Welsh Correspondence Chess Federation

Austin Lockwood  Monday, June 12, 2023

Following my article last month about Scotland's excellent performance in this prestigious event; unfortunately both England and Scotland have failed to qualify for the 12th final, however Wales still have excellent chances to qualify, so British hopes may well be carried again by the Welsh team for the 12th final.

England's failure to qualify from their semi-final without losing a single game highlights the narrow margins in modern correspondence chess, where every advantage, however small, needs to be exploited to the maximum degree to have any chance at all of success.

At the time of writing there are only 32 games remaining in the 11th final (from 624, so a little more than 5%), but again, the narrow margins mean that the title can still be won by four or five different teams (including Wales!)... our fingers are crossed for a podium finish, at least!

I will post more updates as the results roll in.

Austin Lockwood  Tuesday, May 30, 2023

Congratulations to our friends from Scotland, who have just become the highest scoring British team ever in a European Team Championship final!  The European Team Championship is one of the most hotly contested team events in ICCF, second only in status to the Olympiads

The eleventh final is currently in its closing stages, and Scotland recently completed their games with a British record breaking score of 49.48%.

British teams have participated in the first and second Championship finals (Great Britain); the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth finals (England) and the eleventh final (Scotland and Wales), but with disappointing results until now, always finishing in the bottom half of the crosstable with England's 9th place in the ninth final being the best overall British performance to date.

The eleventh final is still ongoing and the record breaking Scottish score puts them in a good position to place higher than any previous British team.

Of course this record may not stand for very long, hopefully (from a Welsh perspective!) for no more than a few months... Wales are currently on 47.5 points with four games remaining, and so cannot do any worse than Scotland, and a podium finish now feels like a real possibility.

Of course we wish all three of our British teams the best of luck in qualifying for the twelfth final!

Russell Sherwood  Sunday, May 14, 2023

We are arranging a friendly match with Romania

To sign up or for more details, get in touch

As a reminder, participation in friendly matches is one of the criteria for selection to Team and Invitational events and, in the case of this event, score for the Welsh Grand Prix.

Andrew Smith 

Russell Sherwood  Sunday, March 26, 2023

Following changes in responsibility, effective immediacy, all and any player contact to WCCF should be sent to Russell Sherwood, ICCF Delegate 

Updated Saturday, April 1, 2023 by Russell Sherwood

Russell Sherwood  Saturday, March 18, 2023

Overview

The WCCF is pleased to announce the Welsh Grand Prix. This series of events is only open to Welsh flagged or resident players and will be played over a series of Events

1. Welsh Championships
2. Welsh Rapid play
3. Welsh 960 Championships
4. Welsh Thematic
5. Welsh Team Championship
6. Welsh Friendlies
7. States and Regions Team

Whilst the scoring in each event will be to the ICCF standard, an independent scorecard will be maintained combining scores for all the events.

Events will either be All play all or Silli format depending on the entries for each event. The Entry fee will be free to Welsh flagged players to all events except the States and Regions, which will have an entry of £15 per 4 player team.

Scoring:

1 – Entering each event – 1 pt

2 – A win in each event – 4 pts in Top or only tier of the event or 2 pts in other tiers

3 – A loss in each event – 0.5 pts in the Top or only tier of the event, 0.25 pts in other tiers 

4 – Winning each event (after tie break) – 5 pts (shared if players equal after tiebreak applied)

At the end of the Grand Prix, the player with the most points overall is declared Welsh Grand Prix Champion.

Any issues not covered in these rules will be decided by the WCCF Executive Committee.

Events

Events will start in rapid succession, with the Rapid play starting in Early April.

Welsh Championship – Already started.

Welsh Rapid play – Unrated – This will utilise a 1/1 time control, 5 days leave, doubling after 5 days and will go to adjudication after 120 days it is not completed. [Note: This does not mean that the player has to make a move every day but will a day onto the clock for every move they make – this is not an ideal approach but TriBi is not really suitable for events being played at such a rapid pace)

Welsh 960 Championship – 960 rated  - Triple block time control

Welsh Thematic – Unrated – Theme(s) to be announced but will be 

Welsh Team Championship – rated – this will encompass 3 player teams, in an all play All format, with Tier allocation being dependent on Average team rating.

Welsh Friendlies – participation in each Welsh Friendly starting in 2023 will give the player a maximum of one point per friendly event.

States and Regions – the next iteration of this popular event 

We are running these events (except for the States and Regions) to utilise our allocation of free ICCF games and utilising an experimental scoring approach. 

Play one event or the lot, but who will come out on top?!

If you have questions or wish to enter - please contact Russell Sherwood

Updated Saturday, April 1, 2023 by Russell Sherwood

Russell Sherwood  Friday, March 17, 2023

We are arranging a friendly match with Australia

To sign up or for more details, get in touch

As a reminder, participation in friendly matches is one of the criteria for selection to Team and Invitational events.

Andrew Smith 

Russell Sherwood  Sunday, March 12, 2023

We are coming to that time of the year to consider if our players have any rules change proposals they wish to take to Congress.

If you have any you wish to be considered, please get in touch - In general we can help you refine proposals or explain why they may be impractical.