Welsh Correspondence Chess Federation

Russell Sherwood  Thursday, February 4, 2021

To celebrate the CCCA’s (Canadian Correspondence Chess Association) 100th Anniversary this year, 2021, the CCCA is proud to announce the CCCA-100 International Open.

To read a brief on-line history article on correspondence chess in Canada and of the CCCA please go to https://www.iccf.com/country?country=CAN

This event will be a server event played on the ICCF webserver. It is open to all players from all countries around the world regardless of rating.

Structure: There will be two rounds, the Preliminaries, and the Final. The format will be either a round-robin with multiple sections or a Silli depending upon the number of entries; if the number of entries exceeds 165, then there will be one Silli section.

Preliminaries: Round Robin Format: The number of players expected per section will be 11. Sections winners advance to the Final round. Baumbach tie-break system to determine first place.

Silli format: Top 15 advancing to the Final. Buchholz tie-break system used.

Official Start Date: Expected 1 June 2021.

Final: Expected number of players will be 15.

Official Start date: Expected 1 September 2022.

Time Control: 10/50
Tablebase: 7 piece claims allowed

Conditionals will be allowed

Vacation Time: 45 Days per calendar year

Live viewing of Games, with 5 move delay.

Prize Fund
A total prize fund of $2,000 in Canadian dollars will be guaranteed as follows in the Final round:

1st place: $600

2nd place: $500

3rd place: $400

There will be additional prizes for the lowest-rated player with the best result, $250. And the best game played prize of $250. The best game prize will be split 50-50 between White and Black. Submissions for this prize should be done by the participating players. The limit is one game (the best one) per player.

Entry fee per section: $25 for CCCA members. $40 for all other players. In Canadian funds. Players can enter more than one preliminary round section, but can only advance to the Final from 1 preliminary section.

How to enter (Registration): By Paypal to Manny Migicovsky using the email address: [email protected] Please add $1 (minimum) if you are a CCCA member paying $25.

All others, please add $1.60 (minimum). So the entries fees will be $26 for CCCA members for one section. $41.60 for all others for one section entry. For multiple entries add 4% Exp. For CCCA members, 2 sections: $25 x 2 = $50; additional fee $2. Total $52. For all others, 2 sections: $40 x 2 = $80; additional fee $3.20. Total $83.20. And so on.

(For reference $41.60 is around £24-£25 - Russell)

IMPORTANT!

* Please include your full name and ICCF ID#.  And send to Ralph Marconi, [email protected]

The closing date for entry into the preliminaries is 20 April 2021. 

Tournament Organizer

Ralph Marconi

Austin Lockwood  Sunday, January 31, 2021

WCCF are saddened to learn of the passing of Martyn Whiteside; our sincere condolences go to Martyn's family and friends.

The following obituary was provided by Martyn Griffiths.

Writing a series of chess club histories for the WCU website I was well aware that Martyn Whiteside was the go-to man in relation to Aberystwyth but tracking him down was another matter.  Thankfully I spoke to him by e-mail last October and much of the town’s chess history came from him.  He told me that he had not been involved with over-the-board chess for the past 30 years due to the banning of smoking in the 1980s.  He carried on playing postal chess but gave that up when he became a single-parent father in 1996.

Martyn was a Yorkshireman and arrived in Aberystwyth in 1966 joining the University chess team and playing for their club for the next three years.  Postgraduate he joined the Aberystwyth town club playing in the Mid Wales Chess League.  The League degenerated due the withdrawal of  teams because of the cost of travel and other difficulties.  The club however found some serious competition in the British Club Championships where they were led by George Botterill and Martyn recalled matches against Oxford University and Lerwick! (by phone).

The decline of the league meant local players were mostly bereft of competitive matches so Martyn started an Aberystwyth Chess League for three-man teams.  He single-handedly drove this league forward and one article in a national newspaper by George Botterill reckoned that about 10% of the local population was playing chess in the league.  At its peak the Aber League had several Divisions of ten teams each and included schools, pubs, colleges etc…

In 1982 Martyn was involved in trying to start a Commonwealth Chess Association.  He sent out the invitations for the first Conference in Nigeria but had to personally withdraw as the conference date clashed with the date of his wedding.  In his email to me Martyn sounded amazed that his future wife objected even though there was an all expenses paid week in Lagos on offer!!

Martyn was a fine over-the-board player winning the town championship about six times and you only have to read the Club History to see the high standard of opposition.  He also organized a Lightning Tournament for the league (which he won twice).

He excelled at postal chess, playing in friendly matches for BCCA and BPCF.  Around 1986 he topped the BCCA International Players’ table with a 95% record.  He also played for Mid Wales in the Welsh Interzone Postal Chess Championships and, as a result, was selected to play for Wales in a European Team Championships,  the preliminaries of the X1 Chess Olympiad (1987) and on Board 2 for the X11Olympiad (1992) ,.  In the latter he scored 6/11, a high enough rating to gain the title of Welsh Master and half International Master.  He started play in the World Individual Championships but ‘unexpectedly’ became a father in 1996 and his attentions were somewhat diverted.  He finished with a score of about 50% which did include the biggest win of his career against World No. 28 Valentinas Normantas of Lithuania (Martyn was at the time rated 503rd).  (The game can be seen on https://players.chessbase.com/de/player/whiteside )

After his retirement from chess he became much involved in running a local quiz league and a Fantasy Football League.  He became a single parent again to a son born 2011 and as a result retired from his quizzing activities.

Russell Sherwood  Sunday, January 17, 2021

We are looking to play a Friendly match with Spain  starting February 2021. If you are interested in taking part please get in touch ASAP

Andrew Smith

Russell Sherwood  Sunday, January 17, 2021

Gareth picked up his first CCE Norm in Carlos Flores Gutiérrez Team Tournament SF4 Board 6

Russell Sherwood  Sunday, January 17, 2021

Russell picked up his first IM Norm in III Celso Sanchez Pouso IM y VII FEDAPVEN Grupo A5

Russell Sherwood  Friday, January 8, 2021

WCCF are proud to commence the 3rd States and Regions Correspondence Team Chess Championship. In what is now the premier cc team event hosted in the UK, involving players from 33 Counties (MEX, CZE, USA, POL, PER, ESP, WLS, RUS, ENG, SUI, GER, ITA, AUT, BRA, DEN, PAN, CUB, BUL, LAT, CAN, SWE, SCO, PHI, FRA, UKR, GUM, TUN, NED, FED, FIN, BEL, SLO and AUS). 

Taking part  are: 1 GM, 10 SIM, 21 IM, 67 CCM/LGM and 40 CCE.

We are happy that half of the boards have achieved Norm Category 1 or higher, allowing the pursuit of IM, SIM and GM Norms. Overall 77% of players are able to pursue meaningful norm opportunities.  The excellent response has forced the creation of four divisions. This excellent response has also required the activation of the Board ordering rule in a few cases to avoid players being disadvantaged.

Beyond the teams already qualified into the 1st Division the margin between the average team ratings is very tight, averaging typically 100 elo.

Norm Categories

States and Regions CCC 2021 Division One

An interesting field with defending champions Tirol being only the 6th strongest team (on paper). Strength in depth is seen with Board 4 achieving an average rating of 2323/Category 3

States and Regions CCC 2021 Division Two

The overall strength of the event is evident with Boards 1 and 2 achieving Category 5 and 4. Top seeds Western Ukraine and Mantanzas All stars must be favourite here, both being unlucky to just miss out on Division 1. 

States and Regions CCC 2021 Division Three

An interesting mix of established and rookie players should lead to fireworks in this division.

States and Regions CCC 2021 Division Four

This Division includes a wide mix of players and teams. Many emerging talents are here – is this their chance to shine?

Russell Sherwood  Monday, January 4, 2021

The International Correspondence Chess Federation

Zone 1 Europa

3rd EU Amateur Cup  

A new multi-stage tournament for players rated not higher than 2000. It is expected that the tournament will be organized annually.

The tournament will be organized in three stages, played by server. Usually each group consists of 7-11 players in the preliminary round, 9-13 in the semifinal round and 11-15 in the final round. Each player plays one game with every opponent of his group simultaneously.

The event will be rated with title norms, which are possible at the semifinal and final stages.

Entries

Only players rated 1000 to 2000 in current rating-list (2021/1) are eligible to play the tournament. Unrated players are not allowed to play.

Only players from National Federations who are members of Zone 1 (Europe) are eligible to play the tournament. Players from other National Federations who are not members of Zone 1 are not allowed to play.

Players may enter in the usual way through their National Federations or, where eligible, via the ICCF Direct Entry system.

Entry fee is 5 Euros. 

Registration will begin immediately and will close on January,31 2021 to allow for pairings.

Allocation of players to the preliminary and semifinal groups will be made as random as possible; however, geographical distribution as well as an achievement of reasonable equality of the average rating will be taken in consideration.

Tournament Organization

The tournament starts on February,202021. Triple Block system for a 350 days event, with 75 days initial bank and 1 day increment for the first 50 moves is used, no leave. All groups will finish on February,1 2022 at the latest.

The semi-finals are expected to start on March,1 2022 at the latest. Triple Block system for a 350 days event, with 75 days initial bank and 1 day increment for the first 50 moves is used, no leave. All groups will finish on February,15 2023 at the latest.

The final is expected to start on March,15 2023 at the latest. Triple Block system for a 400 days event, with 50 days initial bank and 2 days increment for the first 50 moves is used, no leave. The tournament will finish on May,1 2024 at the latest.

Prizes

In the Final medals and certificates will be awarded to the top 3 players (if necessary tie-breaks will be applied). The winner of the Final receives a special Cup Trophy.

Top three scorers in the Final may enter directly a European Individual Championship Semifinal regardless of their ratings.

Qualification

The number of promotions depends on total entries received, but it is initially assumed that the top two players of each preliminary section will qualify for the semifinal stage. The winner of each semifinal section will qualify for the Final.

Although the number of preliminary groups which each player may enter is unlimited, no player will qualify for more than two semifinal groups or more than one place in the final.

Member Federations are asked to give the tournament wide publicity to all their players.

We wish all participants many interesting games and new connections with CC friends in other countries, based on the spirit of friendship and the ICCF motto:

AMICI SUMUS

Andrey Pavlikov, 

Zonal Director for Europe, Central Tournament Leader

Russell Sherwood  Friday, January 1, 2021

Rhys Jones has picked up a 2nd CCE Norm in Carlos Flores Gutiérrez Team Tournament SF1 Board 1
 

Although this is his 2nd Norm as both events are fewer than 13 players, this is currently inadequate to achieve the title. (As a reminder to all 24 qualifying games are required NOT two Norms)