Jacob Bernstein (born February 24, 1885 and died December 21, 1959) was an American chess master.

Born into a Jewish family in Kaunas, Lithuania,^[1] he lived in New York. He won three consecutive New York State Chess Championships (1920-1922),^[2] and shared 1st with Herman Steiner in 1929, but lost a tiebreak to him.^[3]

He also tied for 8-9th at New York 1913 (Rice tournament, José Raúl Capablanca won),^[4] tied for 5-6th at New York 1915 (Capablanca won),^[5] tied for 7-8th at New York 1916 (Rice tournament, Capablanca won),^[6] and lost a match to Abraham Kupchik (1.5 : 3.5) at New York 1916.^[7]

After World War I, he tied for 3-6th at New York 1922 (Edward Lasker won),^[8] took 13th at Carlsbad (Karlovy Vary) 1923,^[9] and tied for 7-10th at Pasadena 1932 (Alexander Alekhine won).^[10]