International Correspondence Chess Federation

International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF) was founded in 1951 as a new appearance of the ICCA (International Correspondence Chess Association), which was founded in 1945, as successor of the IFSB

IFSB

The Internationaler Fernschachbund was an international correspondence chess organisation, founded in 1928. It was superseded in 1945 by the International Correspondence Chess Association, and by the International Correspondence Chess Federation in 1951.-Creation:In August 1928 the Internationaler...

(Internationaler Fernschachbund), founded in 1928.

The current chairman is Eric Ruch.

Correspondence chess

Correspondence chess is chess played by various forms of long-distance correspondence, usually through a correspondence chess server, through email or by the postal system; less common methods which have been employed include fax and homing pigeon...

is a variation of chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

played between towns, chess clubs and/or individuals, in settings where the opponents are not situated face-to-face. Means of communicating moves include:

courier
Courier
A courier is a person or a company who delivers messages, packages, and mail. Couriers are distinguished from ordinary mail services by features such as speed, security, tracking, signature, specialization and individualization of express services, and swift delivery times, which are optional for...

s such as human runners or even homing pigeon
Homing pigeon
The homing pigeon is a variety of domestic pigeon derived from the Rock Pigeon selectively bred to find its way home over extremely long distances. The wild rock pigeon has an innate homing ability, meaning that it will generally return to its own nest and its own mate...

s
(postal) coaches
usual postal transmissions
Mail
Mail, or post, is a system for transporting letters and other tangible objects: written documents, typically enclosed in envelopes, and also small packages are delivered to destinations around the world. Anything sent through the postal system is called mail or post.In principle, a postal service...

like train
Train
A train is a connected series of vehicles for rail transport that move along a track to transport cargo or passengers from one place to another place. The track usually consists of two rails, but might also be a monorail or maglev guideway.Propulsion for the train is provided by a separate...

s and (later) airplanes
electronic transmission such as e-mail
E-mail
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...

and web server
Web server
Web server can refer to either the hardware or the software that helps to deliver content that can be accessed through the Internet....

s/chess servers
Internet chess server
An Internet chess server is an external server that provides the facility to play, discuss, and view the board game of chess over the Internet...

. http://www.iccf-webchess.com/

In the past, postal chess was the most common appearance of ICCF.

In most sports you only can play regularly on an international basis when you are a national top-player. One of the charms of correspondence chess (whether you are playing the email or the postal version) is that you can play at an international level, even when you are starting to play this kind of a game for the first time.

Before ICCF

Some sources say that correspondence chess was already played in the 12th century. Most chess historians doubt whether this is true. In the 19th century chess clubs and magazines started to organize more regular tournaments, national as well as international tournaments. Finally in 1928 the first international league (IFSB

IFSB

) was founded. Alekhine

Alexander Alekhine

Alexander Alexandrovich Alekhine was the fourth World Chess Champion. He is often considered one of the greatest chess players ever.By the age of twenty-two, he was already among the strongest chess players in the world. During the 1920s, he won most of the tournaments in which he played...

, Keres

Paul Keres

Paul Keres , was an Estonian chess grandmaster, and a renowned chess writer. He was among the world's top players from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s....

and Euwe have been well-known enthusiastic correspondence chess players during some periods of their chess career.

Current membership

ICCF, the present successor of the IFSB, is a federation of national member organizations. At this moment there are worldwide over 60 ICCF national member federations

ICCF national member federations

The International Correspondence Chess Federation national member federations number 83 nations, divided into four geographical zones:*Zone 1: Europe *Zone 2: Latin America...

with altogether more than 100.000 individual member correspondence chess players. Most of them are playing several games simultaneously. Some of them are even playing more than 100 games at the same time. Most strong players think that 15 email games at the same time is the upper limit.

Tournaments

Using its own language-independent chess notation

ICCF numeric notation

ICCF numeric notation is the official chess game notation for all International Correspondence Chess Federation games. This is because in international correspondence chess the use of algebraic notation may cause confusion, since different languages have different names for the pieces.In brief,...

, ICCF organizes all kind of tournaments: individual and team championships, title norm tournaments and promotion tournaments (from Open Class until Master Class) – in postal, email and the ICCF correspondence server versions.

Almost the same kind of tournaments also exists within the four zones into which ICCF is divided: Europe, Latin America

Latin America

Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...

, North America/Pacific and Africa/Asia.

ICCF is closely co-operating with the leading world chess organization FIDE. All ICCF titles, championships and ratings are recognised by FIDE.

World championships

From 1951 until 2009, 25 finals of the World Championship have been organized. As of January 2010, 20 World Championships have been finished. The present World Champion is Joop van Oosterom

Joop van Oosterom

Joop van Oosterom is a Dutch billionaire and chess enthusiast. For many years he has staged the annual Melody Amber tournaments in Monaco, where world-class Grandmasters play rapid and blindfold games....

(HOL).

All his predecessors were also well-known chess personalities: Cecil Purdy (AUS), Viacheslav Ragozin

Viacheslav Ragozin

Viacheslav Vasilyevich Ragozin was a Soviet chess Grandmaster, an International Arbiter of chess, and a World Correspondence Chess Champion. He was also a chess writer and editor.- Biography :...

(USSR), Albéric O'Kelly de Galway

Albéric O'Kelly de Galway

Albéric O'Kelly de Galway was a Belgian chess Grandmaster , and an International Correspondence Chess Grandmaster , most famous for being the third ICCF World Champion in correspondence chess between 1959 and 1962. He was also a chess writer...

(BEL), Vladimir Sagorowski (USSR), Hans Berliner

Hans Berliner

Hans Jack Berliner , a Professor of , is a former World Correspondence Chess Champion, from 1965–68. He is a Grandmaster of Correspondence Chess, and an International Master for over-the-board chess. He directed the construction of the chess computer HiTech. Berliner is also a chess writer.-Life...

(USA), Horst Rittner (GDR), Yakov Estrin

Yakov Estrin

Yakov Borisovich Estrin was a Russian chess International Master, theoretician, and writer.After a brief foray into "over-the-board" play, he turned to correspondence chess in the early 1960s with immediate success Yakov Borisovich Estrin (April 21, 1923 – February 2, 1987) was a Russian chess...

(USSR), Jorn Sloth (DEN), Tõnu Õim

Tõnu Õim

Tõnu Õim is an Estonian grandmaster of correspondence chess, most famous for being the first man to have won the ICCF World Championship in correspondence chess twice, in 1983 and 1999.-Notable chess games:* *...

(USSR), Victor Palciauskas

Victor Palciauskas

Dr Victor Palciauskas is an American grandmaster of correspondence chess, most famous for being the tenth ICCF World Champion in correspondence chess between 1978 and 1984....

(USA), Fritz Baumbach (GDR), Grigory Sanakoev (RUS), Mikhail Umansky (RUS), Tõnu Õim

Tõnu Õim

(EST), Gert Jan Timmerman

Gert Jan Timmerman

Gert Jan Timmerman is a Dutch chess player, most famous for being the fifteenth ICCF World Champion in correspondence chess between 1996 and 2002....

(NED), Tunç Hamarat

Tunç Hamarat

Tunç Hamarat is a Turkish chess player living in Austria and the 16th International Correspondence Chess Federation World Champion in 2004....

(AUT) , Ivar Bern

Ivar Bern

Ivar Bern is a Norwegian chess player, most famous for being the seventeenth ICCF World Champion in correspondence chess. In over the board chess he holds an International Master title....

(NOR) and Christophe Léotard (FRA).

External links