Pan American Chess Championship

For the team chess tournament held between 1971 and 2013, see Pan American Team Chess Championship. For the annual collegiate-level team chess tournament, see Pan American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship.

The Pan American Chess Championship, also American continental Championship is an individual chess tournament organized since 1945.

First pan American championships (1945 and 1954)

The first Pan American Chess Championship was held in Hollywood, 28 July – 12 August 1945. The line-up was as follows:

• 1. Samuel Reshevsky   United States 10.5,
• 2. Reuben Fine   United States 9,
• 3. Hermann Pilnik   Argentina 8.5,
• 4. Israel Horowitz   United States 8,
• 5. Isaac Kashdan   United States 7,
• 6. Héctor Rossetto   Argentina 6.5,
• 7–8. Weaver Adams   United States, Herman Steiner   United States 5.5,
• 9–10. Walter Cruz   Brazil, José Joaquin Araiza   Mexico 5,
• 11. Jose Broderman   Cuba 3.5,
• 12. Herbert Seidman   United States 3,
• 13. Joaquin Camarena   Mexico 1.^[1]

The second championship was held in 1954 in Los Angeles and was an open tournament.^[2]

Winners

Pan American Championship

#	Year	City	Winner
1*	1945	Hollywood	Samuel Reshevsky (USA)
2*	1954	Los Angeles	Arthur Bisguier (USA)
3*	1958	Bogotá	Oscar Panno (ARG)
4*	1963	Havana	Eleazar Jiménez (CUB)
5*	1966	Havana	Eleazar Jiménez (CUB)
6*	1968	Cárdenas	Silvino García Martínez (CUB)
7*	1970	Havana	Eleazar Jiménez (CUB)
1	1974	Winnipeg	Walter Browne (USA)
2	1977	Santa Cruz	Herman Claudius Van Riemsdijk (BRA)
3	1981	San Pedro	Zenon Franco (PAR)
4	1987	La Paz	Pablo Ricardi (ARG)
5	1988	Havana	Juan Borges (CUB)
6	?	?
7	?	?
8	1998	San Felipe	Alexander Ivanov (USA)

American Continental Chess Championship

The American Continental Chess Championship qualified in 2001 and 2003 the top seven players for the FIDE World Championships. From 2005, this tournament has been played as a qualifier for the World Cup stage of the World Championship. The number of players who qualified changed in the various editions. In 2005, the top seven players qualified for the Chess World Cup 2005. In 2014 and 2015 the top four earned a spot in the Chess World Cup 2015.

#	Year	City	Winner
1	2001	Cali	Alex Yermolinsky (USA)
2	2003	Buenos Aires	Alexander Goldin (USA)
3	2005	Buenos Aires	Lázaro Bruzón (CUB)
4	2007	Cali	Julio Granda (PER)
*	2008	Boca Raton	Jaan Ehlvest (USA)
5	2009	São Paulo	Alexander Shabalov (USA)   Fidel Corrales Jimenez (CUB)^[3]
*	2010	Cali	Sergio Andres Sanabria Rangel (COL)
6	2011	Toluca	Lázaro Bruzón (CUB)
7	2012	Mar del Plata	Julio Granda (PER)
8	2013	Cochabamba	Julio Granda (PER)
9	2014	Natal, Rio Grande do Norte	Julio Granda (PER)
10	2015	Montevideo	Sandro Mareco (ARG)
11	2016	San Salvador	Emilio Córdova (PER)
12	2017	Medellín	Samuel Sevian (USA)
13	2018	Montevideo	Samuel Shankland (USA)
14	2019	São Paulo	Eduardo Iturrizaga Bonelli (VEN)
?	?	?	?
15	2022	San Salvador	Timur Gareyev (USA)

*Note: 2008 and 2010 editions' official name was Campeonato Panamericano-Continental, instead of Campeonato Continental de las Americas as the others.

American Continental Women's Championship

The American Continental Women's Chess Championship serves as a qualifier for the knockout Women's World Chess Championship.

#	Year	City	Winner
1	2001	Mérida	Sulennis Piña Vega (CUB)
2	2003	San Cristobal	Rusudan Goletiani (USA)
3	2005	Guatemala	Sulennis Piña Vega (CUB)
4	2007	Potrero de los Funes	Sarai Sanchez Castillo (VEN)
5	2009	Cali	Martha Fierro (ECU)
6	2011	Guayaquil	Deysi Cori (PER)
7	2014	Buenos Aires	Carolina Luján (ARG)
8	2016	Lima	Deysi Cori (PER)
9	2017	Villa Martelli	Deysi Cori (PER)
10	2018	Envigado	Deysi Cori (PER)
11	2019	Aguascalientes	Maili-Jade Ouellet (CAN)

• In 2007 Marisa Zuriel won a rapid playoff with Sarai Sanchez Castillo to qualify for the world championship but the Champion of the tournament was Sarai Sanchez:^[4][5]

Pan American Women's Championship

#	Year	City	Winner
1	1980	Córdoba	Edith Soppe (ARG)
2	1996	Bogotá	Vivian Ramón (CUB)
3	1997	Mérida	Claudia Amura (ARG)
4	1998	San Felipe	Sabina Hernández Penna (ARG)
5	1999	San Felipe	Yadira Hernández (MEX)
6	2000	Mérida	Maritza Arribas Robaina (CUB)
7	2006	San Salvador	Sulennis Piña Vega (CUB)
8	2008	San Salvador	Zirka Frometa (CUB)
9	2010	Campinas	Yanira Vigoa (CUB)
10	2012	Montevideo	Carla Heredia Serrano (ECU)
11	2014	Palmira	Beatriz Franco (COL)
12	2016	Manzanillo, Colima	Deysi Cori (PER)

References

• BrasilBase: Campeonatos Panamericanos (in Portuguese)
• Complete standings on Chess-Results: 2007, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015
• FIDE: 2011
• Results from The Week in Chess: 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2008
• American Continental Women's Championship standings: , 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

Notes

1. Hollywood 1945 Pan-American Championship BrasilBase
2. Wall, Bill. "California Chess in the 1950s". Retrieved 23 August 2015.
3. There was no playoff to determine the winner: Chessdom report, blog of the official website
4. "Bienvenido a la Asociacion Sanluiseña de Ajedrez".
5. ChessBase report (in Spanish)

Further reading

• Golombek, Harry, ed. (1977), Golombek's Encyclopedia of Chess, Crown Publishing, ISBN 0-517-53146-1

External links

• 2003 on uschess.org
• 2005 edition, Chessbase
• On the championship as qualifier
• Biography on Eleazar Jiménez