International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF) was founded on 26 March 1951 as a new appearance of the International

Correspondence Chess Correspondence chess is chess played by various forms of long-distance correspondence, traditionally through the postal system. Today it is usually played through a correspondence chess server, a public internet chess forum, or email. Less commo ...

Association (ICCA), which was founded in 1945, as successor of the

Internationaler Fernschachbund The Internationaler Fernschachbund (IFSB) was an international correspondence chess organisation, founded in 1928 and dissolved in 1939. It was superseded in 1945 by the International Correspondence Chess Association (ICCA) and after a restructurin ...

(IFSB), founded on 2 December 1928. The current chairman is Eric Ruch.

History

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 (

) was founded.

Alexander Alekhine Alexander Aleksandrovich Alekhine, ''Aleksándr Aleksándrovich Alékhin''; (March 24, 1946) was a Russian and French chess player and the fourth World Chess Champion, a title he held for two reigns. By the age of 22, Alekhine was already a ...

Paul Keres Paul Keres (; 7 January 1916 – 5 June 1975) was an Estonian chess grandmaster and chess writer. He was among the world's top players from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s, and narrowly missed a chance at a World Chess Championship match on five ...

and

Max Euwe Machgielis "Max" Euwe (; May 20, 1901 – November 26, 1981) was a Dutch chess player, mathematician, author, and chess administrator. He was the fifth player to become World Chess Champion, a title he held from 1935 until 1937. He served as ...

were well-known enthusiastic correspondence chess players during some periods of their chess careers.

ICSB

On 15 August 1928, the ICSB (Internationaler Correspondensschachbund/International Correspondence Chess Federation) was created under the leadership of Erich Otto Freienhagen (

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

), which had existed in a loose form since November 1927. Other members of the management were J.Keemink (

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

), K.Laue, H. von Massow, H.Schild (

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

) and C.Olsen (

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of ...

). This was the first successful attempt to create an international correspondence chess federation. It survived for only a short period, but its successor proved to be viable and successful.

IFSB

On 2 December 1928, a new federation was formed in

. To distinguish it from its predecessor, it was named the IFSB (Internationaler Fernschachbund). The founders were: R.Dührssen (President), J.Keemink (Vice-President), H. von Massow (Secretary), K.Laue (Teasurer) and L.Probst (Managing Editor). Freienhagen (and others from ICSB) continue in parallel with the IFSB. Freienhagen died in 1933. After this, correspondence chess players started joining IFSB. At that time, there was only individual membership and only later did it become possible for countries to be members. IFSB Champions: Eduard Dyckhoff and

Eugen Busch Eugen is a masculine given name which may refer to: * Archduke Eugen of Austria (1863–1954), last Habsburg Grandmaster of the Teutonic Order from 1894 to 1923 * Prince Eugen, Duke of Närke (1865–1947), Swedish painter, art collector, and pa ...

(

), 1929; E.Dyckhoff, 1930; A.H.Priwonitz (

), 1931; Hans Müller (

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

), 1932;

Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...

(

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

), 1933;

Hilding Persson Hilding may refer to: ;Given name *Hilding Ekelund (1893–1984), Finnish architect * Hilding Ekman (1893–1966), Swedish runner * Hilding Faxén (1892–1970), Swedish physicist * Hilding Gavle (1901–1969), Swedish actor *Hilding Hagberg (1899� ...

(

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

), 1934;

(

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, an ...

), 1935;

Milan Vidmar Milan Vidmar (22 June 1885 – 9 October 1962) was a Slovenian electrical engineer, chess player, Chess theory, chess theorist, and writer. He was among the top dozen chess players in the world from 1910 to 1930 and in 1950, was among the inaugu ...

(

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label= Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavij ...

), 1936; Miklos Szigeti (

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Cr ...

), 1937 and Edmund Adam (

), 1938. IFSB European Olympiad: the Hungarian Team (Balogh, Nagy, Szigeti, Barcza, Boros and Szucz) won the Final (1937-1939). When the Second World War began, the IFSB Board decided to discontinue its activity. The top officials during the history of the IFSB here: 1928-1934: R.Dührssen (President) - J.Keemink (Vice-President) 1934-1935: K.Schjorring (President) - I. Abonyi (Vice-President) 1935-1939: I.Abonyi (President) -

H.W. von Massow HW or Hw may refer to: Transportation * Haridwar Railway Station, Haridwar, India, station code * Hello (airline), IATA airline designator * North-Wright Airways, IATA airline designator Other uses * George H. W. Bush (1924–2018), 41st Presi ...

(General Secretary)

Current membership

ICCF, the present successor of the IFSB, is a federation of national member organizations. At this moment there are worldwide 56 ICCF national member federations 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.

Presidents

# Jean-Louis Ormond (1951–1955) #

Anders Elgesem Anders is a male name in Scandinavian languages and Fering North Frisian, an equivalent of the Greek Andreas ("manly") and the English Andrew. It originated from Andres via metathesis. In Sweden, Anders has been one of the most common names fo ...

(1955–1959) # Hans Werner von Massow (1959–1987) # Hendrik Mostert (1988–1996) # Alan Borwell (1997–2003) #

Josef Mrkvicka Josef may refer to *Josef (given name) *Josef (surname) * ''Josef'' (film), a 2011 Croatian war film *Musik Josef Musik Josef is a Japanese manufacturer of musical instruments. It was founded by Yukio Nakamura, and is the only company in Japan spe ...

(2003–2004) #

Max Zavanelli Max or MAX may refer to: Animals * Max (dog) (1983–2013), at one time purported to be the world's oldest living dog * Max (English Springer Spaniel), the first pet dog to win the PDSA Order of Merit (animal equivalent of OBE) * Max (gorilla) (1 ...

(2005, acting) #

Mohamed Samraoui Mohamed Samraoui (born 1953) is a former member of the Algerian secret services ( Intelligence and Security Directorate, DRS) who wrote a book claiming that the DRS had been involved in torture and extralegal killings, and had manipulated the Arme ...

(2005–2009) # Eric Ruch (2009–....)

Tournaments

Using its own language-independent chess notation, 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. Starting from 2011 ICCF organizes

chess960 Fischer random chess, also known as Chess960 (often read in this context as 'chess nine-sixty' instead of 'chess nine hundred sixty'), is a variation of the game of chess invented by the former world chess champion Bobby Fischer. Fischer anno ...

events. Almost the same kind of tournaments also exists within the three zones into which ICCF is divided: Europe, America/Pacific and Africa/Asia. Zone 1; Europe Director : Pavlikov, Andrey (RUS) Zone 2-3; America/Pacific Director : Bokar, Dr. Jason (USA) Zone 4; Africa/Asia Director : Knol, Everdinand (RSA) ICCF is closely co-operating with the leading world chess organization

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...

. All ICCF titles, championships and ratings are recognised by

Titles

The correspondence chess title International Correspondence Chess Grandmaster is a title that is rewarded by ICCF. ICCF correspondence chess titles: * GM: Correspondence Chess Grandmaster (minimum rating 2600) * SIM: Correspondence Chess Senior International Master (minimum rating 2525) * IM: Correspondence Chess International Master (minimum rating 2450) * CCM: Correspondence Chess Master (minimum rating 2300) * CCE: Correspondence Chess Expert (minimum rating 2150) Legacy titles: * LGM: Lady Grandmaster (equivalent to CCM) * LIM: Lady International Master (equivalent to CCE)

References

External links

* {{Authority control Correspondence chess organizations Sports organizations established in 1951 1951 in chess