The local boy wins ICCF 2004 WC

pertti lehikoinen, the 20th world champion. FINALLY we win SOMETHING! 😀

http://www.iccf.com/content/index.php



never even heard of the guy. 2200 OTB, 2600 FELO (is that the ICCF rating?). luckily he's written a short summary of his entire chess career, from a kid losing all his 7 games in his first tournament, to leading the 2004 WC tournament:

http://www.dlc.fi/~pele/ura.html

Brilliant - maybe. We have a British CC GM. He gained the ICCF GM title in the same year (2007, I think) as his OTB grade reached 1900 for the first time. A-mazzzz-ing!! 🙄 How do they do it 😲

Originally posted by atticus2
Brilliant - maybe. We have a British CC GM. He gained the ICCF GM title in the same year (2007, I think) as his OTB grade reached 1900 for the first time. A-mazzzz-ing!! 🙄 How do they do it 😲

Britain's first GM (no, not Tony Miles) has a FIDE rating of 2118 currently and no FIDE title but became an ICCF GM in 1976. He also played in two world championships. How do you think he did it?

Originally posted by atticus2
Brilliant - maybe. We have a British CC GM. He gained the ICCF GM title in the same year (2007, I think) as his OTB grade reached 1900 for the first time. A-mazzzz-ing!! 🙄 How do they do it 😲

obviously no modern ICCF WC contender can do without machines. but then again I'm sure there were MUCH stronger OTB players taking part. so to me the interesting thing is how come pertti's centaur play was stronger than that of the stronger OTB players? it's not like the hardware nor software is difficult to come by, so that shouldn't be it.

for what it's worth, the guy has been focusing on cc for many decades already. also quit his job to work full time on the 2004 tournament games. if nothing else, that does sound like proper dedication. can't imagine that time would be used to simply clicking the analysis on and waiting for the silicon opinion for a day or two.

then again, I understood this was postal cc. can't be that many participants around anymore?

Originally posted by wormwood
obviously no modern ICCF WC contender can do without machines. but then again I'm sure there were MUCH stronger OTB players taking part. so to me the interesting thing is how come pertti's centaur play was stronger than that of the stronger OTB players? it's not like the hardware nor software is difficult to come by, so that shouldn't be it.

for what it' ...[text shortened]... n again, I understood this was postal cc. can't be that many participants around anymore?

The 2004 refers to the year the competition started, I think. As far as I know it is the last postal ICCF world championship, all others are email or server. All future ICCF world championships are going to be server but there may be one or two email tournaments still to finish.

Originally posted by Diophantus
Britain's first GM (no, not Tony Miles) has a FIDE rating of 2118 currently and no FIDE title but became an ICCF GM in 1976. He also played in two world championships. How do you think he did it?

If you're referring to Keith Richardson, he used to be a very strong OTB player - probably 2300 or so in his younger days

Originally posted by atticus2
If you're referring to Keith Richardson, he used to be a very strong OTB player - probably 2300 or so in his younger days

Yep, Keith Richardson. 2300 puts him in the same ball park as the new ICCF champion and he has no FIDE title, likely because he had a proper job instead of poncing about chasing GM norms. All that with no computer in sight. A proper CC player.