He has run for congress, been a formidable correspondence chess player, heads the World Chess Federation, Inc. and is a Grandmaster with the World Correspondence Chess Federation (WCCF). And that’s just to name a few of his “accomplishments.”
Vaughn learned to play chess while in high school in 1975 and in 1980 was the gold medal winner representing the United States at the International Student Games and became American Chess Association national champion the same year. According to Vaughn, his rise eclipsed those of Morphy and Fischer.
Vaughn writes that in 1982 he set the world record for number of blindfold simultaneous games played and in February, 2012 he set a Guinness World Record of 110 blindfold simultaneous chess game wins.
Vaughn received a Masters in Business Administration and earned a PhD in Accounting, is an expert in cryptanalyst which led to his being noted for having solved two of the most important previously unsolved ciphers in the world and in 1986 he was the national Trivial Pursuit Champion. In 1988 he set a world record for the most simultaneous correspondence chess games, playing 1300 games at one time and in 2004 set the world record for over the board simultaneous games, playing 730 games at one time. In 1988 Vaughn won the US National Correspondence Chess Championship of the Chess Connection (TCC) followed by two Mensa World correspondence Chess Championships in 1989 and in 1995. He won the 3rd, 4th, and 5th World Correspondence Chess Federation Championships, being title holder from 1995-2007. Las Vegas mayors have proclaimed 'Stan Vaughan Days' numerous times in recognizing these achievements as well as those as a chess coach, having coached numerous individual and team scholastic chess champions during the 1980's and 1990's.
I could go on about his achievements, but that’s probably more than enough.
Stan is also a politician for real. He has run for congress on the Independent American Party platform in Nevada.
His name is mainly associated with the World Chess Federation. According to their website, “The World Chess Federation, Inc. is a charitable domestic non – profit organization established in 1992 by Undefeated World Chess Champion Bobby Fischer and later in 1996 incorporated to its present status in the State of Nevada. WCF is devoted exclusively to supporting the educational, cultural and recreational value of the game of chess” and “WCF’s most visible activity is organizing The World Chess Championship.” WCF awards organizational titles, including World Arbitrator and sanctions worldwide chess tournaments run by chess tournament organizers who agree to run their events in accordance with WCF rules and regulations.
They also calculate ratings and award titles for achievement in competitive play: WCF World Grand Master, WCF World Master. Here is, according to their website, an abbreviated history of the organization:
1988 – Grandmaster Stan Vaughan, Frank Metz and Kon Grivainis created World Correspondence Chess Federation. 1992 – FIDE President Campomanes signed over the rights to the World Chess Champion title to Bobby Fisher. 1992 – Under WCF banner Bobby Fischer played and defeated Boris Spassky for the World Chess Champion title in former Yugoslavia. Bobby Fischer renounced FIDE and turned over his title to WCF. 1994 – Bobby Fischer retired from chess as an Undefeated World Champion. Stan Vaughan became the successor to the above title. 1996 – WCF was incorporated in State of Nevada, USA. 2008 – Bobby Fischer dies. 2009 – After 17 years of litigation WCF was awarded the worldwide rights to “The World Chess Federation”, “The World Chess Champion” title and the rights for the service mark “The World Chess Championship” and “The World Chess Federation Hall of Fame”. 2009 – present – WCF successfully organizes and runs WCF Championship, Candidate and Qualifying tournaments in Las Vegas, Nevada.
WCF Top Live ELO Ratings 1-Stan Vaughan 3902 USA WCF Grand Master 2-Bobby Fischer (deceased 2008) 2897 Iceland WCF Grand Master 3-Vassily Ivanchuk 2845 Ukraine 4-Boris Spassky 2805 France WCF Grand Master 5-Gata Kamsky 2786 USA 6-Emil Sutkovsky 2741 Israel 7-Le Quang Liem 2735 Vietnam 8-Anna Muzychuk 2678 Slovenia 9-Krishnan Sasikiran 2614 India 10.-Ron Gross 2581 USA WCF World Master 11-Baadur Jobava 2560 Georgia 12-Francisco Metz (deceased 2007) 2500 Mexico WCF World Master 13-Robert Robey 2435 USA 14-Andrew Hammond 2378 England 15.-Chad Gauvin 2221 USA 16-Alexander Stamnov 2201 Serbia .
Vaughn writes, “Fischer retired undefeated and declined to defend the title in 1994, at which time as the challenger and American Chess Association champion titleholder, I became WCF champion and defended the title successfully in 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008 (also that year Garry Kasparov declined in writing on October 29, 2008 to challenge me for the WCF).” In 2008 Varuzhan Akobian defaulted rather than violate terms of a non-compete contract with FIDE which prohibited him from competing for the world title which is owned by World Chess Federation.
Chess Life of the 1990s carried ads for his tournaments, sanctioned by his organization. It has been said Vaughn has a long history of organizing tournaments with the same name as official USCF sanctioned events.
Vaughn also authored Paul Morphy: Confederate Spy. “Few people realize the key role played by world chess champion Paul Morphy throughout the American Civil War. Written by modern world chess champion Stan Vaughan, Paul Morphy: Confederate Spy offers intricate insights into the international intrigues entered into by the young Morphy as he plays his way into the hearts of foes and friends alike. Travel with Morphy and live through the actual chess matches played with Spanish royalty, French aristocrats, and more as the young diplomat gathers information and assistance for the Confederacy. A true page-turner.”
Vaughn’s
most recent endeavor is sainthood for Bobby Fischer.
Visit
the WCF Website
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