The Most Famous

CHESS PLAYERS from United States

This page contains a list of the greatest American Chess Players. The pantheon dataset contains 461 Chess Players, 17 of which were born in United States. This makes United States the birth place of the 5th most number of Chess Players behind Hungary, and China.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary American Chess Players of all time. This list of famous American Chess Players is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of American Chess Players.

1. Bobby Fischer (1943 - 2008)

With an HPI of 74.11, Bobby Fischer is the most famous American Chess Player. His biography has been translated into 94 different languages on wikipedia.

Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943 – January 17, 2008) was an American chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Championships at the age of 14. In 1964, he won with an 11–0 score, the only perfect score in the history of the tournament. Qualifying for the 1972 World Championship, Fischer swept matches with Mark Taimanov and Bent Larsen by 6–0 scores. After winning another qualifying match against Tigran Petrosian, Fischer won the title match against Boris Spassky of the USSR, in Reykjavík, Iceland. Publicized as a Cold War confrontation between the US and USSR, the match attracted more worldwide interest than any chess championship before or since. In 1975, Fischer refused to defend his title when an agreement could not be reached with FIDE, chess's international governing body, over the match conditions. Consequently, the Soviet challenger Anatoly Karpov was named World Champion by default. Fischer subsequently disappeared from the public eye, though occasional reports of erratic behavior emerged. In 1992, he reemerged to win an unofficial rematch against Spassky. It was held in Yugoslavia, which was under a United Nations embargo at the time. His participation led to a conflict with the US government, which warned Fischer that his participation in the match would violate an executive order imposing US sanctions on Yugoslavia. The US government ultimately issued a warrant for his arrest; subsequently, Fischer lived as an émigré. In 2004, he was arrested in Japan and held for several months for using a passport that the US government had revoked. Eventually, he was granted Icelandic citizenship by a special act of the Icelandic parliament, allowing him to live there until his death in 2008. Fischer made numerous lasting contributions to chess. His book My 60 Memorable Games, published in 1969, is regarded as essential reading in chess literature. In the 1990s, he patented a modified chess timing system that added a time increment after each move, now a standard practice in top tournament and match play. He also invented Fischer random chess, also known as Chess960, a chess variant in which the initial position of the pieces is randomized to one of 960 possible positions. Fischer made numerous antisemitic statements, including Holocaust denial. His antisemitism was a major theme in his public and private remarks, and there has been widespread comment and speculation concerning his psychological condition based on his extreme views and eccentric behavior.

2. Paul Morphy (1837 - 1884)

With an HPI of 64.36, Paul Morphy is the 2nd most famous American Chess Player. His biography has been translated into 56 different languages.

Paul Charles Morphy (June 22, 1837 – July 10, 1884) was an American chess player. During his brief career in the late 1850s, Morphy was acknowledged as the world's greatest chess master. A prodigy, Morphy emerged onto the chess scene in 1857 by convincingly winning the First American Chess Congress, winning each match by a large margin. He then traveled to Europe, residing for a time in England and France while challenging the continent's top players. He played matches with most of the leading English and French players, as well as the German Adolf Anderssen—again winning all matches by large margins. In 1859, Morphy returned to the United States, before ultimately abandoning competitive chess and receding from public view. Due to his early exit from the game despite his unprecedented talent, Morphy has been called "The Pride and Sorrow of Chess". This name has often been attributed to Sheriff Walter Cook Spens, chess editor of the Glasgow Weekly Herald, but it is unclear when it first appeared in print.

3. Frank Marshall (1877 - 1944)

With an HPI of 55.96, Frank Marshall is the 3rd most famous American Chess Player. His biography has been translated into 36 different languages.

Frank James Marshall (August 10, 1877 – November 9, 1944) was the U.S. Chess Champion from 1909 to 1936, and one of the world's strongest chess players in the early part of the 20th century.

4. Harry Nelson Pillsbury (1872 - 1906)

With an HPI of 51.79, Harry Nelson Pillsbury is the 4th most famous American Chess Player. His biography has been translated into 25 different languages.

Harry Nelson Pillsbury (December 5, 1872 – June 17, 1906) was a leading American chess player. At the age of 22, he won the Hastings 1895 chess tournament, one of the strongest tournaments of the time, but his illness and early death prevented him from challenging for the World Chess Championship.

5. Reuben Fine (1914 - 1993)

With an HPI of 50.25, Reuben Fine is the 5th most famous American Chess Player. His biography has been translated into 28 different languages.

Reuben C. Fine (October 11, 1914 – March 26, 1993) was an American chess player, psychologist, university professor, and author of many books on both chess and psychology. He was one of the strongest chess players in the world from the mid-1930s until his retirement from chess in 1951. He was granted the title of International Grandmaster by FIDE in 1950, when titles were introduced. Fine's best result was his equal first place in the 1938 AVRO tournament, one of the strongest tournaments of all time. After the death of world champion Alexander Alekhine in 1946, Fine was one of six players invited to compete for the World Championship in 1948. He declined the invitation, however, and virtually retired from serious competition around that time, although he did play a few events until 1951. Fine won five medals (four gold) in three Chess Olympiads. He won the US Open all seven times he entered (1932, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1939, 1940, 1941). He was the author of several chess books, covering endgame, opening, and middlegame.

6. William Lombardy (1937 - 2017)

With an HPI of 49.05, William Lombardy is the 6th most famous American Chess Player. His biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

William James Joseph Lombardy (December 4, 1937 – October 13, 2017) was an American chess grandmaster, chess writer, teacher, and former Catholic priest. He was one of the leading American chess players during the 1950s and 1960s, and a contemporary of Bobby Fischer, whom he seconded during the World Chess Championship 1972. He won the World Junior Chess Championship in 1957, the only person to win that tournament with a perfect score. Lombardy led the U.S. Student Team to Gold in the 1960 World Student Team Championship in Leningrad.

7. Jackson Showalter (1860 - 1935)

With an HPI of 48.58, Jackson Showalter is the 7th most famous American Chess Player. His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Jackson Whipps Showalter (February 5, 1859 in Minerva, Kentucky – February 5, 1935 in Lexington, Kentucky) was a five-time U.S. Chess Champion: 1890, 1892, 1892–1894, 1895–96 and 1906–1909.

8. Arnold Denker (1914 - 2005)

With an HPI of 44.19, Arnold Denker is the 8th most famous American Chess Player. His biography has been translated into 21 different languages.

Arnold Sheldon Denker (February 21, 1914 – January 2, 2005) was an American chess player and author. He was U.S. champion in 1944 and 1946. In later years he served in various chess organizations, receiving recognition from the United States Chess Federation, including in 2004 the highest honor, "Dean of American Chess".

9. Nick de Firmian (b. 1957)

With an HPI of 43.66, Nick de Firmian is the 9th most famous American Chess Player. His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Nicholas Ernest de Firmian (born July 26, 1957) is an American chess player who received the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM) in 1985. He is a three-time U.S. chess champion, winning in 1987 (with Joel Benjamin), 1995, and 1998. He also tied for first in 2002, but Larry Christiansen won the playoff. He is also a chess writer, most famous for his work in writing the 13th, 14th, and 15th editions of the important chess opening treatise Modern Chess Openings. He was born in Fresno, California. He has represented the United States at several Interzonals and played on the United States Olympiad teams of 1980, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1996, 1998, and 2000. De Firmian earned the International Master title in 1979 and the GM title in 1985. Beginning in the 1990s, he lived for many years in Denmark. He currently resides in California. He won the 1983 Canadian Open Chess Championship. In 1986, he won the World Open and the first prize of $21,000, at that time a record for a Swiss system tournament. De Firmian was a founding member of Prochess, a grandmaster advocacy group dedicated to promoting chess in the United States. He has a degree in physics from the University of California, Berkeley. De Firmian is a noted expert on chess openings and in 1990 he revised Modern Chess Openings, 13th edition (MCO-13). In 1999 he wrote the 14th edition of Modern Chess Openings (MCO-14), which, along with Nunn's Chess Openings (NCO), is considered an outstanding single volume opening reference in English. He also helped prepare the chess opening book for the IBM Deep Blue team for its successful 1997 match with Garry Kasparov. In 2000, De Firmian tied for first place at the U.S. Masters Chess Championship. In 2006 he revised and expanded the classic 1921 book Chess Fundamentals, by José Capablanca. The edition was harshly criticized by chess historian Edward Winter, who claimed that de Firmian "destroyed" the book by changing Capablanca's writing and removing games from previous editions to include new games not played by Capablanca. De Firmian also wrote the 15th edition of MCO, published in April 2008. Ca. 2012, de Firmian began a scholastic chess program with the Mechanics Institute in San Francisco.

10. Isaac Kashdan (1905 - 1985)

With an HPI of 43.62, Isaac Kashdan is the 10th most famous American Chess Player. His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Isaac Kashdan (November 19, 1905, in New York City – February 20, 1985, in Los Angeles) was an American chess grandmaster and chess writer. He was twice U.S. Open champion (1938, 1947). He played five times for the United States in chess Olympiads, winning a total of nine medals, and his Olympiad record is the all-time best among American players. Kashdan was often called 'der Kleine Capablanca' (German for "The little Capablanca") in Europe because of his ability to extract victories from seemingly even positions. Alexander Alekhine named him one of the most likely players to succeed him as World Champion. Kashdan could not, however, engage seriously in a chess career for financial reasons; his peak chess years coincided with the Great Depression. He resorted to earning a living as an insurance agent and administrator in order to support his family.

People

Pantheon has 21 people classified as American chess players born between 1837 and 2009. Of these 21, 9 (42.86%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living American chess players include Nick de Firmian, Fabiano Caruana, and Hans Niemann. The most famous deceased American chess players include Bobby Fischer, Paul Morphy, and Frank Marshall. As of April 2024, 4 new American chess players have been added to Pantheon including Hans Niemann, Levy Rozman, and Alexandra Botez.