Welsh Correspondence Chess Federation

Austin Lockwood  Saturday, June 21, 2025

A reminder that nominations for the 2026 WCCF Executive Committee and motions for the AGM are due no later than Friday 27th June 2025.  If you are interested in serving on the Executive Committee, or if you would like to add an item to the AGM agenda, please get in touch before this date!

Please note that no "other business" will be discussed at the meeting.

Austin Lockwood  Saturday, June 14, 2025

After some discussions with our colleagues in Scotland and Ireland, WCCF would like to participate in the World Team Cup as part of a joint "Celtic Nations" team.

https://www.iccf.com/message?message=1751

Players of all strengths are welcome to participate in this team, it will be similar to a friendly match in that each player will have only two games.  The start date will be 15 August 2025 with a rather fast time control (all moves completed in 350 days).

If you are interested in joining the team, please contact me at [email protected] before the end of June.  The final team of 20 will be selected from all Welsh, Scottish and Irish players entering, ordered by rating.

Austin Lockwood  Tuesday, June 10, 2025

Entries are flowing in for the 2025/7 British CC Championship, and both the Championship and the Candidates sections are likely to carry norms (hopefully up to IM for the Championship).

But Welsh participation is a little bit disappointing to date, and ICCF will not allow the event to carry norms if more than 2/3 (i.e. 10 players for the Championship section) are from the same country (probably England in this case), so we do need a few more Welsh (and Scottish!) entries to be able to offer norms.

Four Euros for an event which carries norms is an incredible bargain (ICCF norm tournaments are 18 Euros via Direct Entry)... and all you need to do is click the button and pay via Stripe or PayPal, no need to send a cheque or make a complicated bank transfer.

All Welsh CC players are encouraged to participate.

Austin Lockwood  Wednesday, June 4, 2025

The English Federation for Correspondence Chess (EFCC), The Scottish Correspondence Chess Association (SCCA), and the Welsh Correspondence Chess Federation (WCCF) are pleased to announce the 2025/7 British Correspondence Chess Championship.

The Championship will be open to any player who plays under the flag of England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, a Crown Dependency or a British Overseas Territory in ICCF.

There will be:

• one Championship Section
• one Candidates Sections
• one or more Reserve Sections

All sections will be between eleven and fifteen players unless decided otherwise by the Committee.

Competitors will play one game against each of the other competitors in the section.

All sections will commence, and finish play within 22 months and 12 days of the start date (1st October 2025 – 12th August 2027).

The time control for all sections will be 40 days for each 10 moves, with time doubling after 20 days.  Agreed draws before move 25 will not be possible. The amount of leave for all sections will be 28 days per calendar year.

Title norms will be available where possible, depending on the entries.

There will be no prize fund for the 2025 season, but there will be a significantly reduced entry fee to just €4.00 Euros.

Entry is via the ICCF Direct Entry system, please log onto the ICCF website, select "New Events" from the menu, and then "Wales" from the list of categories.

The British Championship, having been run annually since 1921, is the most prestigious correspondence chess event of the British calendar, and all British correspondence chess players are invited to participate.

 The rules for the 2025/27 season are attached to this announcement.

British Championship Organising Committee

• Austin Lockwood (Wales)
• Phill Beckett (England)
• David Kilgour (Scotland)

Download

Austin Lockwood  Saturday, May 31, 2025

The attached document is a proposed new wording for the WCCF Constitution. The immediate adoption of this constitution will be put to a vote of WCCF Premium members at the Annual General Meeting, to be held on Saturday 12th July.  The proposed document has the unanimous support of the Executive Committee.

All Premium members are invited to study the document and to submit any feedback for the Executive Committee to [email protected]

Download

Austin Lockwood  Wednesday, May 28, 2025

The 2025 Annual General Meeting of the Welsh Correspondence Chess Federation will be held on Saturday 12th July 2025 at 10:00am.

The meeting will be held remotely over Zoom.

There will be elections for the positions of:

• President
• Secretary
• International Secretary
• Delegate to ICCF
• Treasurer

Nominations for each of these positions should be sent to the Secretary no later than Friday 27th June 2025, all nominees must be current Premium Members of the WCCF.  The final list of eligible candidates will be published on the WCCF website on Saturday 28th June.

Motions for the AGM may be submitted to the Secretary by Premium Members no later than Friday 27th June 2025. The agenda for the meeting will be posted on the WCCF website on Saturday 28th June, no further agenda items will be possible after this date, and no "other business" will be discussed at the meeting.

Members wishing to attend the meeting must give notice to the Secretary no later than Friday 11th July, the link to join the Zoom meeting and the password will be distributed privately to registered participants no less that 24 hours before the meeting, the link will not be publicly advertised.

Only Premium and Welsh Honorary Members may speak or vote at the meeting, National and International members may join as observers.

Premium Members not able to attend the meeting may submit their votes for the election of officials and other agenda items no later than Thursday 10th July by email to the Secretary.

Austin Lockwood  Thursday, May 1, 2025

• Marc Wakeham was the only nomination for the position of WCCF treasurer and so has now been appointed with no election necessary.
• We have been informed by the Welsh Chess Union that their representative to WCCF Executive Committee is now Mark Adams.
• The Executive Committee has co-opted John Claridge

The full Executive Committee is now:

​Officials

• President: Paul Scott
• Secretary: Austin Lockwood
• International Secretary/Delegate to ICCF: Austin Lockwood
• Treasurer: Marc Wakeham

Co-opted EC members

• Webmaster: Austin Lockwood
• Friendly Match Organiser: Paul Scott
• Delegate to Tri-Nations British Championship Group: Austin Lockwood
• Co-opted Member: John Claridge

Welsh Chess Union Representative

• Mark Adams

Austin Lockwood  Thursday, April 24, 2025

Marc Wakeham becomes our latest International Master following his third and final norm.

The title is pending confirmation by the ICCF Qualifications Commissioner.

Congratulations Marc!

Austin Lockwood  Saturday, April 12, 2025

A vacancy has arisen for the position of WCCF Treasurer.

This would involve processing membership subscriptions, accepting tournament entry payments, making payments (the most significant being the annual invoice to ICCF), and reporting to the AGM.

Nominees must be premium members of the WCCF.

Nominations should be sent to the WCCF Secretary [email protected] by 30th April at the latest.

Austin Lockwood  Wednesday, March 5, 2025

Wales will enter this team event for players rated under 2,300 - further details are here:

https://www.iccf.com/message?message=1737

The team will consist of six players.  If your rating is under 2300 and you wish to represent Wales in this event, please contact Paul Scott, our team captain, on [email protected]

UPDATE 09/04: We have now completed the Welsh team, good luck to:

Updated Saturday, April 5, 2025 by Austin Lockwood