January 21, 2017

Hans Berliner Passes 13 Jan 17

It is with sadness and respect that I report the passing of Hans Jack Berliner (1929-2017), USA's greatest correspondence player. This NY Times article by Dylan Loeb McClain Jan 16th, 2017 captures a nice snapshot of many of Berliner's accomplishments.

I would like to highlight a few related facts that emphasize Berliner's extraordinary command over our game.

• Berliner was inducted into the US Chess Hall of Fame in 1990 with a career correspondence chess record of 94 wins, 8 draws and 1 loss against the best in the world!
• In the game against Estrin in the 5th World Correspondence Chess Championships he was playing a man recognized as perhaps the world expert on the Two Knights Defense and soon to be the 7th CC World Champion in his own right. Berliner researched Estrin's games and found an improvement, with Black, that beat the world expert in his own game in what is most often hailed as the best game in correspondence chess history!
• Hans Berliner is the first US Grandmaster of Corresponcence Chess and the first US World Champion of Correspondence Chess.

Dan Perry, ICCF-US Webmaster