| The United States Chess Championship, 1845-1996 reviewed by IM John Donaldson Though the United States has had a champion for over 150 years surprisingly few books have been written about the series of tournaments and matches. Prior to the publication of GM Andy Soltis and Gene McCormick's The United States Chess Championship, 1845-1985 (McFarland 1986) the only real attempt to provide a comprehensive look at the most important event in American Chess was David Daniel's contribution to US Championship Chess: A history of the Highest American Chess Title, with the 1973 Matches Annotated .Daniels article was a good first effort, but it was only 75 pages long and started its coverage with the 1936 Championship. When The United States Chess Championship, 1845-1985 appeared it offered a great deal more starting with the 1845 match between Eugene Rousseau and C.H. Stanley won by the latter who became the first American champion. The 296 page book, which included stories, crosstables, many annotated games and statistical information, finished with the 1985 US Championship won by Lev Alburt in Estes Park, Colorado. Soltis and McCormick came out with a second edition in hardback in 1997 bringing the US Championship up to 1996. Now a library bound paperback edition is available from McFarland (www.McFarlandpub.com, 233 pages long, algebraic notation, $39.95. Glancing at the page count you might wonder why the second edition is fewer pages than the first. Rest assured it has substantially more material and everything from the first is included. The first edition was typeset with a one column format, the second edition in a more compact but still very generous two columns. Everything you could want is here including 16 frameable crisp black and white photos. The strength of the book are the stories behind each tournament including the famous incident where Arnold Denker mistakenly lost on time with Sammy Reshevsky when in a mutual time scramble with Sammy's flag down the tournament director picked up the clock and mistakenly turned it around and forfeited the wrong man. Reshevsky said nothing to correct matters. Who says the old guys didn't have sharp elbows. Ironically the present volume, which ends with the 1996 Championship in Parsippany, concludes with "The future never looked brighter", in referring to the future health of the often troubled event.. In fact in less than five years the tournament was in danger of not being held and only the efforts of Grandmaster Yasser Seirawan and America's Foundation for Chess headed by Erik Anderson have saved the day. The United States Chess Championship, 1845-1996, is a book that deserves to be in every chess players library. It would make an excellent Christmas gift. |