GM Jason Bokar
I am 40 years old, a lead tire performance engineer at Michelin
North America in their research center in Greenville, SC USA
. Previously, I was a professor of Mechanical Engineering
for 3 1/2 years at Clemson University, South Carolina USA,
and an instructor at North Carolina State University, Raleigh
NC, USA for 4 years. I have been playing chess since I was
about 7 years old. I taught myself by reading a simple board
game book which included chess, checkers and backgammon (of
which I still enjoy playing all three!). The book had the
basic moves, and ideas only. However, my father noticed I
had a talent for it as soon as I started defeating my uncle
(and Expert player) regularly. He bought me another book,
Capablanca's "Last Lectures". It covered everything from Endings
to Openings (the order in which Capablanca believed the game
should be studied!).
Shortly after that I was introduced to Cliff Zeigler from
Cleveland, Ohio. He served as an informal chess coach and
introduced me to many of Northern Ohio's best players, and
I was able to reach master class. Unfortunately, I stopped
playing active chess in 1982 when I went to college to study
engineering. When I graduated, work duties interfered with
active play, so I started playing postal chess in 1990 by
entering a United States Chess Federation Golden Knights section.
Currently I am a Senior International Master in ICCF. I keep
an "active" game load and so it takes a good bit of my free
time analyzing positions. I received my IM title at the October
2002 ICCF Congress, and my SIM title at the October 2003 ICCF
Congress in Ostrave, Czech Republic. Some of my most recent
events including finishing 2nd in the 14th
US Championship; finishing equal first in the Cecil
Purdy Invitational section B; and finishing equal 2nd
in the 1st
NAPZ email Championship. I also serve as the NAPZ
Deputy Director under Ruth Ann Fay.
(31.Oct.2007 - Webmaster note: Dr. Jason Bokar was awarded
the International Grandmaster title (GM) during the 2007 annual
ICCF Congress in Spain. His previous title of SIM has been
changed above to his new title. -- JF Campbell, Team Captain)
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SIM Michael Millstone
(not yet available)
(For a recent interview of Michael Millstone see: Interview)
Oct 2006 update: Michael Millstone was awarded the
SIM title at the ICCF Congress in Dresden, Germany.
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SIM Ken Reinhart
I still have my first chess book; an anthology book my parents bought during the "Fisher boom." As a 5th grader I enjoyed it mostly for the pictures of rare chess sets, but I learned just enough to play my father when he was distracted watching the Jets play on Sunday afternoons. In high school I joined the chess team and found a collection of Capablanca's best games by Golombek at my library, which I later learned was Anatoly Karpov's first chess book. By the time college was over I had a big library and a rating well over 2000. But faster time limits and increasing responsibilities halted my ratings progress in the early 90s.
I guess I fell into correspondence chess the same way
a lot of players do, I simply had no time anymore for
over-the-board play. I was always strong in opening
and endings, but just couldn't avoid time pressure in
middlegames; I started postal play in 1992 and found
that it was much easier for me to play "my game" at
this rate of play. I quickly made Master playing USCF
Golden Knights events. My USCF rating got me an invitation
in 1999 to the 15th USCCC Preliminaries - even though
I had never heard of ICCF before. By winning my
section I got into the Finals
where I have clinched at least 2nd place. Those two
performances got me an invitation to my first international
tournament, the XV
Anniversary of FECAP (Cuba) - Group A, where my
performance should earn my first Senior Master norm
and pushed my rating high enough to be invited to participate
in this Olympiad.
After more than 10 years in various consulting positions
for safety and health, I settled down in 2002 at Consolidated
Edison in New York City as the Manager of Industrial
Hygiene (which involves protecting workers from exposure
to chemicals, noise, heat, etc.). The long commute into
New York from suburban New Jersey gives me about two
hours each day to work on my correspondence games (first
with Post-a-Log, now with Chessbase and a laptop). Extra
analysis time has to come at night after my three boys
are in bed…and somehow my wife still acts like she believes
me when I say, "I won't stay up too late, just 15 more
minutes on this game, I promise"! Any help I give the
U.S. team this Olympiad should be dedicated to her patience,
and her indulgence for my "hobby".
(31.Oct.2007 - Webmaster note: Ken Rienhart was awarded
the Senior International Master title (SIM) during the
2007 annual ICCF Congress in Spain. His new title has
been inserted above. -- JF Campbell, Team Captain)
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IM Keith Rodriguez
After obtaining a degree in Aeronautical Engineering,
I began working with the Grumman Corporation in 1980
where I captured the company’s Chess Championship, in
1980, 1983 and again in 1990. As Grumman Chess Club
President the membership grew to its all-time high and
the club established itself as a local powerhouse, winning
several Long Island Industrial Chess League (LIICL)
Championships, and two New York State Team Championship
titles. I transferred to Melbourne, Florida in 1991,
with my wife Patty and daughter Erin, and began playing
Correspondence Chess seriously as OTB opportunities
were fewer.
Building upon my USCF correspondence successes such
as taking the top prize on Board 2 of the 1996 USCF
Correspondence Championship Team, Postcards From the
Edge, I took fellow teammate Bob Rizzo’s recommendation
and joined the ICCF. I participated in the 13th,
14th,
and 15th
ICCF U.S. Championship’s finishing in clear 2nd place
in each event, as well as respectable finishes in the
14th
and 15th
Finals. My big break came when one of the original U.S.
invitees did not respond to a request to compete in
Italy vs. The World, so ICCF-U.S. director Ruth Ann
Fay turned to me for help. I responded to her call and
received a special pairing against GM Massimo de Blasio.
The result was two hard fought draws that I believe
led directly to my participation in a special invitational
tournament, 30
Years of Correspondence Chess in Cuba. I scored
8.5 points in that Category VII Tournament earning my
IM Title in 2003. Two years later I was awarded the
title of IA for my work in the International arena.
I have enjoyed having several of my games, both OTB
and correspondence, published in Chess Life,
Chess Mail and New In Chess publications.
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Photo by Keith Rodriguez |
IM Robert Rizzo
Robert Rizzo was born in 1949
and has been a USCF member for more than 35 years. He
works on Long Island as a financial analyst where he
is the captain of his company's chess team that has
captured the TOP COMPANY title at the US Amateur Team
- East tournament 7 times since 1990. Previously, Bob
was also President of his high school and college chess
clubs. Bob has held the title of USCF club level director
and his directing credits include the American College
Unions - International NYS Regional Chess tournament,
the Under-1800 section of several NYS Championships
and assisting with the Harvard Cup man vs. computer
events.
Bob is the Rules Director and a charter member of the
Long Island Industrial Chess League (LIICL), which he
was instrumental in resurrecting in 1984. He is also
Editor of the LIICL newsletter, The League Leader.
As a member of the Chess
Journalists of America (CJA) he has covered many
top-level chess events in NYC including Karpov-Kasparov,
Anand-Kasparov, Deep Blue II-Kasparov, and the two FIDE
Man Vs. Computer World Championships held in NYC. Bob
contributed feature articles to Chess Life for
the latter two events. In the past, Bob was a frequent
provider of items to the NYS Chess Association's magazine,
Empire Chess, specializing in Chess Crosswords
and Chess Acrostics. He has also served as an elected
NYS delegate to the USCF. Bob is currently a member
of the USCF Correspondence Chess Committee where he
is compiling games for the Absolute
Project, an endeavor to archive the games from the
elite USCF correspondence tournaments of the past 30
years.
Barnes & Noble engaged Bob in 1999, to give a presentation
entitled, "Chess in the 21st Century." Annually he directs
a Charity Chess Tournament to raise funds for the needy
and co-directs an All Star Match between the LIICL and
its sister organization, the Commercial Chess League
of New York. Mostly "retired" from over-the-board play,
Bob now channels most of his chess energies toward correspondence
tournaments and has attained the titles of USCF Correspondence
Senior Master and of ICCF International Master. Bob
lists his uppermost achievements to date as winning
a preliminary
section of the 15th United States Correspondence
Chess Championship, winning a semifinal
section of World Cup XII, taking the first board
prize and the team title in the top section of the USCF
1998 Correspondence Team championships, earning an IM
Norm in Email
Masternorm 040 and winning the Jaudran
B Memorial Invitational tournament where he earned
his first Senior International Master Norm and his ICCF
IM title.
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IM Corky Schakel
Home is Lakeland, Minnesota, ten miles east of St.
Paul, on the Minnesota-Wisconsin border. After 33 years
as a chemical engineer/Quality manager at 3M Co. in
St. Paul, I retired in 2002, and have enjoyed travel
with my wife, Sally. Last May this included a trip to
Paris for the wedding of our 1990 foreign exchange student,
and train travel through Switzerland and Italy. We even
made it to Liechtenstein to tour the Kunstmuseum, which
displayed a live
tag team game (Israel/Morocco vs. USA/Cuba) by hanging
it from the ceiling of the lobby.
Our daughter, Kathy, is also a chem engineer at 3M, and she lives near us with her husband, Casey Carlson, and two sons, seven and three (what a joy it is to be a grandparent!). Our son completed medical school May 2005, and is doing his residency at the University of Minnesota Hospital. And he and Ami were married last August (big year for Andy!).
I started playing chess late at age 28 in 1972 (Fischer boom), as a diversion from tournament bridge. With the passing years bridge and marathon running have been replaced by occasional rollerblading, and more time for chess. It is a great honor to represent ICCF-US in Olympiad 17!
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IA J. Franklin Campbell
I have been playing chess for 45 years and cc for 40
years. My degree is in mathematics. I also studied celestial
mechanics at Yale Observatory. I've been married to
Anne since 1969, one daughter Meg and two grandchildren
(my family web site is http://www.jfcampbell.us/hazel/hazel.htm).
I have worked as a software engineer, systems engineer
and systems programmer. I am currently retired. Besides
chess my hobbies are photography and astronomy. I have
maintained my personal web site The
Campbell Report since 1998, which received the "Friend
of ICCF" award for 2005 and CJA award for Best
CC Web Site for 2004, 2005. 2006. I was webmaster for
the ICCF-U.S.
national federation site, which received the "Friend
of ICCF" award for 2003. I still serve the USA
as games/crosstables archivist.
I am also webmaster for Chess
Journalists of America and was webmaster for seasons 1,2,3 of the ICCF
Champions League. I have served ICCF as Press Officer
1999-2000, served on the webserver commission, took
over the CL webmaster job in 2003 when Klaus Wrba was
unable to continue due to health, and have directed
several tournaments, including the 4th
NAPZ Championship, 4th
Pacific Area Team Tournament and 2nd
USCCC Email Final. My proudest moments in OTB were
winning the Kansas State Championship tournament in
1967 and being official match photographer for the Nigel
Short-Lev Alburt match in 1985. I received the International
Arbiter title at the 2004 ICCF Congress in Mumbai, India and the Silver Bertl von Massow award at the 2009 ICCF Congress in Leeds, England.
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