Continental Chess Association and DomainVision.com

Box 249, Salisbury Mills NY 12577-0249

E-mail: ChesstourAtAOL.com (use the @ symbol instead of "At")
Tournament withdrawals before event starts: DropoutsAtChess.us (use the @ symbol instead of "At)
 

About Continental Chess Association, DomainVision.com, and Bill Goichberg

The business now known as Continental Chess Association (CCA) was founded in 1964 by Bill Goichberg to hold chess tournaments.  During 1964-1967, these tournaments were in the New York City area only.  In 1968, expansion to other areas began, and the name New York City Chess Association was replaced by Continental Chess Association.

CCA has held over 2000 chess tournaments in 26 states, and has awarded over $13,000,000 in prize money without ever reneging on a guaranteed prize.  For many years, more players have competed in CCA tournaments than those of any other chess organizer in the USA.  CCA is not a membership organization, but is affiliated with the United States Chess Federation (USCF) and requires USCF membership to play in its tournaments.  CCA has placed first in 11 USCF membership drives.

CCA has originated and developed many ideas which were at first unusual or controversial, but were eventually adopted by other organizers and are now accepted as significant features of the American chess scene.  These include:

1966:  First organizer to hold USCF-rated scholastic tournaments.  Other chess organizers then believed that scholastics could not be rated because students would refuse to pay $5 USCF dues, but the CCA experiment proved incredibly successful.  In December 1966, the Greater New York Scholastics attracted 614 players, at a time when the previous national record was just 265 players, and produced 400 new USCF members.  

1966:  First organizer to hold elementary school tournaments.  This age group was once believed too young to play chess with the exception of a few prodigies, but we have since learned that there is even more interest here than in high school or junior high school.

1969:  Originated the National High School Championship.  USCF would not allow the use of this name until then, believing it would be "just one more New York event," but the first one was a spectacular success with 370 players from 21 states including Hawaii and all USCF regions represented.  And it has continued to grow since.

1969:  Originated USCF-rated "Quad" tournaments, involving players of similar strength in 4-player round robin sections.  This format still enjoys a following throughout the nation, and has been especially successful in New Jersey.

1973:  Originated non-smoking tournaments.  Other organizers criticized this format as harmful to entries, but even in early years, more non-smokers were gained than smokers lost, and today very few tournaments allow smoking.

1973:  Originated the National Junior High School Championship.

1973:  Originated the World Open.  The inaugural event guaranteed $15,000 in prizes- a small fraction of today's guarantee, but 50% more than any previous open tournament.  The 1973 event was an immediate success with over 700 players, and it has drawn over 1100 each year since 1985.  

1976:  Originated the National Elementary School Championship.  The inaugural event drew just 68 players.  Today, the National Elementary draws about 2000 players!   See www.uschess.org for details of all National Scholastic tournaments.

1977:  First USA organizer to hold Swiss Internationals and Swiss Futurities, providing FIDE title and rating opportunities for many American players.   During the period 1977-1993, about half of all Americans to achieve the IM or GM title made one or more norms in a CCA International.   In most of the 90s, the World Open was the only CCA event to offer title norms (IM), but additional norm events were added in 1999 and 2000.

1986:  The World Open drew 1506 players, a world record for open tournaments that still stands.  This event has outdrawn all other open tournaments in the world each year most years since 1985.

1990:  First to use alternate time controls and multiple round options with alternate playing schedules in Swiss tournaments.  Previously, some other organizers had offered only the choice of round one Friday night or Saturday morning.  CCA expanded player options dramatically to allow players to compete even if they could not spare all or most of the weekend.  For instance, the World Open now offers the choice of 7-day, 5-day, 4-day or 3-day schedules, with the convenient 3-day made possible by playing the first five rounds at a Game/45 time control.

1990:  Held the Vermont Resort Open, the first USCF rated tournament in Vermont since 1979.  CCA has held many tournaments in Vermont since, resulting in the USCF membership of that state more than quadrupling since 1990.

1991:  Originated the National Scholastic K-12 Grade Championships.  Some expressed skepticism as to whether this would be a "real national," but it drew 340 players from 10 USCF regions the first year and has since expanded to over 1500 players, and many states have copied the format.  Like the other national scholastics, it is now controlled by USCF.

1995:  Initiated the practice of inserting time delay clocks in response to many "no losing chances" sudden death claims, allowing these claims to be resolved objectively without requiring director judgment.   This method was added to the USCF rules later that year.

1999:  With the sponsorship of ChessWise University, initiated the CCA-ChessWise International, an annual open Swiss International with GM and IM norms available, in Stratton Mountain, Vermont.  17 Grandmasters competed in the inaugural event, the only open tournament in the USA in 1999 to offer the possibility of GM norms.  The tournament was held again in 2000, was cancelled for several years due to lack of a sponsor, and was held in 2004 in Vermont and 2005 in Lake George, NY as the CCA-ICC International with sponsorship from the Internet Chess Club.  It has not been held since 2005 as that event sustained a heavy loss even with the sponsorship. 

1999:  CCA established an all time record for USCF affiliates by enrolling 1,489 U.S. Chess Federation members in one year!  This number is a whopping 954 members greater than that of the second place affiliate of 1999.

1999:  Bill Goichberg started DomainVision.com business. which since has sold over 1000 domains.

2000:  CCA organized five tournaments that each had $100,000 or more in prizes guaranteed- World Open, Foxwoods Open, Chicago Open, Continental Open, North American Open.   Only two other open chess tournaments in the US have ever guaranteed $100,000 in prizes, neither of which are still held.  The World Open continues to guarantee at least $150,000 and the Chicago Open $100,000 each year.

2000:  The Continental Open in Los Angeles was expanded to nine rounds, with the possibility of IM norms- the first open in the western U.S. in 20 years to do so. Greg Shahade earned his final IM norm in this event.  Unfortunately, there was a very large financial loss, so this event will not have so many rounds in the future.

2001:  CCA raised funds to continue the USCF Grand Prix, guaranteeing that the total prize fund would be at least $10,000 and enabling the event to be held without USCF financial support.

2005-2009: Bill Goichberg was elected President of the United States Chess Federation in 2005 and re-elected in 2007.  His second term ended in August 2009 and he was not eligible to continue due to term limits, but remains a member of the USCF Executive Board.

 

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