ICCF U.S.A. - World Champions From The United States of America

World Champions From The United States of America

The United States of America has had two World Champions. The first, GM Hans Berliner, won the Fifth World Championship in 1968. He was one of the top over the board players in the 1950s when he switched to correspondence chess. He won the Championship the hard way – by qualifying through a series of preliminary events – at a time when very few top US players were active in ICCF. Unfortunately, he decided to retire from his correspondence chess career at the top. He is the first person to be initiated into the (US) Chess Hall of Fame based on his correspondence record of 90 wins, 8 draws and 1 loss.

GM Victor Palciauskas won the Tenth World Championship in 1984. He was nominated for a vacancy in the Finals because of his excellent performance in the North American Invitational Correspondence Chess Championship II. He had earned the GM title in 1983. He has continued to play over the years. He is participating in the First Email Correspondence Chess Championship.

Both champions have indicated in interviews that winning the championship takes a tremendous amount of hard work as well as the desire to win.

GM Hans Berliner came out of retirement in 2001 to play in the Jubilee World Champions' Section. Victor Palciauskas is also playing in this section.