Welsh Correspondence Chess Federation

Austin Lockwood  Friday, December 7, 2012

Good luck to David Roberts, Malcolm Chugg, and Marc Wakeham who will be representing Wales on the "Rest of Europe" team for a friendly match against Russia. This match will start on 15th December, and you can follow the crosstable here:

https://iccf.com/EventCrossTable.aspx?id=32397

Austin Lockwood  Monday, November 26, 2012

"Welsh Trios" are a new type of tournament run by the Welsh Correspondence Chess Federation.

Trios will be for three players only, with two games against each player (four games in total for each player).

These tournaments will be played online on the ICCF webserver; the standard time control of 10 moves in 35 days will be used. Games will be rated by ICCF.

Trios are open to all Welsh players (players who are currently registered as Welsh on the ICCF server, or new players who were born in, or who currently reside in, Wales), membership is not required.

Players may have two free entries to the trios each calendar year (so get your 2012 entries in now!). You may enter more than two trios per year, however there will be an entry fee of £5.00 for your third and subsequent entry in the same calendar year.

Players new to correspondence chess are very welcome to enter the trios; this is a great introduction to the game for new players because it only involves four games and is rated. Please circulate this information around your clubs and your other chess playing friends!

To enter, please contact me ([email protected]) giving details of your ICCF ID number if you have one (if you don't, I can register you - I just need your full name and email address). Entry is continuous, new sections will be started when vacant slots are filled.

Thanks! Austin Lockwood

WCCF Secretary and ICCF Delegate for Wales

Austin Lockwood  Thursday, November 22, 2012

https://www.iccf.com/EventCrossTable.aspx?id=32242

Good luck to all players! We have had invitations from other federations to play friendly matches but we need more players before we can start a lot more matches. These events are free to enter and open to Welsh players of any strength (we always try and match you against an opponent of similar strength).

If you'd like to play in these matches, or in any other ICCF rated event, please contact me!

[email protected]

Austin Lockwood  Monday, November 19, 2012

The Olympiad Preliminaries have now started! - Good luck to all!

https://iccf.com/EventCrossTable.aspx?id=32204

Austin Lockwood  Friday, November 2, 2012

The XX ICCF Olympiad will start on 10th December 2012, and for the first time in many years, Wales will be represented. The team has now been submitted to the tournament organisers and will consist of:

• Board 1: Lockwood, Austin
• Board 2: Balshaw, Anthony
• Board3: Varley, Peter
• Board 4: Adams, Mark
• Board 5: Vaughan, David Owen
• Board 6: Williams, John L

I fully expect a tough section in this event, but I hope we can pick up some points - Good luck to all players!

Austin Lockwood  Friday, November 2, 2012

The Welsh Correspondence Chess Federation has received an invitation from the Swedish Correspondence Chess Association to play a friendly match. This will be open to all Welsh players (the Swedes will attempt to match all our players against players of similar strength). This match will be played online on the ICCF Webserver and should be a good introduction to new players as it will only involve two games against the same player.

If you would like to represent Wales in this match, please let me know within the next seven days and I will guarantee you a place in the team - the games will start on 15th November. These games will be rated and this will give new players a chance to start to build their first official ICCF rating (for players with a FIDE rating, but no ICCF rating, their FIDE rating will be used as their starting provisional ICCF rating).

The Swedes have asked me if it would be possible to play one or two of these boards by "snail" mail; if you would like to experience the traditional way of playing correspondence chess, please let me know and I will arrange it; otherwise your games will be played online on the ICCF Webserver.

Austin Lockwood

ICCF Delegate for Wales

[email protected]

Austin Lockwood  Monday, October 29, 2012

The Welsh Correspondence Chess Federation were unanimously elected as a full member federation of the International Correspondence Chess Federation this morning at ICCF Congress in Pretoria, South Africa.

Austin Lockwood  Thursday, September 20, 2012

The first international correspondence chess match involving a Welsh team for many years has now been started over thirteen boards on the ICCF webserver.

Many thanks to our friends from Peru for agreeing to play this match, and good luck to all players involved.

Any Welsh chess player interested in getting involved in future matches should contact the WCCF secretary, Austin Lockwood ([email protected]).

https://iccf.com/EventCrossTable.aspx?id=31327

Austin Lockwood  Wednesday, August 22, 2012

We are trying to arrange an international friendly match for Wales against our friends of the Peruvian Correspondence Chess Federation, LIPEAD:

http://www.lipead.org/

The start date will be the beginning of October, and Welsh correspondence chess players of all strengths are welcome to play; we will try to match you with an opponent of similar strength. 

Play will be by Internet webserver (https://www.iccf.com/).  International friendly matches are a great introduction to ICCF correspondence chess because you will only play two parallel games.

This will be the first international correspondence chess match for Wales for several years, and we hope the first of many!

If you would like to play and were born in, or currently live in Wales, please email me ([email protected]) with your name and details of your ICCF ID number if you have one.

Austin Lockwood  Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Minutes of Inaugural Meeting held on 18 August 2012 at the Scala, Prestatyn
Meeting commenced 1 pm.
 

Attending
Austin Lockwood, Neil Limbert, David O Vaughan, Nino Algieri
 

Introduction
Austin Lockwood & Neil Limbert explained the reasons for their decision to try to found a new Welsh CC federation. Historically, there has already been a Welsh CC federation but this collapsed sometime around 2000/2001. Since that time, Welsh players have not had the opportunity to represent their country internationally in team competitions, or to have their views represented within the ICCF. Both Scheming Mind (an internet CC club run by Austin Lockwood) and the British CC Association (N Limbert is shortly to be the General Secretary of the BCCA) have Welsh players whose interests they represented.
 

Constitution
A draft Constitution was presented by Austin Lockwood and accepted by the meeting without change (see Appendix A).
 

Election of Officers
The following Officers were proposed & elected:

• President: David O Vaughan
• Secretary: Austin Lockwood
• Treasurer: Nino Algieri

A photo of the new Executive Board is attached (see Appendix B). Nino Algieri agreed to look into the opening of a Bank Account in the name of the federation in due course. Both the BCCA and Scheming Mind have agreed to become members & will pay their fee as soon as a bank account is available. Honorary membership is offered to the Welsh Chess Union.
 

ICCF Matters
Austin Lockwood agreed to present an application to the ICCF for official membership of Wales. It is hoped that a friendly match between Wales and another ICCF member federation can be arranged as soon as possible. The first serious competition is likely to be the Preliminaries for the 20th ICCF Olympiad (World team tournament for federations) due to start in autumn 2012 played by internet webserver. This is likely to be a 6 or 8 board tournament with each player playing 8 to 12 games. The Entry fee for the Olympiad is currently set at 17 Euros per player (so a 6 board tournament will cost 102 Euros -approx £80 -, and an 8 board tournament will cost 136 Euros -approx £107- ). Given the federation has no funds at present, this fee will have to be gleaned from the players themselves or sponsors if possible.
 

Welsh Chess Union (WCU)
The meeting expressed strong hopes of good understanding and co-operation with the WCU. Austin Lockwood agreed to contact the WCU and keep them informed of events. Given the small number of active Welsh CC players at present, it is hoped that the WCU will encourage their players to participate and help us raise a team for the ICCF Olympiad.
 

Website
http://www.welshccf.org.uk/

Austin Lockwood agreed to maintain the website and add other pages as necessary.

There been no other business, the meeting closed at 2:15pm