ICCF U.S.A.

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[edit] History

The Correspondence Chess League of America (CCLA) was the first American chess club to become an ICCF affiliate. It was created in 1917 as a merger of 4 clubs, one of which was a Canadian club. The number of Canadians in CCLA diminished after the Canadian Chess Association took over the Canadian Correspondence Chess Championship.

CCLA accepted the invitation of the International Correspondence Chess Association (ICCA) to become a member in 1946. Participation began in 1947 with a team of 100 players competing against teams from Belgium, England, Finland, France, Holland, and Sweden conducted by ICCA. The first time the US was invited to play in an ICCF Olympiad event was in 1958. This was the Final Olympiad III team tourney in which the USSR was invited also to enter a team for the first time.

Walter Muir took over the CCLA post of ICCF-US Secretary in 1969. Muir started playing chess in 1917 and didn’t stop until shortly before his death in December 1999. Muir’s father was Canadian. As a result, Muir was active in both US and Canadian chess. He won the Canadian CCA championship 8 times between 1928 and 1942! He is the first native born American to earn an ICCF Master Title. He had 520 games rated by ICCF at the end of 1997! He was awarded an Honorary Membership in ICCF in 1998.

Muir’s promotional efforts increased US participation in ICCF events. He worked with John Cleeve of Canada to establish an ICCF North American Championship Invitational Tournament with five Canadian and 10 USA players to be selected by the ICCF Secretaries of both countries. The North American Champion would be seeded into the World Championship Final. Today the winner is entered in only the ¾ final. The 1970 ICCF Congress agreed to this. The winner of the First North American Invitational Chess Championship was Robert G. Cross of the United States in 1971.

In 1974, John Cleeve was the first North American to attend an ICCF Presidium meeting at that time in Nice, France. The knowledge received there was useful to both countries to create opportunities for their players. Walter Muir realized that the USA needed an ICCF affiliate that could represent members of all US clubs. He created the United States Postal Chess Union (USPCU) to be that US affiliate. He drafted a constitution with a President and Advisory Council with himself continuing as ICCF-US Director. Muir also began recruiting top non CCLA players to compete in ICCF events as well as to compete in the CCLA member only US Championship. The cost of the USPCU operation was borne entirely by the fees paid by US players participating in ICCF events. This did not solve all the problems since CCLA was still the official delegate to ICCF. By 1977 CCLA also presented a draft of an “umbrella organization” that was acceptable to ICCF.

The United States Postal Chess Federation, USPCF, became that organization with its own constitution. Initially it provided access for international postal play for members of CCLA, United States Chess Federation (USCF), American Postal Chess Tournaments (APCT). Knights of the Square Table (NOST) and The Chess Connection (TCC) later joined. Robert A. Karch served as ICCF-US Secretary for over 5 years. The organization had financial problems in part because it could not charge membership dues to cover the increasing ICCF dues. The US was faced with the possibility of being dropped from ICCF because of this and because of problems with some players.

There was a meeting in Chicago of USPCF with all major organizations in attendance. It was unanimously proposed that Max Zavanelli become Secretary. The USPCF Constitution would be in force. Max Zavanelli took over as ICCF-US Secretary in June 1987. He was faced with the challenges of putting USPCF back in good financial standing and of enforcing a new dropout policy because US players had caused problems in several tournaments by dropping out silently. Zavanelli was the first ICCF-US Secretary who could regularly attend ICCF Congresses and who became active in ICCF affairs.

When Zavanelli took over, Victor Palciauskas was the only active GM as Hans Berliner had retired from correspondence chess. There are now 6 more GMs; Alik S. Zilberberg earned the title in 1994, Joseph A. de Mauro in 1997, and Robin Smith and John C. Timm both earned the title in 2004, and Dr. Jason Bokar earned the title in 2007. Of the 7 Americans who had received IMs through 1988, only three were active. There are now, 29 active IMs and 14 active SMs. Two ladies, Dr. G. L. Langan and Dr. C. A. Rosenfield, have attained the International Ladies Master title since 1988.

The number of International Arbiters increased from 3 to 9 under Zavanelli. The US IA’s are D. R. Adamson, Dr. G. S. Benner, Dr. T. Bullockus, J. F. Campbell, M. Carter, T. Dougherty, A. A. Jones, B. Koppin, K. Rodriguez, J. B. Skeels, A. Wright, W. K. Underwood, and Prof. M. Zavanelli.

In 2007, Ruth Ann Fay received the Bertl von Massow award for meritorious service.

USPCF under the direction of Max Zavanelli organized the First National Team Championship Tournament early in 1991. USCF, CCLA, APCT, TCC, and NOST each entered a team on 50 boards. Dr. G. S. Benner, ICCF International Arbiter, was the Tournament Secretary. The event was won by APCT. This was a one time event because The Chess Connection had financial problems and ceased operation during the event.

[edit] World Champions from the United States of America

The United States of America has had 2 World Champions. The first, GM Hans Berliner, won the Fifth World Championship in 1968. He was one of the top over the board players in the 1950’s when he switched to correspondence chess. He won the Championship the hard way – by qualifying through a series of preliminary events – at a time when very few top US players were active in ICCF. Unfortunately, he decided to retire from his correspondence chess career at the top. He is the first person to be initiated into the (US) Chess Hall of Fame based on his correspondence record of 90 wins, 8 draws and 1 loss.

GM Victor Palciauskas won the Tenth World Championship in 1984. He was nominated for a vacancy in the Finals because of his excellent performance in the North American Invitational Correspondence Chess Championship II. He had earned the GM title in 1983. He has continued to play over the years. He is participating in the First Email Correspondence Chess Championship.

Both champions have indicated in interviews that winning the championship takes a tremendous amount of hard work as well as the desire to win!

GM Hans Berliner came out of retirement in 2001 to play in the Jubilee World Champions’ Section. Victor Palciauskas is also playing in this section.

[edit] Olympiad Teams

The USA team to the 14th Olympiad Final brought home a bronze medal. We are very proud of our team members as this is the first time the USA has won a medal in an Olympiad. The team members were GM Alik Samulovich Zilberberg, SM Stephen L. Jones, SM Daniel M. Fleetwood, SM Gary L. Kubach, SM Christopher T. Sergel, and IM Jeffery L. Tilghman. Thomas J. Dougherty, I.A., was the Captain.

[edit] History of the US Correspondence Chess Championships

The ICCF affiliate has the right to hold national championships. Plans for such a championship were begun in 1969 but the first tournament did not begin until July 1, 1972. It was probably the first tournament in the USA to use ICCF time controls. It is played in two rounds with new preliminaries beginning every 2 years. At first only the Final was rated by ICCF. After 1980 USPCF began conducting the USCCC beginning with the Fifth USCCC. It is open to players of all US clubs. A rating of 2000 or higher is required now. The winner qualifies for the World Championship semi-finals.

Originally it was hoped that there would be 15 sections with 15 players. The winner of each section would then play in a final 15 player round. Over the years the number of entrants dropped and the format had to be changed to accommodate the smaller field. When Max Zavanelli took over as ICCF-US Secretary, one of his goals was to make this the premier US event again.

Beginning with the Final Round of the 8th USCCC, he invited all former USCCC champions to participate. Previous champions had not competed, as they did not want to go through the preliminaries again. He invited each of the US correspondence chess clubs to nominate their champion to represent their club in the final. This made the field larger and much stronger. This made the 8th USCCC one of the strongest correspondence chess events held in the United States. Play is currently underway in the 12th, 13th and 14th championships.

Zavanelli has done much to promote the USCCC over the years. He is now famous for his quote: “This is the United States Championship, not tiddlywinks.”

[edit] The US Correspondence Chess Champions

First R. Anthony Cayford
Second Dr. Eugene Martinovsky
Third Dr. Victor Contoski
Fourth Curtis W. Carlson
Fifth Paul T. Fielding and Kiven J. Plesset
Sixth Robert I. Reynolds
Seventh David C. Taylor
Eight Marc J. Lonoff and Dr. Eugene Martinovsky
Ninth Stephen Jones
Tenth Jon Edwards
Eleventh Stephen Jones, Timothy Murray and Robin Smith
Twelfth Craig Jones and Konstantin Dolgitser
Thirteenth Robin Smith
Fourteenth Randy Schmidt
Fifteenth Edward Duliba

[edit] Year 2000 ICCF Congress held in Daytona Beach, Florida

The United States hosted the ICCF Congress in Daytona Beach, Florida in September 2000. This was only the second time the Congress had not been held in Europe. It provided an opportunity for the titled US players to meet and play the “Rest of the World” in a special evening chess event. Everyone had a good time, even though the US lost the match. Attendees included both US World Champions and delegates and friends from 20 nations.

[edit] ICCF Offices

Max Zavanelli was NAPZ Director and ICCF-US Secretary until 2000. He became ICCF Deputy President in 2003. Following the unexpected resignation of Josef Mrkvicka as President in December 2004, Max Zavanelli became the Acting President. He served in this position until the 2005 Congress in Argentina elected Med Samraoui as President. Max Zavanelli resigned both his ICCF and ICCF-US offices in 2006. Ruth Ann Fay was elected as NAPZ Director in 2003. She has announced that she will not run again and will cease all chess activities at the end of 2007. Jason Bokar will also be ending his term as NAPZ Deputy Director and ICCF-US webmaster [1].

Titled players

[edit] Grandmasters

[edit] Senior International Master

  • Callaghan, Richard S. (jun)
  • Cayford, Richard Anthony
  • Duliba, Dr. Edward P.
  • Edwards, Jon
  • Embrey, Kevin W.
  • Fleetwood, Daniel M.
  • Jones, Stephen L.
  • Knudsen, John C.
  • Kubach, Gary L.
  • Meyers, Jerry
  • Murray, Timothy J.
  • Parnas, Dr. Anatole
  • Pedersen, N. Eric
  • Sergel, Christopher T.
  • Weisskohl, Jerry
  • Zavanelli, Prof. Max E.

[edit] International Master

  • Albano, Anthony
  • Ballantyne, Wayne W.
  • Boucher, William
  • Brandhorst, Wesley T.
  • Callaway, Joseph E.
  • Camaratta, Frank Alfonse (jun)
  • Conover, Wayne
  • Cross, Robert Gary
  • Dehmelt, Bernard Karl (jun)
  • Deuel, Alfred Yefimovich
  • duCret, Ren‚ P.
  • Dyck, Christopher van
  • Eckert, Douglas D.
  • Eisen, David J.
  • Foygel, Igor
  • Gibbons, Bart F.
  • Golyak, Isay Grigorievich
  • Grant, Steve
  • Hayward, Keith Rex
  • Hickmann, Herbert W.
  • Jacobs, Robert Merton
  • Jones, C. Bill
  • Jones, Craig
  • Kalish, John Peter
  • Kell, Spencer R.
  • Limayo, Edgardo V.
  • Lonoff, Marc J.
  • Maillard, William E.
  • Melts, Michail
  • Miettinen, Kristo S.
  • Millstone, Michael
  • Mousessian, John
  • Musitani, Cesar
  • Osbun, Eric
  • Reynolds, Prof. Robert I.
  • Rizzo, Robert
  • Rodriguez, Keith A.
  • Savage, Allan George
  • Schakel, Corky
  • Skeels, James B.
  • Stengelin, Dr. Martin
  • Sunna, Hisham N.
  • Tangborn, Eric
  • Tennant, Dr. Steven Randall
  • Thompson, Paul L.
  • Tilghman, Jeffrey L.
  • Watson, Alan L.
  • Wood, Dr. Walter H.

[edit] Ladies Grandmaster

[edit] International Ladies Master

  • Langan, Dr. Gina
  • Rosenfield, Dr. Christine

[edit] References

  1. ^ ICCF-US Webpages

[edit] External links