The Marshall Chess Club, in

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village, or simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the north, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the s ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, is one of the oldest

chess club A chess club is a club formed for the purpose of playing the board game of chess. Chess clubs often provide for both informal and tournament games and sometimes offer league play. Traditionally clubs play over the board and face to face chess a ...

s in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. The club was formed in 1915 by a group of players led by Frank Marshall. It is a

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

and a gold affiliate of the

United States Chess Federation The United States Chess Federation (also known as US Chess or USCF) is the governing body for chess competition in the United States and represents the U.S. in FIDE, The World Chess Federation (FIDE). USCF administers the official national Chess ...

History

The Marshall Chess Club was a long-time rival of the

Manhattan Chess Club The Manhattan Chess Club in Manhattan, New York City was the second-oldest chess club in the United States (next to the Mechanics' Institute Chess Club in San Francisco) before it closed. The club was founded in 1877 and started with three dozen m ...

, a club which existed from 1877 to 2002. The Marshall Chess Club met in several temporary homes until it moved permanently to 23 West Tenth Street in 1931. The club occupies two floors of a townhouse at that address and owns the building. Marshall was the leader of the club until his death in 1944, when his wife Caroline took over its leadership. Frank Brady was elected president in 2007, and , the current president is Sarathi Ray. Some notable members of the club have been

Fabiano Caruana Fabiano Luigi Caruana (born July 30, 1992) is an Italian and American chess grandmaster who is the reigning four-time United States Chess Champion. With a peak rating of 2844, Caruana is the third-highest-rated player in history. Born in Mia ...

Arthur Dake Arthur William Dake (April 8, 1910 – April 28, 2000) was an American chess player. He was born in Portland, Oregon and died in Reno, Nevada. Biography Born Artur Darkowski, his father was of Polish and his mother of Norwegian ancestry (Edwar ...

, Larry Evans,

Reuben Fine Reuben C. Fine (October 11, 1914 – March 26, 1993) was an American chess player, psychologist, university professor, and author of many books on both chess and psychology. He was one of the strongest chess players in the world from the mi ...

Bobby Fischer Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943January 17, 2008) was an American Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Chess Champi ...

Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American filmmaker and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Stanley Kubrick filmography, his films were nearly all adaptations of novels or sho ...

Edmar Mednis Edmar John Mednis (; March 22, 1937 – February 13, 2002) was an American chess player and writer of Latvian origin. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1980. Biography Mednis' family were refugees in 1944 during World War ...

Hikaru Nakamura Christopher Hikaru NakamuraFred Reinfeld Fred Reinfeld (January 27, 1910 – May 29, 1964) was an American writer on chess and many other subjects. He was also a strong chess master, often among the top ten American players from the early 1930s to the early 1940s, as well as a colleg ...

, Anthony Santasiere, Herbert Seidman, James Sherwin, Albert Simonson, Andy Soltis,

Sam Sloan Samuel Howard Sloan (born September 7, 1944), also known as Mohammad Ismail Sloan, is an American perennial candidate and former broker-dealer. In 1978, he won a case ''pro se'' before the United States Supreme Court, becoming the last non-lawyer ...

, and

Howard Stern Howard Allan Stern (born January 12, 1954) is an American broadcaster and media personality. He is best known for his radio show, ''The Howard Stern Show'', which gained popularity when it was nationally syndicated on terrestrial radio from 1 ...

Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, ; ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, Futurism and conceptual art. He is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Pica ...

, a modern artist associated with the

Dada Dada () or Dadaism was an anti-establishment art movement that developed in 1915 in the context of the Great War and the earlier anti-art movement. Early centers for dadaism included Zürich and Berlin. Within a few years, the movement had s ...

and

Surrealist Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

movements, played for the club after moving to Greenwich Village in the 1940s; his photograph hangs on a wall of the club.

Tournaments

The club has been the site of several rounds of the U.S. Chess Championship.

played in the 1965 Capablanca Memorial Tournament being held in

Havana, Cuba Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Teletype A teleprinter (teletypewriter, teletype or TTY) is an electromechanical device that can be used to send and receive typed messages through various communications channels, in both point-to-point and point-to-multipoint configurations. Init ...

from the club with the board being there as well. The Game of the Century also was played there, in 1956 between Bobby Fischer and

Donald Byrne Donald Byrne (June 12, 1930 – April 8, 1976) was an American university professor and chess player. He held the title International Master, and competed for his country in the Chess Olympiad on several occasions. Biography Born in New York Ci ...

. The chess table used for the 2016 World Chess Championship is also in the club and is used as the "top board" in many tournaments. Table from World Chess Championship 2016

Table from World Chess Championship 2016

Daily tournaments are run at the club for both nonmembers and members ranging from weekly blitz tournaments to regular play where games are usually held once a week or over a weekend. These events range from beginner events to

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( , ), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national chess federations and acts as the Spor ...

titled events with several titled players. Club members can attend lectures, movie nights, members only tournaments, and a variety of other activities. They also pay less for other events and are entitled to stay at the club when tournaments are not happening on free nights. Notable events yearly include the Marshall International where Grandmaster and International Master norms can be obtained as well as their local club championship with both a titled section and an under 2300 section for untitled players. More recently, the Marshall has switched to an online interface used for tournament registration and for entering results with a small fee for registering late.

References

External links

Marshall Chess Club website
{{Authority control Chess clubs in the United States 1915 in chess Sports clubs and teams established in 1915 Sports in Manhattan Greenwich Village 1915 establishments in New York City