Excellent! ( )

While there are many books on individual U.S. Championships, there are few, precious few, books on the history of America's over-150-year-old tradition. The prolific Andy Soltis, a Grandmaster in his own right, has revised his 1986 historical survey to re-fill this peculiar gap in chess literature on the U.S.'s greatest chess event. In typical Soltis style this book is not a thorough history but rather a summary of the championship from it’s back and forth periods from match play (like the world championship) to a tournament (like the great U.S.S.R. tournaments).

It is a short book (280 pages) and so analysis is lean and not every game is represented. However, every tournament table appears to be accounted for. Soltis, himself, participated in some of these tournaments. Though he never did better than 7th (out of 14 in 1983) this fact makes him a credible choice as historian and annotator. That he is arguably the greatest U.S. popularizer of the game of his era makes this a familiar and easy-to-digest primer as well.

The chapters are separated into eras sometimes epitomized by an individual (Morphy, Marshall, Reshevsky, Fischer) or a phenomenon (Russian immigration, lack of sponsorship). This organization has allowed Soltis to keep the book within one volume. However, it also makes it seem slightly rushed and incomplete.

Purists may have plenty to quibble about given some of the gaps in a book of this type. I have my own.

First, though the enfant terrible, Walter Browne, is occasionally acknowledged as a great player, he may have been provided more space in the book given that his 6 titles are only exceeded by Sammy Reshevsky and Bobby Fischer. That 3 of his titles are shared does not diminish this accomplishment in my estimation.

Second, the 2002 tournament that saw the 2 Californians, Larry Christiansen and Nick de Firmian, play a blood final that contributed to the 12 million hits the tournament website enjoyed should have been included, even if it wasn't one of the best games.

All in all, Soltis provides an important contribution to the subject. While this reader would like to see someone tackle a comprehensive history of the championship, Soltis' effort will give the public a taste of America's pursuit for excellence of the world's greatest board game. I recommend this book for all chess libraries. ( )

This is a marvelous history. It takes a good, long time to read it, especially if you set up and play through all the recorded games listed inside. Even worse is trying to understand the game player's thinking for those games and their moves. I am not capable but I learn a bit when I do try. If you are as fascinated by the game as am I, you should have this book. But do not forget the old German saying "No fool can play chess, and only fools do!"

Very thorough and good history of US Chess Championships. The back stories are a nice touch. I'm not a high enough level player or know enough of the history to tell you whether or not the analyses represented in the book are of high quality, but going through a few of the games has been educational at my level. ( )

"The United States Chess Championship, 1845-2011" is the 3rd edition/update in prolific chess write and columnist Andy Soltis' excellent series about the storied championship. The book is broken down into nine chapters (e.g Paul Morphy, The Reshevsky Years, The Fischer Era, The Russians are Coming!,etc.) and within each chapter one can expect to find in the section devoted to each year's championship, top notch analysis of featured games, player anecdotes and "behind the scenes" profiles of some of the players (some of these come from primary source material but some were no doubt gleaned from first hand knowledge as Mr. Soltis was a frequent competitor in the 70's and 80's as well as being very well connected in the chess world).
The back of the book also contains a year by year summary of the tournament, individual records, an openings index,, and ECO opening index.
All in all,the volume packs a lot of information and good chess in its 280 something pages and I feel it definitely deserves a place in every chess player's library as well as a space on the bookshelf of every academic chess club in the country. What better way to inspire the young players of today than having an accessible, entertaining book written about the tournament that is truly the pinnacle for all United States chess players. ( )