Home • Learn to Play Chess • Improve Your Game • Chess History • Chess for Fun • Chess Blog

U.S. Chess Champions

The 2003 U.S. Championship was the 48th since 1936. 24 players have won the title at least once.

(January 2003) Alexander Shabalov is the 2003 United States Chess Champion! For details from the official website, follow the link '2003 US Championship' in the linkbox at the bottom. The 2003 event was the 48th U.S. Championship since 1936. It marked the third time that Shabalov's name appears as U.S. Champion. See the link 'US Championships' for a list of previous champions. The 47 previous events produced 61 champions. Of these, 38 events had a single champion and 9 had co-champions -- 4 events with 2 champions and 5 events with 3. In some events co-champions were resolved with a playoff for the purpose of awarding a prize which could not be split. Following is a list of 24 players who have won the title of U.S. Champion. The column 'Champ' shows the total number of titles, while the column 'Co-' shows the number of times the title was shared as co-champion. Player   Champ   Co-   Alburt Lev 3   Benjamin Joel 3 2 Bisguier Arthur 1   Browne Walter 6 3 Byrne Robert 1   Christiansen Larry 3 2 de Firmian Nick 3 2 Denker Arnold 1   Dzindzichashvili Roman 2 2 Evans Larry 4 1 Fischer Bobby 8   Grefe John 1 1 Gulko Boris 2   Ivanov Alexander 1 1 Kamsky Gata 1   Kavalek Lubomir 2 1 Rachels Stuart 1 1 Reshevsky Samuel 6   Seirawan Yasser 4 3 Shabalov Alexander 2 2 Steiner Herman 1   Wilder Michael 1   Wolff Patrick 2 1 Yermolinsky Alex 2 1 The following list shows the 15 players who have won the title more than once. Bobby Fischer won 8 times, while Samuel Reshevsky and Walter Browne won 6 times each. Of Browne's titles, 3 were shared. Player   Champ   Co-   Fischer Bobby 8   Reshevsky Samuel 6   Browne Walter 6 3 Evans Larry 4 1 Seirawan Yasser 4 3 Alburt Lev 3   Benjamin Joel 3 2 Christiansen Larry 3 2 de Firmian Nick 3 2 Gulko Boris 2   Kavalek Lubomir 2 1 Wolff Patrick 2 1 Yermolinsky Alex 2 1 Dzindzichashvili Roman 2 2 Shabalov Alexander 2 2 Who is the greatest American player not on the list of 24 players? My vote would go to Reuben Fine.

Related Resources • US Championships  Elsewhere on the Web (offsite) • 2003 US Championship