Organizations

The United States Chess Federation, founded in 1939, serves as the governing body for chess in the United States and is devoted to extending the role of chess in American society. It promotes the study and knowledge of the game of chess, for its own sake as an art and enjoyment, and as a means for the improvement of society.

The USCF is a not-for-profit membership organisation with more than 100,000 members. Until the 1960s, most of the chess organisation was performed by regional groups and major clubs. Even during the peak years of US success during the 1930s, there was little authority on a national level.

The first chess club was opened in New York in 1801. The first chess book, a reprint of a popular English text, was published in Philadelphia in 1802. In 1840, Stanley arrived from London and quickly established himself as unofficial champion. He was the first to write an American chess column in The Spirit of the Times. Before 1857, there were no serious competitions besides inter-city correspondence matches and club events. In that year, leaders of the New York Chess Club, the most important club of that time, invited 16 players to the First American Chess Congress, a championship in imitation of that in London in 1851. The Manhattan Chess club opened in 1862 and was influential in bringing the Steintz-Zukertort match to America nine years later. Fiske's Chess Monthly was short lived, but with Morphy as chess editor and Loyd as problems editor, US chess literature came of age. In 1861, eighty-seven chess columns were listed in American newspapers. Until Pillsbury proved his ability at Hastings in 1895, there were several claimants to the national title. Lipschutz defended his claim in an 1892 match with Showalter +7-1=7 in the first officially recognised US Championship event. After Lipschutz's departure from New York, Showalter claimed the title but was defeated by Hodges in 1894. Hodges then retired professionally. Showalter re-established his claim and secured the title with match victories in 1895-96 over Lipschutz, Emil Kemeny and John Barry.

By the turn of the century, America had attracted several visiting foreign masters such as Steinitz, Em. Lasker and Albin. The 1894 World Chess Championship match was held in New York and in other cities. New York was now becoming the pre-eminent chess centre of the country and establishing hegemony over the nation's. Pillsbury's Hastings success gave the USA its first world-calibre player since Morphy, but he was soon challenged for American supremacy by Marshall, who made his foreign debut in the minority section of London in 1899. Marshall's growth was confirmed by his first place ahead of Em. Lasker, then living in New York, and Schlechter in Cambridge Springs, a Pennsylvania resort, in 1904. Pillsbury's eighth place was his first major setback and an indication that his creative period was over. Cambridge Springs in 1904 was the second strong international event in America and saw the birth of Helms' American Chess Bulletin, the first long-lived US magazine. Pillsbury's death in 1906 opened a new battle for the US title. Marshall claimed it, but so did Capablanca, a graduate of Columbia University, who had defeated Marshall in their 1909 match. The title remained vacant while a bitter dispute over it was resolved by Shipley, then recognised as the primary chess authority in the USA. Shipley ruled that the only true title holder was Showalter, the last man to win it. Marshall then challenged Showalter and defeated him in 1909 +7-2=3. He held the title until 1936.

Chajes, Kupchik, H. Steiner and Jaffe were among the emigrants who settled in New York, but the arrivals of Reshevsky and Ed. Lasker were the most noted. Ed. Lasker challenged Marshall to a title match in 1923 but lost +4-5=9. The strongest American tournament of all time opened in New York in 1924. Capablanca and Maroczy remained in America during the 1920s and were instrumental in bringing about the successor tournament in New York in 1927. Horowitz's Chess Review began in 1933 and brought a new glossy style to American chess journalism.

The USA entered a team in the second Olympiad in The Hague in 1928 and came in second. After a sixth place result in Hamburg 1930, the American team - variously composed of Fine, Reshevsky, Dake, Horowitz, Steiner, Kashdan and Marshall - won the next four Olympiads; Prague 1931, Folkestone 1933, Warsaw 1935 and Stockholm 1937. After World War I, the US Team did not repeat this tremendous page of history but got the honour in 1976 with a first place at the Haifa Olympiad and four second places in 1960, 1966, 1990 and 1998 and seven third places in 1974, 1978, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1996 and 2008. In the Women's Championships, the team led by the former World Champion Szuza Polgar got the honour in 2004 with an excellent second place behind the untouchable Chinese. The best result of all was probably the amazing victory in the World Team Championship in 1997.

By 2011, the federation had 71 IGMs, 119 IMs and a total of 556 titled players listed in the FIDE ranking.

The best players are Alexander Hikaru Nakamura, Gata Kamsky, Onischuk, Yasser Seirawan, Lev Alburt, Boris Gulko, Ray Robson, Susan Polgar... but also well-known players were Paul Morphy, Frank Marshall, Samuel Reshevsky, Bobby Fischer, Arnold Denker, etc.