Charles Henry Stanley

Charles Henry Stanley (September 2, 1819 – October 6, 1901) was the first chess champion of the United States.

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

Stanley was an Englishman who emigrated from London to New York in 1843 to work in the British Consulate, and his English ideas had a great influence on American chess.

[1] 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.

The British minister to the United States John F. Crampton had orders to surreptitiously recruit Americans as soldiers in the Crimean War.

[4] Morphy never accepted prize money for his wins, and sent the earnings from his 1857 match directly to Stanley's wife, pregnant at the time.