(27 December 2004): Robert P. Chalker RIP

I'm sad to report the death of USA cc competitor Robert P. Chalker. He was nominated by CCLA to participate in the 15th US CC Championship Final US15F and was rated 2324 by CCLA and 2361 by ICCF.
31 Dec 2004 Update: Volker Jeschonnek alerted me to this on-line obituary.

(26 December 2004): New Interviews section added

Today I removed the interviews posted in the On the Square articles section and moved them to the newly-created Interviews section. I hope to add additional interviews of correspondence chess personalities in the near future.

(24 December 2004): Two suggestions for 2005

1. USA Competitors ... Enter the 3rd Email USCCC. Note that the name is misleading. This event will be played on the ICCF server. As a person who was involved with the server commission and who is playing in two ICCF server events I can strongly recommend this great way to play! This is a superior way to play correspondence chess. Check the announcement at the ICCF-U.S. site for full information.

2. Every CC Enthusiast ... Subscribe to Chess Mail. This great cc magazine should be delivered to every cc player's mail box. Editor/publisher SIM Tim Harding presents the cc news, history, opinion, games and cc personalities in a wonderful, informative and entertaining fashion that can't be beat! USA players can subscribe through the ICCF-U.S. store. Others can consult Tim's Subscription page. Don't miss a single copy of this must-read cc periodical. I can't recommend it strongly enough!

Best wishes to all for a great holiday season and a Happy and Prosperous New Year. May we all live by the excellent ICCF motto: Amici Sumus (We are Friends)!

-- Franklin Campbell

Allen Wright (on left) receiving his IA title at Daytona Beach Congress in 2000

(21 December 2004): Best wishes to International Arbiter Allen Wright on moving into his new home, which he has been working on for some time. Those familiar with Allen will know about his long service to the USA cc community through his organization and tournament directing. He is currently directing the finals of the 14th USCCC and 15th USCCC and the NAPZ Master Class events. His email address remains the same, but his mailing address is now:

      Allen F. Wright
      8923 Shenandoah Run
      Wesley Chapel, FL 33544 (USA)

(20 December 2004): I just posted Chess Reconstruction: Jacob Elson in Memphis by Neil Brennen to the "On the Square" collection of articles. Here's a chance to play through (see the replay link) some old fashioned slash and burn games where the word is ... attack!

(8 November 2004): Congratulations to Chess Today on its 4th anniversary! GM Alexander Baburin has performed a fantastic service to the chess community by publishing this daily newsletter keeping us informed of the news. Chess Today contains a good mix of news, opinion, book reviews, tournament reports and annotated games, many of them from current events. CC enthusiasts are not ignored, either. I've been a satisfied and enthusiastic subscriber for a long time and would not like to do without my daily chess fix. I urge all chess fans to subscribe to this excellent publication, and be sure to tell Alex that Franklin Campbell recommended subscribing (I'll get an extra month added to my subscription ... thanks!).

For free samples check out the following link:
http://www.chesstoday.net/sample_issues.html . I strongly recommend trying a subscription ... I guarantee you won't be sorry.

(16 December 2004): Today the ICCF President Josef Mrkvicka (CZE) announced his resignation effective 1 Jan 2005 due to health and personal reasons. Thanks to Josef, who was elected ICCF President in October 2003, for his excellent service to ICCF. See full announcement on the ICCF web site.

(23 November 2004): The counter on this page hit 180,000 today.

(1 November 2004): My APCT News Bulletin column "The Campbell Report" for September-October 2004 has been posted. All columns previously posted are listed on the APCT Column Archive page.

(29 Oct 2004): ICCF officers and delegates have started their (in many cases) long trips to Mumbai, India for the annual ICCF Congress. I'm expecting to receive some reports and, hopefully, photographs to keep those of us who stayed at home informed. I just posted the Outline Programme for the Congress at the ICCF Congress web site, where I'll post any future reports. Things should get started tomorrow. If you have information or reports about Congress please contact me. Contact Webmaster

(23 Oct 2004): Today, thanks to the data provided by CCLA Historian Bryce Avery, I have made a significant update to the USCCC archive. 114 games were added to the prelim rounds and 29 to the final rounds databases. The most significant was the 13 new 5th USCCC prelim games. I still need 5th USCCC prelim information. Contact Webmaster

(18 Oct 2004): I have posted a small web site for my ICCF Champions League team Four Wise Arbiters.

(18 Oct 2004): Today I gave up on contacting the 15th USCCC players with mising game results and declared the games cancelled (double forfeits). 15th USCCC Crosstables.

(11 Oct 2004): ICCF-US has announced that the coming 3rd Email USCCC (USA Championship) will be played on the ICCF Server. Anyone who has tried the server will find this good news indeed! You can see the original announcement. The ICCF-U.S. web site will have a more complete announcement. All I can say is ... Bravo!!

(3 Oct 2004): ICCF has announced a big 3-round open tournament to be played entirely on the new ICCF server. See the Full Announcement at the ICCF-U.S. web site.

(24 Sept 2004): I just posted a new article: The Saddle of Correspondence Chess - An episode from Old Singapore 1900-1902 by Olimpiu G. Urcan to the "On the Square" collection of articles. Get a flavor of the chess scene in Singapore a century ago in this entertaining and informative article.

(31 August 2004): Two "The Campbell Report" columns for May-June 2004 and July-August 2004 have just been posted. All columns are listed on the Archive page.

(31 August 2004): Today I did a comprehensive review of the Chess Links page. Hopefully, all the bad links have been either updated or deleted. Please let me know if you spot any errors or know important links that should be added. Contact Webmaster. If you have a little time to spare I suggest that you scan through this list of links. You may find something interesting.

(30 August 2004): A new web site that may become important is now available ... Vladimir Kramnik, World Chess Champion. I have added it to both the Sites of Note page and under Other Outstanding Chess Sites on the Chess Links page. Kramnik will be playing Peter Leko for the OTB Classical World Championship September 15, 2004 to October 18, 2004.

(23 August 2004): The 17th US Correspondence Chess Championship (17th USCCC) will officially start on 7 September 2004. Assignments have been mailed. The new crosstables are now available at 17th USCCC Crosstables.

(23 August 2004): ICCF Ratings Commissioner Gerhard Binder (GER) has once again produced the semi-annual ICCF rating list in record time. His remarkable Eloquery program can be downloaded with the supporting files from the ICCF Web Site.

(21 August 2004): SIM Jason Bokar (USA) is the new webmaster for the web site of ICCF-U.S. (the USA affiliate of ICCF). For the time being, Franklin Campbell retains his position as archivist. Congratulations and best wishes to SIM Bokar in this new endeavor. He is also webmaster for his personal site SIM Jason Bokar's Chess World.

(16 August 2004): ICCF has announced a new sponsor for its Champions League team competition. $5,000 in prize money will now be offered. For the full announcement see: Champions League Sponsorship Announcement.

(11 August 2004): Today the Chess Journalists of America (CJA) announced the winners of the 2004 Chess Journalism Awards. This web site won three awards:

Best Correspondence Chess Web Site ... Webmaster J. Franklin Campbell

Best Historical Article ... Neil Brennen's article The Champion of the North: James Jellett's Adventures in American Chess

Best Web-Based Review ... CCLA President Volker Jeschonnek for his Review of "First Anglo-Pacific Invitational Chess Championship" by ICCM Erik Osbun, sharing first with NM Dan Heisman's review on Chess Cafe (Survivor: 64 Squares).

CJA announced the awards at the US Open and published a full list of prize winners at their web site.

Congratulations to CCLA's The Chess Correspondent for winning Best CC Magazine. APCT News Bulletin won Honorable Mention.

Congratulations to Helen Warren, editor of APCT News Bulletin, for winning the prestigious Chess Journalism Lifetime Achievement Award. GM Robert Byrne also received this award.

(30 July 2004): V. Eugen Demian has announced a new FAQ describing the upcoming ICCF Champions League season. New subjects covered are the Fast Track, Direct Entry of teams and the possibility of some CL groups playing on the new ICCF server. For full information go to the ICCF Champions League Web Site.

(2 August 2004): We're all familiar with a few named chess traps, but are you familiar with the Whitaker Trap? Check out Neil Brennen's history of this interesting ploy ... read The Whitaker Trap.

(21 July 2004): CC World Champion Tunc Hamarat of Austria recently wrote on TCCMB about his dislike of changes in the ICCF World Championship structure, claiming it had become too easy to win the championship. My comments and some useful quotes are available in these excerpts from my column "The Campbell Report" (Part 1 and Part 2) column. Now Wim van Vugt has written an article analyzing the statistical aspects of changes to the system. See: How much difference does it make? by Wim van Vugt

(20 June 2004): Recently ICCF launched it's on-line magazine ICCF Amici (called an "ezine"). Alex Dunne (USA) is the editor and GM Raymond Boger (NOR) is the webmaster. You can check out the first issue (and future issues) at the web site:
http://www.amici.iccf.com
You can check out my chess cartoon on the front page of the on-line version of issue 1, but it's not in the downloadable versions. The editor invites readers to make contributions to the new publication. Best wishes to ICCF, Alex Dunne and Raymond Boger for the success of this ambitious project!

(17 June 2004): It's sometimes said that chess players make excellent backgammon, bridge and even poker players. Read this interesting article by former USA champion Dave Taylor titled Chess, Poker, Duplicate Bridge and Backgammon

Bob Rizzo 1991 USATE in Parsippany, NJ

(11 June 2004): Joan DuBois, Director of the US Chess Website and USCF Correspondence Chess (among other things), has announced that over 500 games from the USCF Absolute Championship events have been added to the site, thanks to the work of Bob Rizzo. You can check out the Absolute Championship Review page or go directly to the Game Page. Games are in replay format using a Java aplet and are from events covering the years 1976 through 2002. According to Joan DuBois, all games are from Master and Senior CC Master players. [Note: the replay doesn't to work correctly in the versions of Netscape I've tried. I suggest using IE.]

(14 June 2004): The preliminary round of the 14th USCCC is now closed. Of the remaining 19 games, where contact with the players could not be established, 16 have now been declared 0-0 (double forfeits). Investigation continues on the three remaining games.

The preliminary round of the 15th USCCC has passed the previously announced closeout date of 30 April 2004. This event will be closed out with remaining games declared 0-0 in the near future. If you have remaining games contact the tournament director immediately.

(4 June 2004): Congratulations to the Correspondence Chess League of Australian (CCLA), their President Tim Runting and Webmaster Clive Murden on their great new web site at
http://www.ccla.asn.au. Though it is primarily aimed at Australian players it should prove interesting to others as well with pages planned for puzzles, International cc news and "live" games.

(1 June 2004): Today I launched the new web site for the upcoming ICCF Champions League First Season team tournament. Follow the news both before the tournament begins and during the event.
http://tables.iccf.com/email/ChLeague/2004/
You can find out how to form a team and enter it for competition. You can find a team to play on or a player to join your team. Entries will be accepted 1 July 2004 to 1 September 2004 with play beginning 1 November 2004. This is the greatest team event in the world. The Qualification Season saw 242 teams competing with 968 players playing 4840 games (only 50 games remain unfinished at this time). Join in the fun, design the best team logo and web site and enjoy the best in International correspondence chess play! -- J. Franklin Campbell

(click diagram for larger version)

(23 May 2004): USA and NAPZ zone players who wish to pursue the world championship title may be interested in examining the new NAPZ and USA Players' Path to World Championship document I just posted at the ICCF-U.S. web site. Frank Goebert and Ruth Ann Fay have worked together to create this update to the old USA Ascension Chart.

Knudsen

(17 May 2004): Correspondence Chess guru SIM John Knudsen (USA) has once again displayed his knack at innovation and creativity by introducing the TCCMB Chat Room for correspondence chess enthusiasts. Already one "meeting" of cc'ers has been announced on TCCMB, or you can set up your own meeting by making a TCCMB posting. Of course, you can just drop by and see if anyone is there or arrange a chat with a friend by email (private chats is one option). Chat away, my friends, compliments of John Knudsen.

(8 May 2004): ICCF does not currently provide an official list of duties for tournament directors. Believing such a "job description" is essential, I have gone ahead and produced my own document describing the duties and responsibilities of tournament directors, as I see it. Hopefully this document will prove to be a useful step towards an official document. I welcome input from readers who may point out errors, add to the list of duties, or provide some creative ideas to aid the progressive TD in the job. See my Tournament Directing in ICCF … A Proposal

(6 May 2004): The Campbell Report for March-April 2004 is now posted.

(2 May 2004): IM Wolfram Schön (GER) has become one of the first people to offer "live" coverage of his cc games on-line under the new addition to the ICCF Code of Conduct. He offers his games (with javascript replay) with 3-move delays, having received permission from his opponents to show the games. And what games he is displaying! ... his games from the current world championship final WC18. His web site is definitely worth visiting, and I have added it to my Sites of Note page.

GM-Elect John Timm

(28 April 2004): Congratulations to John C. Timm (USA) on earning his second GM norm, thus qualifying for the correspondence chess GM title, which he will officially receive at the ICCF Congress in Mumbai, India in Oct-Nov 2004.

For full information on his qualification events and a player profile for GM-Elect John C. Timm see the ICCF-U.S. web site.

Mr. TCCMB

(3 March 2004): SIM John Knudsen, the creator and administrator of the popular message board The Correspondence Chess Message Board (TCCMB), has announced a new program called "Friend of TCCMB" to help sponsor this useful and entertaining facility. I am proud to be one of the first friends to join this new program (see the logo in my masthead above). I urge all cc enthusiasts to contribute to the cost of maintaining this invaluable resource by becoming a "Friend of TCCMB"! This is an important step in insuring the health and future of TCCMB. I don't know what we'd do without it. Please join me by going to the link and making a contribution. John has born the expense of this venture for years, in addition to creating it originally and handling the administrative duties for much of its life. Thanks to John Knudsen for his years of service.

CCLA Pres.

(2 March 2004): The Correspondence Chess League of America (CCLA) is the oldest cc organization in the USA. CCLA President Volker Jeschonnek has announced that CCLA has made the most recent issue of their magazine The Chess Correspondent available for download (PDF format). To view this sample copy of the award-winning magazine go to the Chess Correspondent page or Download PDF copy for Jan/Feb 2004.

(4 February 2004): I have just posted an interview with USCF correspondence chess director Joan DuBois at the Chess Journalists of America Web Site about the new USCF On-line Chess Newsletter that launched today. This new general chess newsletter is planned to be published weekly, and you can subscribe to the email version at the USCF Web Site.

(30 January 2004): Now that the ICCF Champions League Team Tournament (Qualifying Season) is coming to an end, an announcement has been posted giving details for the first regular season. For information on this event, and how to enter a team, see Announcement of the 1st Season.

(6 January 2004): My APCT News Bulletin column The Campbell Report for November-December 2003 has now been posted. This completes ten full years of columns posted. For a full list of columns see APCT Columns.

(27 January 2004): There was a lively discussion of "live" presentation of cc games lately at TCCMB. I have just posted my article Live Presentation of Correspondence Chess Games to the "On the Square" collection of articles summarizing my thoughts on the subject.

(3 January 2004): The Chess Journalists of America (CJA) web site has left CC.COM to take up residence on their own domain http://chessjournalism.org. I set up their first site at CC.COM in November 1999 with space made available by CC.COM. If you are a chess journalist (or just want to support chess journalism) why not join this organization? Information is available at the web site. -- J. Franklin Campbell