Welsh Correspondence Chess Federation

Rydym yn Ffrindiau - Amici Sumus

Announcement for DE 10th Webserver Anniversary Tournament (DE10A)

Austin Lockwood  Friday, November 6, 2015

The ICCF Congress in Wales in 2015 decided that following the great popularity of DE5A that DE10A would be held to celebrate ten years since the start of the Direct Entry Programme. Working in collaboration with ICCF, the Direct Entry Commissioner, SIM Ian M Pheby, IA (ENG) will organise DE10A.

The first stage of DE10A will start on 5th April 2016, the 10th anniversary of the Direct Entry Programme. The event will be organised in three stages which will allow several players from each group stage to advance to the Semi-finals and Final. The number of promotions will depend on total entries received, but it is likely that Preliminary groups will comprise of either 9 players (8 games) or 11 players (10 games) or 13 players (12 games), depending upon the number of entries received. All games will be played by webserver with a rate of play of 10 moves in 30 days, and conditional moves will be permitted. All games will be rated with Title Norms possible.

Playing time in the Preliminary and Semi-final stages will be about 18 months with a fixed closing date specified at the outset. There will be no end date in the Final.

Eligibility

DE10A is open to all players who are eligible to enter tournaments via the Direct Entry Programme.

Entry

Players may enter:

  • via the ICCF Direct Entry system ONLY (Click on ‘New events’ then ‘Jubilee Tournaments’). No entries may be made through National Federations. The entry fee by Direct Entry will be €6.35.
  • those players holding a free entry who satisfy the eligibility requirement for this event may send their name, email address, ICCF ID and the name of the tournament from which they gained their free entry to the Direct Entry Office email: [email protected]

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

The closing date for all entries is 5th March 2016. Pairings will be issued as soon as possible after that date.

Prize fund

A prize fund of €1,000 will be available for this event as agreed at the 2013 ICCF Congress. The exact distribution of this prize fund will be determined once the number of entries and groups are known. Trophies will also be awarded to those finishing in first, second and third place in the Final.

All chess players are heartily invited to enter this tournament, both for the enjoyment of games and for friendly contact/communication with players around the World.

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

Dr. Guido Bresadola ICCF Non Title Tournament Commissioner

Frank Geider ICCF World Tournament Director

Tournament Organiser: Ian M Pheby (ENG)

The Welsh Correspondence announce the 2016 British Correspondence Chess960 Open

Austin Lockwood  Saturday, October 10, 2015

What is Correspondence Chess960?

Chess960 (sometimes known as 'Fischer Random Chess') is a variant of standard chess, which was introduced by Bobby Fischer to try to avoid players relying upon memorised opening lines. In Chess960, the starting array of the pieces is randomised into one of 960 different permutations.

Who is running the tournament?

The Tournament is being run by the Welsh Correspondence Chess Federation, the tournament director will be Marc Wakeham.

Who can enter?

  • Any chess player born or currently resident in the United Kingdom,
  • Any player playing under the flags of Scotland, England or Wales on the ICCF Webserver,
  • Any player who is a current member of the Scottish Correspondence Chess Association, or a member organisation of either the English Federation for Correspondence Chess or the Welsh Correspondence Chess Federation.

How do I enter and how much does it cost?

Please send an email to Marc Wakeham ([email protected]) indicating your name and ICCF ID number.

The entry fee is £3.00, this can be sent by PayPal to [email protected]; please let the organiser know if you would prefer to pay by cheque. No entry will be accepted until payment has been confirmed.

Entries will be closed on 15th December 2015, no further entries will be accepted after this date. The start date will be 1st January 2016.

I don’t have an ICCF ID number

You can register on https://www.iccf.com (follow the “New Player” link under the logon box). New registrations can take a day or two to be confirmed.

If you would like further information about your national ICCF federation, please contact:

How many games will I play?

Chess960 tournaments are played double rounded, so you will have two games with the same position against all the other players in the tournament. We will have between five and eight players per section, so you will have between eight and fourteen games. You will have a different position against each opponent, but the same position in both games against the same opponent. If we have more than eight entries, we will split them into sections and play a final round to decide the champion.

How will the games be played?

The games will be played online on the ICCF webserver

Will the games be rated?

Yes, the games will be rated according to the international ICCF Chess960 rating system.

Are there any prizes?

No, there will be no prizes, however the winner will be able to download a certificate.

What about the Rules?

Games will be played under the ICCF playing rules current at the start of play. The time control will be ten moves in forty days with duplication after 20 days, each player will be allocated 45 days leave per calendar year.

Congratulations to BCCA...

Austin Lockwood  Saturday, October 10, 2015

...for winning the first WCCF Member Organisations Team Tournament!

https://www.iccf.com/event?id=44584

We are currently organising the second edition of this event, if you would like to play, please contact your member organisation (BCCA, SCCA, NATCOR, SchemingMind).

BCCA Tom Paterson Memorial

Austin Lockwood  Saturday, September 19, 2015

Congratulations to Eric Nettles, winner of the BCCA Tom Paterson Memorial!

Eric will be awarded a trophy and the first prize of £80.

http://www.bcca.info/chesstournaments/paterson-rodford-memorials-start-dec-2014/

The British Correspondence Chess Association are a member organisation of the Welsh Correspondence Chess Federation.

http://www.bcca.info/

ICCF Congress, Cardiff

Austin Lockwood  Monday, August 31, 2015

ICCF vs WCU Chess Match, Norwegian Church, Cardiff Bay 20/08/15

Austin Lockwood  Monday, August 31, 2015

Congratulations to the ICCF team, which won the traditional Congress chess match against the Welsh Chess Union 8.5 - 6.5 at the Norwegian Church in Cardiff Bay on Thursday 20th August 2015.

And many thanks to the Norwegian Correspondence Chess Federation for providing the prizes to the winning team, to celebrate their 70th anniversary in a most appropriate setting!

And of course to the Welsh Chess Union for providing the organisation, the equipment, and the warm welcome to our visitors.

Tim Kett 0.5 0.5 V.Dambravskas
K.Evans 0 1 S.Nefedov
T.Brown 0.5 0.5 D.Chocenka
W.Hewitt 1 0 F.Baumbach
P.Bevan 0.5 0.5 M.Avotins
M.Adams 0 1 R.Hall
J.Fathallah 1 0 N.Poleshchuk
R.Taylor 0.5 0.5 I.Kosmak
J.Waterfield 1 0 K.Jensen
D.James 0.5 0.5 G.Pyrich
W.Harle 0.5 0.5 J.Mrkvicka
R.Thomas 0.5 0.5 S.Ottesen
G.Thomas 0 1 A.Chatterjee
R.Livermore 0 1 A.Gaujens
A.Wills 0 1 Brian Jones
       
  6.5 8.5  
  WCU ICCF  

ICCF Blitz Tournament - 19/08/15

Austin Lockwood  Monday, August 31, 2015

Congratulations to Dmitrijus Chocenka of Lithuania for winning the traditional ICCF Congress Blitz Tournament, held at the Mecure Holland House Hotel and Spa in Cardiff on Wednesday 19th August.

In second place were Walter Braun (AUT) and in third was Nikolay Poleschuk (RUS) - Well played!

Many thanks to the our FIDE counterparts, the Welsh Chess Union, for organising this event.

New British Ladies Champion

Austin Lockwood  Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Congratulations Helen Sherwood, the new British Ladies Correspondence Chess Champion!

https://www.iccf.com/event?id=48188

A fantastic result for Helen and for Welsh Correspondence Chess - well played!

ICCF World Cup 21

Austin Lockwood  Wednesday, May 27, 2015

The International Correspondence Chess Federation

in association with the

Polish Chess Federation

Announcement ICCF World Cup 21 (webserver)

27th May 2015

The International Correspondence Chess Federation is delighted to announce the Correspondence Chess Commission of the Polish Chess Federation as the main organizer of the ICCF World Cup 21 Webserver

This is the 5th World Cup edition (previously 3rd, 6th, 7th and 18th editions) where Poland has been involved as a tournament organizer. Tournament website (http://kszgk.com/?page_id=8319) will be regularly updated.

The tournament will be played by webserver with an incremental rate of play (30 days per game followed by 3 days every 1 move; 45 days leave per year, no special leave). Linear conditionals can be entered. It will be organized in three stages. Usually each group consists of 7-11 players in the preliminary round, 9-13 in the semi-final round and 9-15 in the final round. Each player plays one game with every player of his group simultaneously.

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

The Correspondence Chess Commission of the Polish Chess Federation has appointed Mariusz Wojnar as the Central Tournament Leader (CTL).

Entries

Players may enter in the usual way through the Welsh Correspondence Chess Federation (please contact Russell Sherwood for details) or via the ICCF Direct Entry system.

Entries via National Federations should contain player’s name, Email address, ICCF ID and current rating and should be forwarded by e-mail to Russell to reach him before 1st September 2015.

Allocation of players to the preliminary and semi-final 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 into account.

Tournament Organization

The tournament will start on 2015-10-01.

Registration will begin 2015-06-01 and will close on 2015-09-01 to allow for pairings.

All preliminary groups will finish on 2017-05-01.

Any unfinished games that will decide promotional positions in the group will be adjudicated. The players involved will send the record of the game (with the required result – win or draw) and an analysis to their TD for adjudication no later than 2017-05-15.

The adjudication will be organized in such a way that all qualified players will be known by 2017-06-15.

The semifinals are expected to start on 2017-09-01 at the latest.

The final is expected to start on 2019-09-01 at the latest.

Prizes

As confirmed at the ICCF Congress 2013, the total prize fund for this event will be 6,000 EUR with, for the first time, prizes also awarded to winners of the Preliminary and Semi-final Sections (such prizes, each to the value of approximately 25 EUR, will be in the form of books or other chess material with tie-breaks to be applied if necessary to determine section winners).

In the Final medals and certificates will be awarded to the top 3 players (if necessary tie-breaks will be applied to determine the top 3 places). Also in the Final cash prizes of 1,000 EUR, 600 EUR, 300 EUR and 100 EUR will be awarded to the top 4 players. Tie-breaks will not be applied in respect of these cash prizes and instead those players scoring equal points will equally share any prize money due.

Qualification

The number of promotions will depend on total entries received, but it is initially assumed that the first two players of each preliminary section will qualify for the World Cup semi-final. The winner of each semi-final section will qualify for the World Cup final.

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

In addition, those players who qualified for World Cup 19 and 20 Finals will also be entitled to play in the semi-final stage of World Cup 21 and the winners of WC 19 and 20 Finals will be eligible to participate in World Cup Final 21.

The following qualifications can be achieved in the final:

  • the winner and the runner-up may enter directly a World Championship Candidates (tie break applies) (upon payment of the entry fee) (ICCF Tournament Rules, Article 1.3.1.(d));
  • the winner of the World Cup Final 21 will qualify for the final of the next World Cup Tournament without paying any entry fee (ICCF Tournament Rules, Article 3.6) and will be awarded the IM title (ICCF Tournament Rules, Article 10.6.(c));
  • participants in the final round have the right to take part in the semi-final round of the next correspondence chess World Cup tournament (upon payment of the entry fee) (ICCF Tournament Rules, Article 3.6)
  • the participants in a Final of the ICCF World Cup Tournament who finished in place 3 or 4 (tie break applies) or scored at least 60% of the possible points may enter directly a World Championship semi-finals (upon payment of the entry fee) (ICCF Tournament Rules, Article 1.2.1.(e));
  • the participants in a Final of the ICCF World Cup Tournament who scored at least 50% of the possible points may enter directly a World Championship Preliminaries (upon payment of the entry fee) (ICCF Tournament Rules, Article 1.1.1.(e)).

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

Mariusz Wojnar Central Tournament Leader

Markus Hömske ICCF Non-Title Tournaments Commissioner

Frank Geider World Tournament Director

8th ICCF Veterans’ World Cup (VWC)

Austin Lockwood  Wednesday, May 20, 2015

The ICCF Congress in Bulgaria in 2008 decided that following the great popularity of the first tournament amongst older players, that new Veterans’ World Cups would be started every year. Working in collaboration with ICCF, the English Federation for Correspondence Chess (EFCC) will organise the 8th Veterans’ World Cup tournament.

The first stage of the 8th ICCF Veterans’ World Cup will start on 1st September 2015.

As with the previous VWCs, the event will be organised in three stages which will allow several players from each group stage to advance to the Semi-finals and Final. The number of promotions will depend on total entries received, but it is envisaged that groups at each stage will comprise of 13 players (12 games) played by webserver with a rate of play of 10 moves in 40 days. Playing time in each stage will be about 18 months with a fixed closing date specified at the outset.

https://www.iccf.com/message?message=805

Welsh Correspondence Chess FederationClergy Correspondence Chess ClubSchemingMind Internet Correspondence Chess ClubSocial Correspondence Chess AssociationNational Correspondence Chess ClubWelsh Chess UnionInternational Correspondence Chess Association