The Manhattan Chess Club in Manhattan was the second-oldest chess club in the United States (next to the Mechanics' Institute Chess Club in San Francisco). The club was founded in 1877 and started with three dozen players; membership later reached into the hundreds before the club ended its existence in 2002.[1] The club resided at several locations.
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The club organized the New York international tournaments of 1924 (won by Emanuel Lasker) and 1927 (won by José Capablanca),[2] frequently hosted rounds of the U.S. Chess Championship starting in the 1930s,[2] and was the site of two World Championship matches in 1886 and 1891.[3] The club's own championships were some of the strongest tournaments in the United States (Frank Marshall and Isaac Kashdan, both grandmasters, won the championship thrice). Notable participants include Géza Maróczy, who played in several championships and won the Manhattan CC Championship in 1927, Abraham Kupchik, who won the club championship eleven times, Arthur Bisguier, who won seven times, Alexander Kevitz, Arnold Denker, and Walter Shipman, who won six times each, and David Graham Baird and Pal Benko, who won five times each.[4]
Players who developed their skills at the club include Samuel Reshevsky, Bobby Fischer, William Lombardy, I. A. Horowitz, Arnold Denker, and Arthur Feuerstein.
José Raúl Capablanca was watching a casual game in the club on 7 March 1942 when he fell ill and later died.[2]
The book The Bobby Fischer I Knew And Other Stories, by Denker and Larry Parr, contains many stories about the Manhattan Chess Club.