History
It was not until 1865, when the "Wiener Schachgesellschaft" (Viennese chess society, founded in 1857) played a set of matches against some prominent clubs of other cities, including 1865-1866 Vienna-Insterburg 2-0, 1867-1869 Vienna- Berlin 2-0, 1872-1874 Vienna-London 0.5-1.5.
With the establishment of the "Wiener Schachzeithung" (Viennese chess newspaper) in 1898 and the beginning of Vienna's "golden era" of chess, playing chess boomed. At the same time under the protectorate of Georg Marco, the "Wiener Schachzeitung" organised some correspondence tournaments, which attracted some of the best known masters of those days : Adolf Zinkl, Carl Schlechter, Siegfried Reginald Wolf, Heinrich Wolf and even the very young Ernst Grünfeld.
In Graz Johann Berger was the first Austrian to win an important international correspondence tournament the "Monde Illustré 1889-1892" and he did so with the remarkable result of +45 =3 -0.
World war I brought a sudden end to this development, and it was only in the mid-twenties that Austrian correspondence chess came close to the heights of pre-war victories. Here the "Pan-European Tournaments" of the new "Wiener Schachzeithung" under the direction of Albert Becker played an important role.
New impulses came to Correspondence Chess in 1928 with the establishment of the IFSB (Internationaler Fernschachbund) and the magazine "Fernschach" (correspondence chess), where the Austrian Franz Kunert proved to be an excellent supervisor and designing mind of the new organisation.
OTB (Over the board) International Master Hans Müller claimed a huge success by winning the coveted IFSB tournament of 1932-1933 (an unofficial Correspondence Chess world championship) in front of Dr. Eduard Dyckhoff and the later Austrian OTB Grandmaster Erich Eliskases.
Friendly matches with other countries began in 1930 and they were conducted regularly after 1950. In the first CC-Olympiad of European countries (an idea of Franz Kunert) 1937-1939, the Austrian team with Ernst Grünfeld, Erich Eliskases, Hans Müller, Albert Becker, Karl Poschauko and Hans Haberditz finished the finals in second place : Hungary (20.5) was first, followed by Austria (19.5) Switzerland (16) and then Portugal, Denmark and Germany.
After World War II, in 1947, Hans Schmid founded the section for correspondence chess within the Austrian Chess Federation. In the same year, Austria joined the ICCF. In 1952 the well known correspondence chess-master Egon Spitzenberger took over the correspondence section and was its indefatigable organiser and promoter of correspondence chess until his death. The best known player of his generation was International Master Leopold Watzl who finished sixth in the finals of the world championship 1950–1953 after winning his preliminary section.
Read more about this topic: ICCF Austria
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“What would we not give for some great poem to read now, which would be in harmony with the scenery,—for if men read aright, methinks they would never read anything but poems. No history nor philosophy can supply their place.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“It would be naive to think that peace and justice can be achieved easily. No set of rules or study of history will automatically resolve the problems.... However, with faith and perseverance,... complex problems in the past have been resolved in our search for justice and peace. They can be resolved in the future, provided, of course, that we can think of five new ways to measure the height of a tall building by using a barometer.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“Look through the whole history of countries professing the Romish religion, and you will uniformly find the leaven of this besetting and accursed principle of action—that the end will sanction any means.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)