The North America/Pacific Zone History and Events

by Ruth Ann Fay

 The North America/Pacific Zone, originally known as the Anglo-Pacific Tournament Bureau, was formally licensed by ICCF in 1984. This allowed Robert A. Karch, the first Director, to organize promotional tournaments using the Europe Correspondence Tournaments as a model. The Zone included Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, and the United States of America. Mexico was moved to the Zone in 2000.

Prior to that time, the only tournament that provided advancement to the World Championships was the North American Invitational CCC which included only Canada and the USA. This event goes back to 1971 when John F. Cleeve and Walter Muir with the help of Eric Larsen were able to organize a Continental Championship that would seed its Champion into the ICCF World Championship Final. This was Victor Palciauskas' route to the World Championship.

Canada hosted the first 8 NAICCC’s. The USA hosted the 9th tournament and also added Mexico since it was necessary to have a 3^rd country to obtain a higher category. The 10^th NAICCC is scheduled to start on 1 July and will be played on the WebServer.

The first Zonal Championship started in 1989. Interest in the Zonal promotional tournaments was not as strong as hoped, perhaps because about 75% of the players are from the USA. The 2^nd Championship was not begun until 1994. The 3^rd started in 1998, and the 4^th is underway now. R. Anthony Cayford won the First Championship, John C. Timm won the 2^nd, and René duCret won the 3^rd. John Timm has provided analysis for one of his games.

In an attempt to stimulate more interest in the Zone, Max Zavanelli, NAPZ Director from
1987-1999, also held two Prize Tournaments. The Prizes totaled $6625. Jon Edwards won
1^st Place in the 1995 Master Class Prize Promotional Tournament. Ceasar Posylek won
1^st Place in the 1997 Master Class Prize Promotional Tournament.

The Zone also has a Team Tournament, the Pacific Area Team Tournament (PATT).
There have been four tournaments to date. We will start organizing the 5^th one shortly.

The NAPZ is the first zone to hold all its promotional tournaments on the ICCF WebServer.

Information (crosstables, winner’s lists, and archives) on the NAPZ is online through
the ICCF-US website. It has been assembled with the much valued help of
Ralph Marconi, NAPZ Director from 1999-2003, and Franklin Campbell.
Both still help in maintaining the information. Please visit:

http://www.iccfus.com/games/napz.htm

http://correspondencechess.com/campbell/napzlinx.htm

http://correspondencechess.com/marconi/napzch4.htm

http://www.poisonpawn.co.nz/corrrespondence.htm