Charles Henry Stanley was the first chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

 champion of the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. When the first-ever U.S. championship match took place in 1845, Stanley defeated Eugéne Rousseau of New Orleans and thus claimed the title.

Stanley was an Englishman

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 who emigrated from London to New York in 1845 per USA Federal Census of 1900, to work in the British Consulate, and his English ideas had a great influence on American chess.

One of his ideas was to have a regular newspaper column devoted to chess, which he started in 1845 in The Spirit of the Times. He also started the American Chess Magazine in 1846, but others copied the idea (which originated in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

), and competition forced the magazine out of business.

In 1855 he organized the first World Problem Tournament.

In 1846 he published the first US book on a chess match, 31 Games of Chess.

Stanley is a little known figure who has been eclipsed by the achievements of the world famous Paul Morphy

Paul Morphy

Paul Charles Morphy was an American chess player. He is considered to have been the greatest chess master of his era and an unofficial World Chess Champion. He was a chess prodigy...

. He played Morphy in 1857, losing the title of US Chess Champion to his much better opponent.

He was married and later had a daughter Pauline, who was named after Morphy.

External links

• Games of Stanley at chessgames.com