Webmaster Portrait: Ralph P. Marconi

Full name: Ralph Peter Marconi Born: 18 January 1954, Bronx, New York (USA) Residence: Joliette, Qubec (Canada) Married to: Dr. Thrse Fafard-Marconi (Radiologist) Daughters: Elaine (18), Jennifer (17) ICCF Arbiter Title: 1994 Training: Biology (Zoology) (University of Maryland); Education (2 years - MiGill University, Montreal)

I am originally from the USA (Bronx, NYC), but I have been living and working in Joliette, Qubec, Canada since 1981. Joliette, is a medium size town of about 50,000 and about 50 miles northeast of Montreal. My wife, Thrse, is from Qubec and is a radiologist.

I have been playing CC for 27 years, and I have thoroughly enjoyed the experience, especially meeting many interesting people over the years, some of whom I have become good friends with. My highest ICCF rating was 2260, (now 2149); domesitcally I am a rated expert in the APCT and USCF and a rated class A player in the CCLA and CCCA. I haven't had much success in otb chess, but my Junior High School teammates and I did win the 1968 NYC Junior HS team Championship.

In 1986, I started my career in the administrative side of CC, by first assuming the duties as Class 2 Tournament Director in the newly formed Anglo-Pacific Tournament Bureau (now called the North American/ Pacific Zone (NAPZ)), part of the ICCF. I am now the NAPZ Director. If you want to learn more about the NAPZ go to ICCF-US Home Page. Since then I have directed the Horowitz Memorial Open (HMOF ), 1992-1996) the Qubec Open Correspondence Chess Championship (QOCCC ), a tournament I originally organized back in 1986; the 5th final is now in progress, and I am currently directing the 9th North American Invitational Correspondence Chess Championship (NAICCC). In addition I am team captain of the Canadian teams in the 12th CC Olympiad Final and 13th CC Olympiad prelims, and team captain of the Canadian team in Pacific Area Team Tournament IV (PATT IV) event. As if I don't already have enough to occupy my time, I am also a Vice President of the Canadian Correspondence Chess Association (CCCA)and the CCCA's Games Editor, a position I have had since June 1995, and CCCA Webmaster; a Board Director in the Correspondence Chess League of America (CCLA) (serving out my second term), and a CCLA columnist. My column which appears regularily in the The Chess Correspondent is CCLA Portraits. Finally, in 1994 I was awarded the title of ICCF International Arbiter for my work in the NAPZ .

I have a number of goals for this site: 1)to provide up to date results in the NAPZ events and Canada's results in the upcoming CC Olympiads, and other CC tournaments. 2) set up a pages for possibly posting my various articles and columns, 3)pages where games can be viewed and game files downloaded in PGN or CBH format, and 4) a page set up exclusively for guest columnist's (open to anyone who has something of interest they want to share with the rest of the International CC community.

A web site can be viewed as organic in nature; that is, it grows and changes over time, and as with all newborns, good nurturing and support will insure a good outcome. With this mind I hope that you contribute any ideas and material for my site. Finally, I want to take this opportunity to thank my good friends, J. Franklin Campbell, for inspiring me to create this web site; Tim Harding and John C. Knudsen for taking the time out of their busy schedules to give me helpful advice. Tim's and John's excellent sites can be found at: Links to other sites
Click on Chess Mail Magazine and John Knudsen's The Correspondence Chess Place.

And check out Franklin's excellent and very popular website: The Campbell Report.