A. Horowitz |
| 4 | 1942 | (5) | An erroneous ruling by the director allowed Reshevsky to tie for first with Isaac Kashdan.[7] Reshevsky won a playoff match against Kashdan 6 months later. |
| 5 | 1944 | ||
| - | 1946 | (2) | Match victory over Herman Steiner |
| 6 | 1946 | (6) | |
| 7 | 1948 | ||
| 8 | 1951 | ||
| - | 1952 | (2) | Match victory over Herman Steiner |
| 9 | 1954 | ||
| - | 1957 | (7) | Match victory over Arthur Bisguier. The title was not at stake, Bisguier remains champion. |
| 10 | 1957/8 | At 14, the youngest champion ever | |
| 11 | 1958/9 | (2) | |
| 12 | 1959/0 | (3) | |
| 13 | 1960/1 | (4) | |
| 14 | 1961—62 | (3) | |
| 15 | 1962—63 | (5) | |
| 16 | 1963—64 | (6) | The only perfect score in tournament history |
| 17 | 1965—66 | (7) | |
| 18 | 1966—67 | (8) | A record eighth win (out of eight attempts) |
| 19 | 1968 | (4) | |
| 20 | 1969 | (8) | |
| 21 | 1972 | Playoff held 9 months after the tournament, with Byrne winning over Samuel Reshevsky and Lubomir Kavalek | |
| 22 | 1973 | ||
| 23 | 1974 | ||
| 24 | 1975 | (2) | |
| 25 | 1977 | (3) | |
| 26 | 1978 | (2) | |
| 27 | 1980 | (4) (5) | |
| 28 | 1981 | (5) | |
| 29 | 1983 | (6) (2) | |
| 30 | 1984 | ||
| 31 | 1985 | (2) | |
| 32 | 1986 | (2) | |
| 33 | 1987 | ||
| 34 | 1988 | ||
| 35 | 1989 | (2) (3) | |
| 36 | 1990 | (3) | Knockout tournament |
| 37 | 1991 | Knockout tournament | |
| 38 | 1992 | ||
| 39 | 1993 | | |
| 40 | 1994 | The only person to have held both the US and Soviet championships | |
| 41 | 1995 | (2) (2) | |
| 42 | 1996 | (2) | |
| 43 | 1997 | (2) | |
| 44 | 1998 | (3) | |
| № | Year | Winner(s) | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 45 | 1999 | (2) | ||
| 46 | 2000 | (3) (2) (4) | ||
| 47 | 2002 | (3) | ||
| 48 | 2003 | (3) | ||
| 49 | 2005 | Tournament was played in 2004, but called the 2005 Championship for legal reasons[8] | ||
| 50 | 2006 | |||
| 51 | 2007 | (4) | ||
| 52 | 2008 | |||
| 53 | 2009 | (2) | ||
| 54 | 2010 | (2) | Kamsky won an Armageddon tie-break playoff against Yury Shulman | |
| 55 | 2011 | (3) | [9] | |
| 56 | 2012 | (3) | Switched to a round-robin tournament for this year only | |
| 57 | 2013 | (4) | Kamsky won an Armageddon tie-break playoff against Alejandro Ramírez |
| № | Year | Winner(s) | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 58 | 2014 | (5) | ||
| 59 | 2015 | (4) | ||
| 60 | ||||
| 61 | 2017 | Wesley So won a rapid playoff against Alexander Onischuk | ||
| 62 | 2018 | |||
| 63 | 2019 | (5) | ||
| 64 | 2020 | (2) | Tournament held remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, hosted online via Lichess. | |
| 65 | 2021 | (3) | So won a rapid playoff against Fabiano Caruana and Samuel Sevian | |
| 66 | 2022 | (2) | ||
| 67 | 2023 | Fabiano Caruana (3) |
| Name | Total Victories | Tournament Victories | Match Victories | Years | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | 8 | 0 | 1957/8 1958/9 1959/0 1960/1 1962/3 1963/4 1965/6 1966/7 | ||
| Samuel Reshevsky | 8 | 8 | 0 | 1936 1938 1940 1941 1942 1946 1957 1969 | |
| 6 | 6 | 0 | 1974 1975 1977 1980 1981 1983 | ||
| 5 | 5 | 0 | 1951 1952 1961/2 1968 1980 | ||
| 5 | 5 | 0 | 1991 2010 2011 2013 2014 | ||
| 5 | 5 | 0 | 2005 2009 2012 2015 2019 | ||
| 5 | 0 | 5 | 1891–92 1894 1895 1896 1896 | ||
| 4 | 4 | 0 | 1981 1986 1989 2000 | ||
| 4 | 4 | 0 | 1993 2000 2003 2007 | ||
| 3 | 3 | 0 | 1984 1985 1990 | ||
| 3 | 3 | 0 | 1987 1997 2000 | ||
| 3 | 3 | 0 | 1980 1983 2002 | ||
| 3 | 3 | 0 | 1987 1995 1998 | ||
| 3 | 3 | 0 | 2017 2020 2021 | ||
| 3 | 3 | 0 | 2016 2022 2023 | ||
| 2 | 2 | 0 | 1944 1946 | ||
| 2 | 2 | 0 | 1983 1989 | ||
| 2 | 2 | 0 | 1994 1999 | ||
| 2 | 2 | 0 | 1973 1978 | ||
| 2 | 0 | 2 | 1909 1923 | ||
| 2 | 0 | 2 | 1897 1898 | ||
| 2 | 2 | 0 | 1992 1995 | ||
| 2 | 2 | 0 | 1993 1996 | ||
| 1 | 1 | 0 | 1954 | ||
| 1 | 1 | 0 | 1972 | ||
| 1 | 1 | 0 | 1973 | ||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 1894 | ||
| 1 | 1 | 0 | 1995 | ||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 1892 | ||
| 1 | 1 | 0 | 2006 | ||
| 1 | 1 | 0 | 1989 | ||
| 1 | 1 | 0 | 2018 | ||
| 1 | 1 | 0 | 2008 | ||
| 1 | 1 | 0 | 1948 | ||
| 1 | 1 | 0 | 1988 |