New York State Chess Association

The New York State Chess Association (NYSCA) is the oldest continuously-run chess organization in the United States, having been formed in Auburn, New York in 1878, as the "Western New York and Northern Pennsylvania Chess Association." The NYSCA name has been used since 1886. It is the official New York State affiliate of the United States Chess Federation, and its history pre-dates the establishment of USCF. It organizes a variety of State-sanctioned championship tournaments ^[1] across New York State, including the annual New York State Chess Championship, which has been held in Albany on Labor Day weekend since 2006.

While the State Championship and State Scholastic Championship has been held in every major city in the state, in recent years the State Championship and State Scholastic Championship has been most successful in the Albany-Saratoga region. The State Scholastic, the oldest of its kind in the US, celebrated its 56th anniversary in Saratoga Springs in February–March 2023.^{[ citation needed ]}

New York State champions have included Bobby Fischer, Joel Benjamin, José Capablanca, and Frank Marshall. The current -- and 146th annual -- champion is FM William Graif, who earned the title in 2024. ^[2] The current Scholastic champion is New York City player FM Gus Huston. The article "Hamilton 1941" by Bill Townsend, describing the games of a week-long championship held at Colgate University, won a Chess Journalists of America award for Best Historical Article.

NYSCA currently has several hundred members. Its current president, as of 2025, is New York City chess teacher Sophia Rohde.

Karl Heck is the editor of Empire Chess, the quarterly periodical of NYSCA.

Other major events sponsored by NYSCA include the New York State Open, which has been held in Lake George the past few years. There is a highly successful Girls Championships, which have been held in New York City.

Membership in NYSCA is $20 for one year, and $57 for three years for four printed issues of Empire Chess.

NYSCA also provides funding for its champions to attend the Denker Tournament of High School Champions, the Barber K-8 Championship, Rockefeller Tournament of Elementary School Champions and the Irwin Tournament of Senior Champions.

New York State champions

This is a list of winners of the New York State chess championship, as given by the association. ^[2] In the early days, the association also included northern Pennsylvania, hence the 1881 championship held in Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania. While current regulations require the title holder to be a resident of New York State, this has not always been the case, hence the win by Swiss master Paul Johner in 1911. For various reasons, in some years no championship was held.

	Year	Champion	Location
1	1878	Judge James R. Cox	Auburn
2	1879	H. A. Richmond	Auburn
3	1880	Rev. Samuel R. Calthrop	Syracuse
4	1881	Rev. John Costello	Tunkhannock, PA
5	1882	George H. Thornton	Buffalo
6	Jan 1883	Rev. Samuel R. Calthrop	Elmira
7	Dec 1883	Niles D. Luce	Elmira
8	1884	Niles D. Luce	Elmira
9	1885	Niles D. Luce	Elmira
10	1886	Dr. J. M. Cassety	Albany
11	1887	Eugene Delmar	New York City
12	1889	Samuel Lipschutz	New York City
13	1890	Eugene Delmar	New York City
14	1891	Eugene Delmar	New York City
15	1892	Albert Hodges	Skaneateles
16	1893	Albert Hodges	New York City
17	1894	Alber Hodges	New York City
18	1895	David Graham Baird	New York City
19	1896	Nicolai Jasnogrodsky	New York City
20	1897	Eugene Delmar	New York City
21	1898	Gustav H. Koehler	New York City
22	1899	Samuel Lipschutz, William M. DeVisser	New York City
23	1900	Eugene Delmar	New York City
24	1901	Julius Finn	New York City
25	1902	Berthold Lasker	New York City
26	1903	Otto Roething	New York City
27	1906	Hermann Helms	New York City
28	1907	Julius Finn	New York City
29	1908	Julius Finn	New York City
30	1909	Clarence Howell	New York City
31	1910	Jose Raoul Capablanca	New York City
32	1911	Paul Johner	New York City
33	1912	Jacob Rosenthal	New York City
34	1913	Leonard B. Meyer, George J. Beihoff	New York City
35	1914	Roy Turnbull Black	New York City
36	1915	Abraham Kupchik	New York City
37	1916	Harold E. Jennings	Buffalo
38	1917	Oscar Chajes	Rochester
39	1918	Kenneth S. Howard	Rochester
40	1919	Abraham Kupchik	Troy
41	1920	Jacob Bernstein	Albany
42	1921	Jacob Bernstein	Syracuse
43	1922	Jacob Bernstein	Buffalo
44	1923	Rudolph Smirka	Buffalo
45	1924	Carlos Torre	Rochester
46	1925	Hermann Helms	Buffalo
47	1926	Milton Hanauer	Rome
48	1927	Rudolph Smirka	Rome
49	1928	Anthony Santasiere	Buffalo
50	1929	Herman Steiner	Buffalo
51	1930	Anthony Santasiere	Utica
52	1931	Fred Reinfeld	Rome
53	1932	Nathan Grossman	Rome
54	1933	Fred Reinfeld	Syracuse
55	1934	Robert Levenstein	Syracuse
56	1935	Isaac Kashdan	Binghamton
57	1936	Isaac Kashdan	Poughkeepsie
58	1937	David Polland	Cazenovia
59	1938	Arnold Denker	Cazenovia
60	1939	Arnold Denker	Hamilton
61	1940	Robert Willman	Hamilton
62	1941
63	1942
64	1943
65	1945
66	1946
67	1947
68	1948
69	1949
70	1950
71	1951
72	1952
73	1953
74	1954
75	1955
76	1956
77	1957
78	1958
79	1959
80	1960
81	1961
82	1962
83	1963
84	1964
85	1965
86	1966
87	1967
88	1968
89	1969
90	1970
91	1971
92	1972
93	1973
94	1974
95	1975
96	1976
97	1977
98	1978
99	1979
100	1980
101	1981
102	1982
103	1983
104	1984
105	1985
106	1986
107	1987
108	1988
109	1989
110	1990
111	1991
112	1992
113	1993
114	1994
115	1995
116	1996
117	1997
118	1998
119	1999
120	2000
121	2001
122	2002
123	2003
124	2004
125	2005
126	2006
127	2007
128	2008
129	2009
130	2010
131	2011
132	2012
133	2013
134	2014
135	2015
136	2016
137	2017
138	2018
139	2019
140	2020
141	2021
142	2022
143	2023
144	2024

References

1. "144th annual New York State Championship". US Chess.org. 2022-04-13. Retrieved 2022-09-27.
2. "NYS Champions". NYSCA. September 2024. Retrieved 3 July 2025.

External links

• New York State Chess Association Home Page