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, Paul Keres and Max Euwe were well-known enthusiastic correspondence chess players during some periods of their chess careers.
ICSB
On 15 August 1928, the ICSB was created under the leadership of Erich Otto Freienhagen, which had existed in a loose form since November 1927. Other members of the management were J.Keemink, K.Laue, H. von Massow, H.Schild and C.Olsen. This was the first successful attempt to create an international correspondence chess federation. Unfortunately, it survived for only a short period, but its successor proved to be a viable and successful.
IFSB
On 2 December 1928, a new federation was formed in Berlin. To distinguish it from its predecessor, it was named the IFSB. The founders were: R.Dührssen, J.Keemink, H. von Massow, K.Laue and L.Probst. Freienhagen 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, 1932; Marcel Duchamp, 1933; Hilding Persson, 1934; Paul Keres, 1935; Milan Vidmar, 1936; Miklos Szigeti, 1937 and Edmund Adam, 1938. IFSB European Olympiad: the Hungarian Team won the Final. When de 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 - J.Keemink 1934-1935: K.Schjorring - I. Abonyi 1935-1939: I.Abonyi - H.W. von Massow
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.
Using its own language-independent chess notation, ICCF organizes all kind of tournaments: individual and team championships, title norm tournaments and promotion tournaments – in postal, email and the ICCF correspondence server versions. Starting from 2011 ICCF organizes chess960 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 Zone 2-3; America/Pacific Director : Bokar, Dr. Jason Zone 4; Africa/Asia Director : Knol, Everdinand ICCF is closely co-operating with the leading world chess organization FIDE. All ICCF titles, championships and ratings are recognised by FIDE.
