12-January-2000: Just received from Kristo Miettinen:

I regret to write that IM Walter Muir passed away on December 29th. His funeral was held on January 7th.

13-December-99: Manny Migicovsky of the Canadian Correspondence Chess Association has come up with an excellent idea. His suggestion is for friends of IM Walter Muirto send him cards for the holiday season wishing him the best. Walter is 95 years old now and apparently not in the best of health. He has had a fabulous and long career in correspondence chess and is a real role model for cc competitors.

I join with Manny in encouraging the friends of Walter Muir to take a moment to send him a seasonal card wishing him the best at Christmas and in the New Year. He's not on-line, so please send him a card by post. His postal address is:

9-October-99: During the recent annual ICCF Congress in Thun, Switzerland, ICCF-U.S. Secretary Max Zavanelli accepted awards on behalf of members of the USA correspondence chess community:

Dr. G. S. Benner received the Bertl von Massow Gold Medal and certificate, presented for 15 years of extraordinary service to ICCF. As reported by Max Zavanelli, Dr. Benner was the tournament secretary for his first ICCF Master Class section more than 25 years ago. He continues his work for cc within ICCF as the Tournament Director for the Pacific Area Team Tournament IV and as a USA Team Captain for other events.

Maurice Carter received the Bertl von Massow Gold Medal and certificate for his 15 years of extraordinary service to ICCF. Max Zavanelli credits Maurice Carter with performing a vital role in the USA cc program, making it possible for USA players of today to aspire to the IM and GM titles. Maurice Carter is serving at this time as Tournament Director for the 14th USCCC Semi-Finals.

The United States Pan American VI Team received a set of Gold Medals for winning the Pan American VI Team Championship, the first Gold Medals for any USA team in the history of ICCF. Five of the team members have earned their IM titles since the team was formed five years ago, with Embry, Pederson and Tears achieving their titles in this event. The team consisted of:

1st Board: IM Kevin W. Embrey
2nd Board: IM Tony Albano
3rd Board: IM N. Eric Pedersen
4th Board: IM Fred C. Tears
5th Board: Keith Holzmueller
6th Board: IM Joseph E. Callaway

Team Captain: Alan A. Jones

Regretfully, team member Fred C. Tears has passed away.

3-October-99: The premier USA correspondence chess organization APCT (American Postal Chess Tournaments) now has it's own web site, created by its webmaster J. Franklin Campbell of The Campbell Report. Known for its superior magazine, which regularly is named the best postal chess magazine by the Chess Journalists of America in their annual competition, the APCT is also the National Champion of the USA cc clubs and the home for the current USA cc Champion Jon Edwards. The Internet address for this new site is: http://correspondencechess.com/apct/.

23-September-99: The ICCF Congress in Thun, Switzerland is over and we can look forward to some interesting reports. Daily reports on the Congress for the first three days are now available. For additional reports watch the ICCF Web Site.

20-September-99: Two full days of ICCF Congress meetings are now finished and it appears that the delegates are working long, hard days to get through all their work. Pedro Hegoburu (ICCF Press Officer) is posting daily reports on the Congress which make for entertaining reading. Check out the ICCF Web Site for links to the first two (and following) reports. Or you can go directly to ICCF Congress - Day1 and ICCF Congress - Day2 for the first two reports.

It turns out that 6 of of the 8 living World Champions are attending this ICCF Congress: Grigory Sanakoev and Mikhail Umansky from Russia, Vytas Palciauskas from the USA, Fritz Baumbach and Horst Rittner from Germany, and 2-time champion Tonu Oim from Estonia.

18-September-99: The annual ICCF Congress will get underway tomorrow in Thun, Switzerland. Much of the decision making of ICCF occurs at this annual week-long Congress. An early report from CC.COM's webmaster John Knudsen, who is in Thun, indicates that Russian Sergey Grodzensky has withdrawn from the election for General Secretary, leaving England's representative Alan Rawlings unopposed. This means that there will be no contested elections this year.

Besides the ICCF officers and representatives from national member organizations (ICCF-U.S. Secretary Max Zavanelli is there representing the USA) there are at least three cc World Champions at the meeting: Fritz Baumbach, Vicktor Palciauskas, and Tõnu Õim.

16-September-99: I just added a new chess link where you can follow email games in progress. Partidas por e-mail - Games of David Llada is an attractive site in Spanish showing David Llada's games (with notes and diagrams). This is a good opportunity to become familiar with Spanish algebraic notation. Thanks to Jesús López de Lerma Ruiz for bringing this nice site to my attention. He added, "You asked for new links to live coverage of email games. Well, I can provide you one from Spain; or to be more precise, from Pravia, a small town in Asturias, in the north of Spain, which has a lot of History as you can learn in this pages. They are ruled by a chessfriend called David Llada ..." Be sure to check the links at the bottom of the page if you enjoy poking around chess web sites.

15-September-99: For a humorous look at the sometimes comical world of OTB chess, check out Klub Karpov! There only seems to be the one page at the moment (perhaps some of the links will become active in the future) but this single page is well worth a look. Too bad about the pesky popup ads that come with geocities sites, though.

14-September-99: Today I moved the crosstables for two sections of the ICCF NAPZ (North American/Pacific Zone) Master Class from the unfinished page to the finished page. Congratulations to Rene P. duCret (USA) and Artur Mrugala (CAN) for tying for first with 5-1 scores in M-59 and to Edward Duliba (USA) for winning section M-65 with 5½-½. Rene deCret recently qualified for the ICCF International Master title with his outstanding performance in the 3rd NAPZ Championship. Meanwhile, Edward Duliba is having an outstanding tournament in the 14th USCCC prelims. So far he is a perfect 7-0 in section US14P01.

11-September-99: At my invitation, USCF Senior Master Mark Morss has agreed to share his experience in the 13th USA Correspondence Chess Championship Final. Check out the new 13th USCCC Final - Diary of Mark Morss and watch his games as they progress. Mark plays an agressive style, starting with the opening moves, so these games will be exciting to watch right from the beginning.

Also, go to The Campbell Report, July-August 1999 for my APCT print column just posted.

9-September-99: The Chess Journalists of America have a competition every year for the best chess journalism in various categories. Here's the 1998-1999 CJA Awards listing. The only category specific to correspondence chess is "Best Postal Magazine", won again this year by theAPCT News Bulletin, which (by the way) carries "The Campbell Report"!

8-September-99: The Correspondence Chess Championship of the United States is underway with the start of the Final round of the 13th USCCC. Check out the 13th USCCC Final crosstable for this outstanding event and follow the progress here. I've added a link to this page in the checkerboard menu above.

5-September-99: ICCF Grandmaster Juan Morgado has withdrawn from the ICCF Presidential Election!

In a surprise move, GM Juan S. Morgado has abandoned his quest for the presidency of the ICCF just weeks before the ICCF Congress in Thun, Switzerland, allowing current president Alan Borwell to stand unopposed. In a forward-looking and positive statement, the popular GM from Argentina has promised to work within ICCF to improve the organization. Tim Harding has provided Morgado's full statement, or you can go to the Chess Mail site and follow the link for more information.

31-August-99: 10 of the 12 sections of the 14th USCCC have just received updates.

29-August-99: Mark Morss' latest opening column has just been posted here at The Max Lange Once More; the Staunton Gambit . Mark addresses some suggestions he received from readers concerning last month's column on The Max Lange Attack, followed by new analysis on the Stauton Gambit, accompanied by four annotated games illustrating his points. Mark has provided a zipped file of the main page games as well as the four illustrative games (in both new CB format and PGN), which you can download from the main column page.

I would also like to congratulate Mark Morss on qualifying for the final round of the 13th U. S. Correspondence Chess Championship that just began. As soon as the final (official) crosstable is available the crosstable and game results will be maintained at this site, so we will all be able to follow the progress of this great tournament. Note that the question of whether or not to replace recently deceased David Heap in this event hasn't been resolved, to my knowledge.

24-August-99: Steve Ryan contributes his second article to The Campbell Reportwith this advice on how to organize yourself for play in correspondence chess (as well as an additional note on chess boards seen in public). Read his article Some Thoughts on the Mechanics of CC Play

21-August-99: John Knudsen has created a web page honoring David C. Heap, whose death is reported on below. This page, providing a download of a collection of his games, is at

The Campbell Diary -- 14th USCCC
My current game positions ... one of my most popular features.

12-August-99: Following are the winners in the hotly contested election for the USCF Board (not yet certified), with the votes they received:

These results in this extremely close election are subject to certification by the Board of Delegates on Saturday morning August 14, 1999. For a complete list of those receiving votes and possibly later news on this, check the official USCF page.

8-August-99: Tim Harding, editor and publisher of Chess Mail, has announced that his new 270,000 game correspondence chess CD-ROM will soon be ready for shipment. There are more features than just a huge database of cc games, though. Check out his Mega Corr page for details. I encourage all cc enthusiasts to support Tim Harding and order a copy of this CD-ROM. I would also suggest that no cc competitor will be completely prepared without a copy of this long-anticipated CD-ROM. Watch John Knudsen's The Correspondence Chess Place and The Correspondence Chess Message Board (TCCMB) for a future review of this new CD-ROM.

8-August-99: Congratulations to the co-winners René P. duCret (USA) and Artur Mrugala (CAN) with 5-1 scores in the ICCF NAPZ Master Class tournament NAPZ M-59. Full crosstable.

28-July-99: Check out the latest On the Square article by John P. McCumiskey titled Now, the Postcard. The lowly postcard isn't dead yet!

28-July-99: There's always room for humor in just about every field. Correspondence Chess is no exception. Following a list I received via e-mail called "Top 15 Signs That You Have Had TOO MUCH of the 90's" Hard Chess columnist Mark Morss chipped in with his list You know you've had too much of the correspondence chess 90's when ... Check it out, then send me your additions to the list!

7/25/99: Mark Morss' latest opening column has just been posted here at Computerized Analysis; Rubinstein's Defense to the Max Lange . Those wanting to better understand how to use a computer to help them prepare openings won't want to miss this informative column.

7/22/99: Congratulations to Rene P. duCret! Word has just arrived from the ICCF-U.S. office that Rene P. duCret of Minneapolis, Minnesota has qualified for the ICCF International Master title. 3rd NAPZ Championship tournament director Maurice Carter has supplied the qualifying information to the ICCF Qualifications Commissioner George Pyrich and ICCF-U.S. Secretary Max Zavanelli has officially applied for the title, which Rene duCret should receive at the ICCF Congress in Switzerland next September. Check out his 3rd NAPZ Championship qualifying performance, where he dominated a strong field.

7/03/99: World Champion Garry Kasparov vs. Rest of World match. Microsoft is sponsoring a unique competition giving the general public the opportunity to play vs. Kasparov, who has shown a willingness to play in a variety of different kinds of competitions. He's played simuls, clock simuls vs. national teams, advanced chess (with computer assistance) and now a form of correspondence chess vs. the world. Four young masters are giving analysis and suggesting moves for The World team at the Microsoft web site. Join the world team by signing up at the Microsoft site and you can vote on the move for the world team. I recommend the coverage at the Grandmaster Chess School, which provides links to the appropriate Microsoft pages as well as the best analysis I've seen of the game in progress. A number of other sites are picking up coverage as well. This match seems to be catching the imagination of the chess community. I am curious as to how Kasparov will deal with making his move every two days, particularly if his match with Anand actually takes place in the near future. Will he take a "leave" to avoid the distraction this match could cause during a world championship match with Anand?

6/30/99: Tournament Director Allen F. Wright has announced that he is closing out the preliminary round of the 13th USCCC and has mailed letters to all players with games in progress and/or unreported results. The final round of the 13th USCCC will consist of 15 participants with an official start date of August 2, 1999. Allen F. Wright will serve as the Tournament Director. The participants will be: Bob Martinec, Quin Shea, Robert B. Potter, Wesley Brandhorst, Mark F. Morss, Gary Good, David Heap, Joseph E. Bacon, Paul L. Thompson, Corky Schakel, Andrew Gach, Ted Houser, David Burris, Van Koppersmith and former USCCC Champion Robin Smith. For more details consult the 13th USCCC page.

6/15/99: An International Email Chess Group (IECG) poll has named The Campbell Report as among the top ten on the Internet! The June 1999 IECG Newsletter has been posted and it contains this poll, along with other interesting features. I believe most cc enthusiasts will find material of interest here and I recommend that you check it out. I also want to thank those IECG members who voted this site as among the top ten. Follow this link for more information or just go directly to the previous newsletter link.

6/30/99: Tournament Director Allen F. Wright has announced that he is closing out the preliminary round of the 13th USCCC and has mailed letters to all players with games in progress and/or unreported results. The final round of the 13th USCCC will consist of 15 participants with an official start date of August 2, 1999. Allen F. Wright will serve as the Tournament Director. The participants will be: Bob Martinec, Quin Shea, Robert B. Potter, Wesley Brandhorst, Mark F. Morss, Gary Good, David Heap, Joseph E. Bacon, Paul L. Thompson, Corky Schakel, Andrew Gach, Ted Houser, David Burris, Van Koppersmith and former USCCC Champion Robin Smith. For more details consult the 13th USCCC page.

6/15/99: An International Email Chess Group (IECG) poll has named The Campbell Report as among the top ten on the Internet! The June 1999 IECG Newsletter has been posted and it contains this poll, along with other interesting features. I believe most cc enthusiasts will find material of interest here and I recommend that you check it out. I also want to thank those IECG members who voted this site as among the top ten. Follow this link for more information or just go directly to the previous newsletter link.

4/26/99: InternetChess.com  Harris Nizel has long been well known for providing one of the best selections of chess links. How times have changed! Now Nizel maintains one of the most useful and entertaining chess websites on the Internet. In addition to the great list of links he's added some great features, such as regular columns (by GM Schwartzman and others), book reviews by Randy Bauer and software reviews by Komputer Korner. An excellent site! If you haven't visited recently take another look and bookmark it. I recommend it.

4/25/99: Capablanca and Nimzowitsch - a confrontation......
Ever wonder what would happen if Capablanca and Nimzovich got into a fight ... a fist fight? Check out this story (by a mystery writer) and find out! Very entertaining.

4/24/99: USA cc competitor Doug Eckert has recently qualified for the ICCF International Master title by his outstanding play in the Pappier Memorial B tournament. ICCF-U.S. Secretary Max Zavanelli has officially applied to the Qualifications Commissioner for the title to be awarded at the next congress in Switzerland in September. Congratulations, Doug!

4/18/99: John Knudsen has added a new feature to his website for more complete coverage of his Exclam! open email tournament. Now (if you have a modern Java-enabled browser) you can replay the finished games from this tournament move by move. To check out this exciting new Internet feature go to: Exclam! Open Games.

11-Apr-1999
Two new links have been added to the listing of "Live" coverage of cc games on the chess links page. There are some strong players documenting their current games, including the players in these two new listings. If you know of some good sites where strong players' cc games are being documented as they are being played please send me the URLs.

3-Apr-1999
John Knudsen has recently announced the appointment of Lars (Lasse) Viklund of Sweden as the new Administrator for The Correspondence Chess Message Board (TCCMB). Lars brings years of professional experience in the technical aspects of the Internet to this job. Thanks for your commitment to the service to the cc community, Lars!

29-Mar-1999
New ICCF Email Mailing List
The following message was recently distributed by Chris Lueers of the ICCF Email Tournament Office.

Dear friends,

I guess not all of you have already heard about the new service of the ICCF Email Tournament Office:

In the meantime more than 1000 ICCF chessfriends allover the world have subcribed the Mail List and I would be very happy, if this number increases.

Via the new created Mailing List Server several reports are sent during every month, containing all the relevant information about ICCF Email Tournaments (monthly newsletters, general informations, start lists, tournament reports, announcements).

In order to get all these information in future regularly and to subscribe the present list, please send the following formula back to the ICCF Email Tournament Office .

FORMULA BACK TO ICCF EMAIL TOURNAMENT OFFICE
SUBJECT: Email Mailing List Server
****************************************
NAME :
POSTAL ADDRESS :

CC FEDERATION :

EMAIL ADDRESS :
ICCF CODE : (unknown)
ICCF Rating : (unknown)
****************************************

[Note: just cut and paste the above form into your email and send to Chris.Lueers@t-online.de. If you have an ICCF rating you can find it (plus your ICCF Code)at: ICCF Rating List . Otherwise, just leave "(unknown)" in the form.]

24-Mar-1999
The first ICCF Email World Championship assignments have gone out with an official start data of 1 April 1999. There are 154 competitors divided into 14 sections competing to advance to the 3/4 Finals (along with some other qualifiers). For a complete listing of the players and sections follow this link: First ICCF Email World Championship

21-Mar-1999
Check out The Correspondence Chess Message Board (TCCMB), especially if you haven't for a while. It has become tremendously active recently with contributions from a number of ICCF officers and other well-known chess personalities. It's become the place online to discuss anything of importance to the cc community, and all sorts of interesting topics are being discussed daily.

1-Mar-1999
The following USA players have been invited to participate in the 1st Email World Championship (ICCF). The first four players qualified earlier and the final three have been nominated by the ICCF-U.S. office to fill additional spaces available to the USA.

28-Feb-1999

• World Champion at the third attempt by Grigory Sanakoev
• The System by Hans Berliner

It's an event to cause great rejoicing when a new book arrives aimed squarely at the correspondence chess community, especially one written by a cc world champion. When two such books arrive it is indeed a time for rejoicing ... and buying! Since books such as these don't necessarily stay available for long I suggest some quick purchases ... as soon as they become available. I checked with Jim Warren of APCT and he doesn't have them yet. It's possible they won't be available for a while. However, keep a watch for them. You can read reviews of these books on John Elburg's book review pages at: BOOKS REVIEWS BY JOHN ELBURG

24-Feb-1999
New World Correspondence Chess Champion

Tõnu Õim of Estonia is the XIV. World Champion of Correspondence Chess and becomes the first person in history to win the championship twice, having previously won the IX Championship 15 years ago. Congratulations to Tõnu Õim on this tremendous accomplishment! (Thanks to Ralph Marconi for bring this to my attention and providing the following crosstable for the championship finals).

T. Õim        EST  X = 0 = 1 = 1 1 1 1 1 1 = 1 1 11.0
O. Ekebjaerg  DEN  = X 1 = 1 1 = 1 = = 1 = = 1 1 10.5
M. Lecroq     FRA  1 0 X = = 1 = = = = 1 = 1 1 1  9.5
T. Hamarat    OST  = = = X = = 1 = 1 1 = = = 1 1  9.5
J.S. Morgado  ARG  0 0 = = X = = = = = = 1 1 1 1  8.0
S. Webb       ENG  = 0 0 = = X 1 = 1 1 1 = 0   1  7.5 (1)
W. Stern      GER  0 = = 0 = 0 X 1 = 1 =   1 1 1  7.5 (1)
V.-M. Anton   GER  0 0 = = = = 0 X = = = = 1 1 1  7.0
J. Franzen    SLK  0 = = 0 = 0 = = X = = = =   1  5.5 (1)
P. Boll       NLD  0 = = 0 = 0 0 = = X =   1 = 1  5.5 (1)
L. Kristol    ISL  0 0 0 = = 0 = = = = X = 0 1 1  5.5
G.K. Sanakoev RUS  0 = = = 0 =   = =   = X   = 1  5.0 (3)
F. Baumbach   GER  = = 0 = 0 1 0 0 = 0 1   X   1  5.0 (2)
P. Buj        ARG  0 0 0 0 0   0 0   = 0 =   X 1  2.0 (3)
J. Cordovil   POR  0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 X  0.0

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Bc5 4. c3 Bb6 5. d4 exd4 6. cxd4 Nce7 7. d5 Nf6 8. Nc3 a6 9. Ba4 O-O 10. e5 Ng4 11. O-O d6 12. Bf4 Ng6 13. Bg5 f6 14. exf6 gxf6 15. Bc1 Kh8 16. Bc2 Rg8 17. Ne4 Qf8 18. a4 Ne7 19. b4 Qf7 20. Bb2 Ne5 21. Nxe5 fxe5 22. Kh1 Nxd5 23. f4 Qg7 24. Ng5 Nxf4 25. h4 Rf8 26. Bxh7 Bf5 27. Bxf5 Rxf5 28. Qg4 Rxg5 29. Qxg5 Qxg5 30. hxg5 Kg7 31. Kh2 Nd5 32. Ra3 Be3 33. Bc1 Bd4 34. Rb3 b5 35. axb5 axb5 36. Kh3 Ra1 37. Rbf3 e4 38. Rf5 Be5 39. Kh4 Kg6 40. Rf8 Ra2 41. Rg8+ Kh7 42. Rb8 Rxg2 43. Rxb5 c6 44. Rb7+ Kg6 45. b5 e3 46. Rf3 e2 47. Bd2 Rg1 48. bxc6 Rd1 49. Ba5 Nc3 50. Bxc3 Bxc3 51. Re7 e1=Q+ 52. Rxe1 Bxe1+ 53. Kg4 Rd4+ 54. Rf4 Rxf4+ 55. Kxf4 Ba5 56. Ke4 Bc7 0-1

20-Feb-1999
Coffee Break Chess

GM Alexander Baburin, well known to American readers as a columnist for Inside Chess, has started a chess newsletter available by email. The price is right (free!) and you can get on his mailing list by sending him your request. It's an informal affair, but the first two issues were nicely done and should provide any attentive reader with both entertainment and education. The format is still at the experimental stage so some changes should be expected.

Concerning his new newsletter GM Baburin said, "I believe that chess is for enjoyment and should not be always taken too seriously. If you can print out my newsletter and enjoy reading it while having morning coffee or evening tea, I would feel that my goal is accomplished." Two issues have already been distributed, one with several endgame positions and the second covering an interesting middlegame. To get on his mailing list send your email address to: ababurin@iol.ie

18-Feb-1999
New web sites worth a look

It looks like a Christmas tree, takes a while to load and is written in Spanish, but it's packed with information. There's even a link to a translation site where you can get literal (and somewhat amusing) translations a paragraph or two at a time. Juan Morgado and Roberto Alvarez have provided a lot of information (and absolutely no white space) in the unique Web Chess Magazine. Definitely worth a look (hope it doesn't crash your computer).

Club Kasparov. The World OTB champ Garry Kasparov is opinionated and always presents his own viewpoint as the only "correct" one, but it's big news when such a player presents his own web site. This could become a major site with news and other features.

6-Feb-1999
USCF Master Ken Smith of Dallas, Texas (USA) has died after a long career in chess and chess publishing. His funeral was scheduled for today. I don't have many details but I understand his health has been bad for some time and that he had been on dialysis for several years.

Ken is perhaps best known for his company Chess Digest, which published numerous books and sold chess books and supplies. He also published his own magazine Chess Digest for a few years. His name is associated with the Smith-Morra gambit, an opening he has championed for many years. I believe he was also a noted Poker expert having participated in the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.

Ken Smith is survived by his wife Elaine. Thanks to Roy DeVault for this information.

15-Jan-1999
Sweden Wins 5-Nations E-mail Tournament
Austria organized a ten-board e-mail match played according to ICCF e-mail rules and rated by ICCF. It started in September 1997 and just finished. This match ended in victory for the team from Sweden with Argentina coming in second. Following are the final scores by board with the team totals. Interestingly, Sweden had two players who achieved perfect 4-0 scores while no other team had even a single 4-0 score.

Thanks to International Arbiter Ralph Marconi (Ralph Marconi's Chess Page) and Tournament Coordinator Robert J. Felber for providing this information and to the Austrian Homepage of the OESB-FS (in German) for the numeric results.