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

Emil Kemeny -- John Hilbert's article on Kemeny and correspondence chess is the most complete short bio of Kemeny I have seen (http://www.correspondencechess.com/...). Kemeny (photo: http://memory.loc.gov/ndlpcoop/ichi...) was born in Hungary and eventually returned there to live the last couple of decades of his life. He lived in several US cities, but is primarily remembered as a Philadelphia player. Kemeny wrote extensively on correspondence chess for the <Philadelphia Public Ledger>, published the <American Chess Weekly> for a year (which contained the definitive reporting on Game Collection: Monte Carlo 1903), and contributed to the <American Chess Magazine>.

Showalter 1 = 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 = 1 = 0 = 1 <9>

Kemeny, E 0 = 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 = 0 = 1 = 0 <5>

Showalter +1 +1 +2 +1 +2 +1 +2 +1 +2 +2 +3 +3 +2 +2 +3 (+7 -3 =4)

Showalter began the match well, avoiding his common pattern of falling behind early, by sacrificing the exchange for a pawn and activity in Game 1. He then began picking off loose pawns and won a fine ending. Game 2 was one of four draws in the match. In Game 3, Showalter won rather easily, again gathering up weak pawns. Game 4 was Kemeny's first win of the match, it being his turn to pick off loose pawns and score an "easy" win. This portion of the match (Games 3-9) had the two trading wins, with White winning all games. Showalter ripped open Kemeny's king position for a nice attack and win in Game 5 while Kemeny returned the favor with a similar attack in Game 6. Game 10 was the second draw of the match. Game 11 was the breaking point in the match. Kemeny blundered horribly with 42...Rf7?? in a pawn-down R+B ending he probably could have drawn. Showalter now had a three-game lead and needed only one more win. Kemeny was able to draw Games 12 and 14 and won Game 13 when Showalter blundered in a worse position, but Showalter's lead was too great for Kemeny to overcome. Showalter then won Game 15 and the match.