Article from Gold Book. Update to follow.
Name of Federation: The Correspondence Chess Federation of Ukraine
Year of Foundation: 2001
ICCF Delegate: Andrei Yeremenko (andrerem@gmail.com)
E-Mail contact: Nikolay Andriuschenko (nickolaj@stel.sebastopol.ua)
Website: http://www.ccfu.org.ua/
Article provided by: Fedir Savchur
The first information about playing chess by correspondence in the territory of Ukraine (that time part of the Russian Empire) is from mid-19th Century – shortly after local regular post communication was created.
The first CC game known to us was played between the Russian master Mikhail Chigorin and the members of the Society of the chess amateurs from Kharkov in 1878-1879. In the territory of the Russian Empire (Imperial Russia) the first correspondence tournament was organised in 1882. Its winner was Nikolay Shabelsky from Kharkov. Since then, representatives of Ukraine have taken part and became the prize-winners and winners in many different CC competitions.
After the First World War, Ukraine was incorporated to the Soviet Union. Before the Second World War different CC competitions were started, but the beginning of the official championships of Ukraine began only after the creation of the Commission of Correspondence Competitions of the Chess Federation of Ukraine in 1958. The main organisers were Yakov Shereshevsky and Pavel Grizo. The chiefs of the Commission in different time were M. Usachy, A. Fedorov, Ju. Sadovoy, S. Golubev, L. Chepurnoy, and E. Salnikova.
In 1959 began the first CC championship of Ukraine. Currently the 20th such tournament is in progress. In 1966 began the first team championship of Ukraine, and now the 15th such tournament is about to end.
The number of participants in tournaments organised by the Commission grew steadily: 20 in 1958; 164 in 1963; 204 in 1967. And now some figures from the report of the chief of a Commission, Elena Salnikova, to the Presidium of the Chess Federation of Ukraine in 1984: “1982 – 113 tournaments with 8798 participants; 1983 – 239 tournaments with 9030 participants”. If we take into account that there were additional regional tournaments starting, the general (common) total number of participants must have been around 10,000.
Unfortunately, in connection with economic and political problems, these figures have remained only pleasant memories.
In 1991 Ukraine obtained its independence (and it joined ICCF in the 1992 Congress held in Graz). In 1995 the Ukrainian CC Association was founded, but because of economic and legal problems its activity was not effective.
During August 17-18, 2001 in Lviv, the CCFU (Correspondence Chess Federation of Ukraine) was founded. At congress were present 32 CC players, delegates from 15 regional organisations and two associated members, the Ukrainian CC Association (delegate Rudolf Kolesnikov) and the Committee of Correspondence Competitions (delegate Elena Salnikova). The 2001 ICCF Congress in Rimini has recognised the new CC Federation as ICCF member for Ukraine.