{"id":1477,"date":"2011-10-31T11:29:27","date_gmt":"2011-10-31T10:29:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kszgk.com\/iccf\/?page_id=1477"},"modified":"2011-12-11T20:24:40","modified_gmt":"2011-12-11T19:24:40","slug":"czech-republic","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/kszgk.com\/iccf\/?page_id=1477","title":{"rendered":"Czech Republic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Name of Federation:<\/strong> Association of Correspondence Chess in the Czech Republic<\/p>\n

Year of Foundation:<\/strong> 1993<\/p>\n

ICCF Delegate:<\/strong> Josef Mrkvi\u010dka (josef.mrkvicka@volny.cz<\/a>)<\/p>\n

ICCF E-Mail contact:<\/strong> Michal Volf (chess.volf@centrum.cz<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Website:<\/strong> http:\/\/www.skscr.cz\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Article provided by:<\/strong> Rudolf \u0160eve\u010dek, Josef Mrkvi\u010dka<\/p>\n

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Short History<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first written report of a game played by correspondence between two players in the Czech territory dates back to 1870-71, but the official date is the year 1886, when Karel Traxler published invitations through the chess column in the \u201cT\u00e1bor\u201d magazine for the first CC tournament. The games started on December 15, 1886 and the final results were known in early February 1888. There was no direct contact between the nine participants, but moves were sent to the Tournament Director and he distributed them to the players.<\/p>\n

Karel Traxler became famous, not only as the Great Father of Czech CC players, but also as author of the clever Traxler Counter-attack in the Two Knights Defense: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 Bc5!? (see the game Estrin \u2013 Je\u017eek).<\/p>\n

Until 1918, Czech territory was part of the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy. By the end of October 1918 an independent state of Czechs and Slovaks was founded with the name Czechoslovakia. Since then, many CC tournaments were organised by newspapers and chess magazines and many Czechoslovak players took part in foreign tournaments. In 1949, a CC Section of the Czechoslovak Chess Federation was established and their members took over all national and international CC activities.<\/p>\n

After political changes in 1989, an independent Czechoslovak CC Federation was founded. And finally on January 1, 1993 – when Czechoslovakia was divided into two states – two associations, the Czech and the Slovak, became legal successors of all previous CC organisations.<\/p>\n

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Achievements<\/strong><\/p>\n

Many excellent results by Czechoslovak correspondence chess players can be reported but we shall mention only the most remarkable.<\/p>\n

In the pre-war time 1919-1938 one of the worlds\u2019 strongest players was Frantisek Bat\u00edk (1887-1985). After the war he entered the World Championship Final II and was the only player to defeat the winner Ragozin (see game Bat\u00edk \u2013 Ragozin).<\/p>\n

A great success was achieved by Jaroslav H\u00fdbl and Karel Hus\u00e1k in the World Championship Final V (1965-1968) when they placed second and third behind Hans Berliner of the USA. A similar success was repeated by Jozef Franzen (now from Slovakia) who was runner-up in World Championship Final XII (1984-1990). Then, after a longer interruption, Milo\u0161 Kratochv\u00edl placed third in the World Championship XX (2004-2011).<\/p>\n

Other Czech players who qualified for World Championship Finals were Valt Borsony and Jaroslav Je\u017eek (Final II), Jaroslav H\u00fdbl and Rudolf \u0160eve\u010dek (Final VI), Jind\u0159ich Zapletal and Zden\u0115k Ne\u010desan\u00fd (Final VII), Josef Nun (Final VIII), Rudolf \u0160eve\u010dek (Final XVI), Libor Dan\u0115k (Final XVII), V\u00e1clav Lexa (Final XIX), David Vrko\u010d and Lubom\u00edr Mach\u00fd\u010dek (Final XXII), Pavel Sv\u00e1\u010dek and Ladislav \u017dleb\u010d\u00edk (Final XXIII). For the forthcoming Final XXVIII to be started in 2012, Czech players Zden\u011bk Straka and Petr Boukal qualified recently.<\/p>\n

Czechoslovak players twice gained the title of European Champion. The Second European Championship (1964-1967) was won by Jind\u0159ich Zapletal, and the Thirty-Seventh Championship (1991-1994) was won by Libor Dan\u0115k. Other players who played in the European Championship Finals were Ji\u0159\u00ed Mou\u010dka (Sixty-Fourth Final) and Lubom\u00edr Mach\u00fd\u010dek (Sixty-Sixth Final).<\/p>\n

The Czechoslovak teams were very successful in CC Olympiads. They were placed second in the First Olympiad (1949-1952) and were winners in the Second Olympiad (1952-1955). The players were Paroulek, Hukel, Kausek, Borsony, Olexa, and Skrovina, with Karel Pr\u016fcha as Team Captain. Another first place was obtained in the Fifth Olympiad (1965-1968), which the Czechoslovak team (\u0160najdr, Smr\u010dka, Urbanec, H\u00fdbl, Weiner, Nun, and Stanislav Folgar as Team Captain) won ahead of the USSR and West Germany. In the Sixth Olympiad (1968-1972) the Czechoslovak team was second and gained silver medals (won by the Soviet Union).<\/p>\n

Another success came 30 years later in the Eleventh Olympiad (1992-1999) when the Czechoslovak Team consisting of four Czech players (Zapletal, Trapl, Mr\u00e1z, \u0160eve\u010dek, also team captain) and two Slovak players (Lan\u010d, Pr\u00edvara) shared the first place with the German team gaining the same number of game-points but having more match points. However, both teams were awarded Gold Medals according to the ICCF motto \u201cAmici Sumus\u201d. A second place for the Czech team \u2013 behind Germany \u2013 then followed in the Thirteenth Olympiad (2004-2009): Chytilek, Mr\u00e1z, Kratochv\u00edl, Trapl, N\u00fdvlt, Sv\u00e1\u010dek (also team captain) were part of this successful team. The Czech teams also participated in the Final of Fourteenth Olympiad played by email, and in the currently played Final of Sixteenth Olympiad.<\/p>\n

Many excellent results were achieved by Czechoslovak teams in Ladies Olympiads. In the First Olympiad (1974-1979) they were placed third; in the Second Olympiad (1980-1986) they obtained the same number of points as the Soviet Union but won silver medals. They were again second in the Third Olympiad (1986-1992) and finally in the Fourth Olympiad (1992-1997) the Czech team (Eva Mo\u017en\u00e1, Mariola Babulov\u00e1, Hana Kub\u00edkov\u00e1 and Vlasta Hor\u00e1\u010dkov\u00e1, with Vladim\u00edr Houdek as Team Captain) managed to beat the Russian team and gained golden medals. In the next Fifth Olympiad, the Czech team (Eva Mo\u017en\u00e1, Hana Kub\u00edkov\u00e1, Mariola Babulov\u00e1, Vlasta Nejezchlebov\u00e1, with Josef Mrkvi\u010dka as Team Captain) finished third and obtained bronze medals.<\/p>\n

The greatest success of a Czech lady player in the individual Ladies World Championships was achieved in the Ladies World Championship, Final 8 (2007-2010), as Marie Ba\u017eantov\u00e1 finished second behind Olga Sukhareva from Russia. Furthermore, in the Ladies World Championship, Final 5 (1993-1998), two Czech players also achieved outstanding results. Eva Mo\u017en\u00e1 finished third, followed by Vlasta Nejezchlebov\u00e1 on fourth place.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Other individual tournament achievements<\/strong><\/p>\n

As at 31.10.2011, Czech Republic has (some of them inactive):<\/p>\n