ICCF President's report

Tuesday, December 16, 2014: December 2014

International Correspondence Chess Federation

President’s Report to Executive Board

National Federation Delegates

ICCF Officials

1. ICCF Congress Minutes

The minutes of the ICCF Congress held in Sydney in October, are in the last round of revisions.

The official minutes will be distributed and uploaded on the ICCF website soon.

2. Rules Commission

I want to thank Per Söderberg (SWE) for his long and dedicated work as Rules Commissioner.

The Executive Board has decided to take some time to find the appropriate person to replace Per as Rules Commissioner. As ICCF President, I will be the acting Rules Commissioner and make sure that all urgent tasks (e.g., update of the playing rules and the tournament rules before 01/01/2015) are performed in due time.

3. Direct Entry. A record year!

In November, a large number of players have used the Direct Entry facility, 155 in total.

The total of 2086 entries in eleven months this year is already well beyond last year’s record of 1816 entries!

Many thanks to Ian M. Pheby (ENG) for managing such a successful program.

4. Webserver. A major upgrade

In November, a major upgrade of the server has been implemented.

I quote ICCF Services Director, Austin Lockwood (WLS):

“We conceived the claim form system over a year ago, but were unable to fully implement it because of the huge amount of testing work required….  This is a huge step forward in modernising the way that we play correspondence chess; some of the more mechanical work has been taken out of the hands of Tournament Directors, this will improve efficiency, reduce errors and inconsistencies, and free up TDs for more important decision making.

 We have also finally eliminated the unnecessary complexity of claims in team events, thanks to a positive decision by delegates in Sydney.

 There is still much work to do, and the process of modernisation will continue when we implement the 'auto-flag' feature next month.”

Besides the claim form feature, other major improvements are now available on the server:

1. Improved Rating Forecast (especially for the time frame in between two rating periods).

2. Player Photo. I warmly encourage everyone to upload his photo on the server and ask all National Delegates to encourage their players to do so. In the coming days, a new initiative from the ICCF Marketing Director, Andrew Dearnley (ENG), will be presented to the players to boost the number of photos on the server.

5. Norm Table

The ICCF Congress in Sydney had decided to implement a revised norm table which should have included some corrections of rounding errors. However, during the verification process, requested by the Congress, it has become clear that more time would be required to confirm the new figures.

Therefore, following a proposal of the Qualifications Commissioner, Mariusz Wojnar (POL), I have decided that the implementation of the new Norm Table would be postponed and presented at the 2015 Congress in Cardiff, rather than make a hasty decision in such an important topic.

6. Tournaments

1. 1. 4^th Chess960 World Cup

The announcement for the 4^th Chess960 World Cup will be published soon. The start date of this tournament will be 15^th March and the entries will be accepted till 28^th February

Tournament Organizer: Leonardo Madonia (ITA)

 

1. 2. Zone 1 EU – Candidates 2015

The Zone 1 Candidates tournament 2015 will start on 15/03/2015.

The eligible players can enter this tournament by the Direct Entry system or through their National Delegate and their entry shall reach the Zone 1 Director, Marco Caressa (ITA) not later than 20/02/2015.

1. 3. Italy – Rest of Europe

 
The fourth edition of the friendly team match "One Member Federation vs Rest of Europe" will be this year "Italy vs Rest of Europe".

It will be played on more than 100 boards

 

1. 4. Witold Bielecki Memorial / Top Players

 After 2 years and 9 months of play, the Witold Bielecki Memorial is now almost completed.

Organized by the Polish Correspondence Chess Federation to honor the memory of Witold Bielecki (ICCF Delegate for many years) it is the strongest tournament played on the server during the last decade.

The winners are GM Stephan Busemann (GER) and GM David A. van der Hoeven (NED) Congratulations to Stephan & David!

The last open game is decisive for the 3rd place, which will be decided between the GM Arno Nickel (GER), GM David Lafarga Santorromán(ESP) and GM Leonardo Ljubičić (CRO)

• President's Report