* means state champion.
Also in the state is ten-time champion Dan Harger.
In Postal Chess, John Penquite deserves mention. He was the highest rated USCF correspondence player with a 2927 rating (won 49 games straight, no losses, no draws).

IOWA STATE CHESS ASSOCIATION (IASCA)

The association is reaching its 100th birthday. Iowa State Chess Association
Editor of the official quarterly publication Iowa Chess En Passant is Mark Capron of Iowa City.

Iowa has a storied chess history: Louis Paulsen, born in Nassengrund, Germany Jan-15-1833, died of diabetes Aug-18-1891, was the number one player in America when Paul Morphy wasn't playing. According to Arpad Elo in his 1978 book "The Rating of Chessplayers, Past and Present," Paulsen's best five year rating was 2550 which was very high for the time. According to Jeff Sonos who claims his "chessmetric ratings" are more accurate than ELO, Paulsen was number one in the world in 1862, 1865, 1869, 1870, 1871 and number two in the world for 9 years. His peak year Chessmetrics rating was 2785 in 1866, which is not bad. Depending on which Chessmetrics list or graph you look at, Sonos lists Paulsen as one of the top 12 chess players in world history. Back in Germany, Paulsen's sister Amalie (1831-1869) was the first woman to beat a master. Paulsen lived on a farm and established a distillery and a tobacco trade near Dubuque with his brother Ernest and Amalie from 1854 until 1861 when he migrated to England. Herr Louis Paulsen was a very simple-minded, unworldly-wise man, always absorbed in the work upon which he was engaged, and forgetful of everything else. Paulsen was a great defensive player and a profound opening theoretician who introduced many novelties, especially in the French and Sicilian. A major line in the Sicilian is named after him. Steinitz called him a "pioneer of the new school" and Steinitz claimed that Paulsen was the one opponent he feared most in matchplay. He changed the way we play chess by his treatment of pawn structures, closed positions and fianchettos. He is the first person to popularize blindfold chess and held the record of 15 games played simultaneously. He was the leading blindfold expert in the world during his lifetime. He also founded the Dubuque Chess Club in 1858 such as it is. The classic book on him is Horst Paulussen’s "Louis Paulsen 1833-1891 und das Schachspiel in Lippe 1900-1981, Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des Deutschen Schachspiels" (Detmold 1982, Herausgegeben vom Lippischen Heimatbund Detmold, Verlag Topp und Möller). In tournaments he was 2nd at New York 1857, 1st at Bristol 1861, 2nd at London 1862 (after Adolf Anderssen), 2nd at Baden-Baden 1870, 1st at Krefeld 1871, 1st at Leipzig 1877, 2nd at Leipzig 1879 and 4th= at Breslau 1889. In matches he played Adolf Anderssen three times; drawing in 1862 (+3, =2, -3) and winning in 1876 (+5, =1, -4) and 1877 (+5, =1, -3). He also defeated Ignatz Von Kolisch (+7, =18, -6) in 1861 and Gustav Richard Neumann (+5, =3, -2) in 1864. The introduction of chess clocks had a negative influence on his play and drove him from chess. Here are about 400 of his best games in PGN format: Paulsen's games

401 ROGERS-TURNER, DETROIT
402 J.MASTERS-W.J.FULLERTON, AUSTRALIA
403 HERAL-STEINTIZ, VIENNA, AUGUST 26, 1873
404 BURN-OWEN, LONDON
405 BLACKBURNE-PAULSEN, FROM DEUTSCHE-ZEITUNG
406 OWEN-BURN, FROM LONDON FIELD
407 BROWNSON-TRUMBULL
408 ULRICH-CUNNINGHAM, HARTFORD
409 MONTREAL-QUEBEC Telegraph match
410 QUEBEC-MONTREAL
411 STEINITZ-HUTTLEY, LONDON
412 S. FRANKLIN-DR. BLUMBERG

CLUBS/CITIES

IOWA CITY: The Hawkeye Chess Club; contact Mohammad Sayeeduzaman at 353-4288; email and home addresses are on their webpage. Usually meets on the third floor lobby of the Student Union. A more current eddress is: University of Iowa Chess Club. The Tobacco Bowl cafe which is right downtown on the pedestrian mall is where you can ask for board and pieces at the counter and assorted chess players hang out there. In the summer, chess is played in the pedestrian mall in front of the cafe. The best place is at the Deadwood Bar at 6 Dubuque Street, just down the block. There they lend free pieces and chess clocks. It is the center of Iowa chess.

The Cyclone Chess Club

Chess Club Ames/ISU

• Contact information for people trying to meet other people to play.
• I have input the 354 games of the Kaiser Wilhelm's Jubilee Grand Tournament in Vienna or Wien 1898 won by Tarrasch in a playoff over Pillsbury. It was a twenty player double round robin that, except for Lasker, included all the best players in the world such as Steinitz (4th!), Blackburne, Chigorin and Janowsky. Many of these games - including several by Steinitz - have never been ported to the computer before, even in "two million game" databases. My idea was to upload it to the Pittsburgh Chess Club's archives but they seem not to be updating their pages.
  Vienna 1898 Supertournament in PGN
  Vienna 1898 Supertournament in Chessbase format

• Since it is amazing that the 1941 USSR Absolute Championship - a six player match (4 games vs every other player) tournament held in Leningrad/Moscow won by Botvinnik - is not online anywhere, I have uploaded it here. I made numerous corrections to the Botvinnik book of the tournament and this file is believed to be the most correct and accurate version possible.
  USSR Absolute Championship 1941 in PGN
  
  

• The 355 Miniature Games of Chess