Russell Sherwood Sunday, August 28, 2022
A significant number of proposals were presented to the ICCF Congress, and below is a voting summary.
Review (Note these represent the author's interpretation)
Passed Proposals
2022-006 Recommendation to Congress - Cape Verde to be Dismissed from ICCF
This federation has been dismissed for non-payment of fees and general inactivity. Any players they have are still able to play under an isolated status.
2022-007 Continuation of EC 2022-003 Proposal / 2022-008 Continuation of EC 2022-004 Proposal
The suspension of Russian and Belarussian federations will continue. Players from these counties will still be able to enter events, if they can fund entries.
2022-022 New Election Scheme [Statute Change - 2/3 Vote]
This proposal is aimed at tidying up the changes to the way ICCF Directors are elected.
2022-009 Approve Services Committee Budget for 2023
Quite a lot of discussion on this, although mainly around financial issues
2022-037 Tournament Fee Structure
A number of changes were made to pricing structure, aimed at simplifying the pricing of events. From a Welsh perspective, it does mean we can consider an expanded programme of events.
2022-038 Tournament Fees (Developing Nations)
This is a change to the financial regulations with regard to developing nations and not relevant to Wales
2022-039 Tournament Fees (Developing Nations) -Free Entries
The purpose of this proposal is to recognize the poverty and hardship exists in all counties and to give all Federations a limited number of free entries to utilize for such situations.
2022-033B Recording Cancelled Games in Silli Events - Part B
In Silli events , if a player withdraws, all games are listed as wins. In future, they will go to adjudication, but only if due to an allocation error. See 2022-30
2022-030 Eliminate the ICCF Withdrawal System
This is one of the big changes of this year's Congress. In future, the following will apply:
(a) for any ETL where there was not a previous one by the player within the past 30 day, there will be an automated penalty of not being allowed to register for any new event on the server, and (b) for an ETL occurring during that 30-day period, there will be a new 90-day period during which the player will not be allowed to register for any new event on the server.
What this means in practice is:
- If a player flags on Time they will be prevented from registering from any new event for 30 days, and if during those 30 days any further games are lost on time this will start a new 90 period of being prevented from entering.
- If a player wishes to withdraw from an event , they will in effect be defaulting their games.
From this two implications are obvious
A) Flagging can have serious impacts on your ability to enter new events......
B) Players who take quick draws are putting themselves at a serious disadvantage , as if a player stops playing at a later point of the event , any other live games will be recorded as wins.
There was a longer discussion on this matter than the vote would suggest, much of it related to "fairness", as this approach fixes many issues but creates a new ones for a tiny minority of players.
2022-040 Contribution from ICCF to Congress Organizers
To recognize the withdrawal of support from the Eurozone and also inflation, the support to Congress organizers was increased
2022-041 Provision of Financial Information from Zones
A financial proposal related to Zonal accounts.
2022-050A Implementation of a Bespoke Rating System for ICCF
ICCF will have a new rating system. A working group has paired with an academic, regarded by some as the leading expect in this field, to develop a new rating system, which takes into account the realities of modern correspondence chess. Interested players are recommended to read the proposal in detail, although I will publish an article on the new system closer to its implementation for those without a statistical background.
2022-050C Player Guide for New Ratings Procedure
The new rating system, for those without an extensive statistics background, can be quite difficult to understand. A shorter document is to be produced by the academic mentioned previously to address this matter.
2022-002 Protection of ICCF Services
The proposal aims to ensure that all ICCF Services are available to all players, regardless of Nationality.
2022-043 Establish Super-Regional Tournaments Commission (SRTC) and Commissioner Position
Following on from 2022-002 a new kind of ICCF Tournament and position have been created. Initially, it means the events from the former European Zone can continue under this format, although with extensive rules review to be presented to Congress in 2023. This does also open up the ability for other events to be created - For example a Commonwealth championship
2022-010 Offer to Host the 2023 ICCF Congress in Amsterdam. The Netherlands (Void if 2022-040 is Defeated)
Congress will be in Amsterdam in 2023
2022-026 To Remove Automatically the Deceased Players from the Suspension List
All suspensions will be removed from deceased players
2022-028 Maintaining Active International Arbiter Status
Now all Tournament Directors will be required to take an annual test.
2022-029 Allow MF Entries to Open Events
This proposal clears up an oversight in a rule change in 2021 - so that for Open events , entries can be accepted by both National Federation and Direct Entry routes
2022-032 Revision of the IA Title Application Process
This process aims to tidy up the current application process, although it is highly inappropriate to require submission in commercial rather than open source format.
2022-034 Clarification -- Best Result on Board 1 in the Final of the CC Olympiad
A technical proposal requiring a positive score for 1st place to be obtained.
All rules changes will come into play from Jan 1st 2023, unless communicated otherwise (The rating system change is expected to take place later in 2023)
CorrespondenceChessICCFProposalsWCCF
