-- under construction --

For links to other early matches for the US championship see Game Collection: US Championship matches (meta)

First match for US Championship

Charles Henry Stanley -- Stanley began the first newspaper chess column in America and wrote for a number of periodicals. He also founded <The American Chess Magazine>, an early US publication. He was considered the strongest player in New York at the time, and this led eventually to a match with Rousseau, considered the strongest player in the south.

Eugene Rousseau -- Rousseau was the strongest player in the south at the time. He was born in France and moved to the US in 1841.

Played for a stake of $1000 at the New Orleans Chess Club, 1-27 Dec 1845. The first player to win 15 games would win the match. Games 1-18 with light notes may be found in Stanley's chess column in the <Spirit of the Times> starting in late Dec 1845 and continuing through Jan 1846 (http://www.chessarch.com/excavation... or the timeline http://www.chessarch.com/excavation...). Stanley was in New Orleans for the match, so his column was being guest edited. Soon after the match concluded, Stanley published a small booklet with all of the games, and this, along with the desire to move on to more current matters (his match with John William Schulten, for example) meant that Games 19-31 were not published in his column. All of the "rounds" for games 1-18 are correct, so I assume whoever uploaded the games had access to Stanley's booklet or some other source and I will accept the game numbers for Games 19-31 as correct unless shown otherwise.

Although very young, Paul Morphy attended the match. His uncle, Ernest Morphy, was Rousseau's second.

Stanley C 1 1 1 = 0 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 = = 1 0 0 1 0 = 0 = = 1 = 1 0 = 1 1 1 <19>

Rousseau 0 0 0 = 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 = = 0 1 1 0 1 = 1 = = 0 = = 1 = 0 0 0 <12>

Stanley +1 +2 +3 +3 +2 +1 +2 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +5 +5 +6 +5 +4 +5 +4 +4 +3 +3 +3 +4 +4 +5 +4 +4 +5 +6 +7

The match was expected to be much more closely contested. Stanley established an early three-game lead and, despite slipping to a single game lead, re-established his lead and built on it. The games are of varying quality, and the notes in Stanley's newspaper column are the usual brief notes to recommend better moves or indicate why a particular move would fail, but in the notes to Game 8, Stanley's ghost columnist could not resist this comment on Black's 31st move:

"We have frequently heard of men wilfully 'running their heads against brick walls;' instances like the present are, however, more rare. Mr. S. having himself created a neat and compact structure whereon to try the strength of his cranium." 1/3/1846