Samuel Lipschutz was born in Hungary in 1863 and migrated to New York in 1880. He joined the Manhattan and new York Chess Clubs, soon became champion of the latter club and represented it at the British Chess Association Congress in London in 1886. Naturalized in 1888, he was the highest-placed American in the Sixth American Chess congress the following year. In 1892 he defeated Jackson Showalter in a match to become American champion. A sufferer of tuberculosis, he soon spent time away from New York and, after returning in 1895, lost a championship match to Showalter. He went to Germany in 1904 in search of a cure for his illness and died there late the following year. The book gives an account of Lipschutz’s chess career, life and milieu and addresses questions surrounding his first name, his periods away from New York and misconceptions concerning the American championship. the book contains 249 of his games.