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 (IFSB), founded on 2 December 1928. The current president 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 ( Internationaler Fernschachbund) was founded.

Alexander Alekhine Alexander Aleksandrovich Alekhine. He disliked when Russians sometimes pronounced the of as , , which he regarded as a Yiddish distortion of his name, and insisted that the correct Russian pronunciation was . (March 24, 1946) was a Russian ...

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 Championship, World Chess Champion, a title he held from 1935 ...

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 of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

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

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

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

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

) and C.Olsen (

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom 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 (

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

), 1931; Hans Müller (

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

), 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, Futurism and conceptual art. He is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Pica ...

(

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

), 1933; Hilding Persson (

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

), 1934;

(

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

), 1935;

Milan Vidmar Milan Vidmar (; 22 June 1885 – 9 October 1962) was a Slovenian electrical engineer, chess player, 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 inaugural recip ...

(

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

), 1936; Miklos Szigeti (

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

), 1937 and

Edmund Adam Edmund is a masculine given name in the English language. The name is derived from the Old English elements ''ēad'', meaning "prosperity" or "riches", and ''mund'', meaning "protector". Persons named Edmund include: People Kings and nobles *Ed ...

(

), 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 (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 The International Correspondence Chess Federation national member federations number 56 nations, divided into four geographical zones: *Zone 1: Europe (35 countries) *World Zone (16 countries) *Zone 4: Africa/Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest ...

. Most of them are playing several games simultaneously.

Presidents

# (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) # (1959–1987) # (1988–1996) # (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 spec ...

(2003–2004) #

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

(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 Arm ...

(2005–2009) # Eric Ruch (2009–Now)

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 and the ICCF correspondence server versions. Starting from 2011 ICCF organizes

chess960 Chess960, also known as Fischer Random Chess, is a chess variant that randomizes the starting position of the pieces on the back rank. It was introduced by former world chess champion Bobby Fischer in 1996 to reduce the emphasis on opening prepa ...

events. 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 ( , ), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national chess federations and acts as the Spor ...

. 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 when a candidate meets the one of following qualifications: # That player who places 1–3 in the World Championship fina

§1.5.2.2.a) # They are highest scoring player on board 1 in the final of the CC Olympiad after all scheduled tiebreaking rules are applied, but only with a positive scor

§1.5.2.2.b) # They gain at least two grandmaster norms in international title tournaments with a total of at least 24 games. (This number of games may be reduced if the player overscores sufficiently to achieve the standard norm requirements over 24 games

§1.5.2.2.c) # The national federation representing the candidate makes an appropriately qualified application. For this, a two-third majority vote of Congress must be obtaine

§1.5.2.2.d) Other ICCF correspondence chess titles include: * SIM: Correspondence Chess Senior International Master * IM: Correspondence Chess International Master * CCM: Correspondence Chess Master * CCE: Correspondence Chess Expert Legacy titles (No longer awarded): * 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