International Correspondence Chess Federation

Appendix 1 – Aspirer Entries

2. Entries by National Federation

Australia = 11 Austria = 2 Belgium = 1 Canada = 11

POSTAL TOURNAMENT OFFICE COMMISSIONER

THE INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENCE CHESS FEDERATION Gian-Maria Tani via Tripoli 20 I-10136 Torino Italia tel.: +39-3495519830 E -mail: pto@iccf.com

The number of postal correspondence players is always very low, but 2013 was a good year for Promotional Postal Tournaments. In 2013, I started 22 sections (6 WT/M, 7 WT/H, and 9 WT/O) with 100 players, while in 2012 the players were 98.

In the first 8 months of 2014, I started 14 sections (2 WT/M, 5 WT/H, and 7 WT/O) with 50 players.

I expect to have in the whole 2014 the same number of tournaments and players as in 2013 and 2012.
Countries and Zones

The players of 2013 postal world tournaments came from 19 different countries (while in 2012 the number of countries was 16). As usual, most of the players were from Europe (78%); the other ones come from NAPZ (21%) and Africa/Asia (1%). Unfortunately, we had no players from Latin/America. The most players came from Germany (44); the second and the third most players came from the USA (14) and Italy (7), while in 2012 the third country was France.

The Final of this important tournament was started on 1/07/2014 (T.D.: Laurent Tinture -FRA- with 13 players (7 from Germany, 1 from Czech Rep., England, Italy, Poland, Romania, and Spain).

As usual, many thanks to “my” Tournament Directors (Rubens Battistini, Bjørn Brobakken and Thed Klauner for the Promotional Tournaments; Rubens Battistini, Bjørn Brobakken, Markus Hömske, Joop Jansen, Thed Klauner, Leo Lahdenmàki, Ian Pheby and Laurent Tinture for the Preliminaries and the Final of the Diamond Jubilee) for their excellent work!

(*) 2014 only from 01.01.2014 to 31.08.2014

TITLE TOURNAMENT COMMISSIONER

THE INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENCE CHESS FEDERATION Gian-Maria Tani via Tripoli 20 I-10136 Torino Italia tel.: +39-3495519830 E -mail: ttc@iccf.com

The Final of the 27^th WCCC ended on 9/05/2014. The new World Champion is Aleksandr Surenovich Dronov (RUS), who was already the 22^nd World Champion; Matthias Kribben (GER) was the runner-up and Thomas Mahling (GER) got the third place.

The Sections of the 31^st, the 32^nd, and the 33^rd WCCC (started in 2011, 2012, and 2013) are going on regularly.

The 2014 Sections (34^th WCCC) are regularly starting on 20/09/2014 (4 Sections with 44 players).
1.3 WCCC Semifinals

The Sections of the 36^th and the 37^th WCCC (started in 2012 and 2013) are going on regularly.

The 2014 Sections (38^th WCCC) were started on 20/06/2014 (9 Sections with 117 players).
1.4 WCCC Preliminaries

The Sections of the 36^th and the 37^th WCCC (started in 2012 and 2013) are going on regularly.

The 2014 Sections (38^th WCCC) were started on 20/03/2014 (15 Sections with 195 players).
2. LADIES’ WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
2.1 LWCCC Finals

There are still 3 running games in the Final of the 9^th LWCCC.

They have been sent to adjudication: the name of the new Ladies’ World Champion will be soon known.
2.2 LWCCC Semifinals

All the Semifinals of the 10^th LWCCC have ended in 2013.

It was not possible to start the Final because the qualified players from 9^th LWCCC Final were not known.


3. OLYMPIADS
3.1 CC Olympiads Finals

The Final of the 16^th Olympiad (postal) is still ongoing. There are still 6 running games, but the winner team is already known: the Czech Republic. The runner-up is Germany, while many teams are fighting for the third place.

The Final of the 18^th Olympiad (webserver), started on 10/12/2012, is going on regularly.
3.2 CC Olympiads Preliminaries

The Semifinals of the 19^th Olympiad (postal) are still ongoing, with a lot of running games.

The Semifinals of the 20^th Olympiad (webserver), started on 10/12/2012, are going on regularly.

4. LADIES’ OLYMPIADS
The 9^th Ladies’ Olympiad ended on 11/01/2014. The team winner was Russia, Lithuania was the runner-up, and Germany got the third place.

5. GRAND MASTER NORM TOURNAMENTS
4 GMN Sections were started in 2013, the same as in 2012.

3 GMN Sections have been started in the first 8 months of 2014.

Unfortunately, the waiting time is very high.

6. MASTER NORM TOURNAMENTS
16 MN Sections were started in 2013 (in 2012 the MN Sections were 14).

9 MN Sections have been started in the first 8 months of 2014.

The waiting time is quite low.

7. NEXT NORM TOURNAMENTS TO BE STARTED
7.1 WCCC Final

The Final of the 29^th WCCC is planned to start on June 2015.

The Candidates’ Tournament of the 35^th WCCC is planned to start on September 2015.

The Semifinals of the 39^th WCCC are planned to start on June 2015.

The Preliminaries of the 39^th WCCC are planned to start on March 2015.

The Final of the 10^th LWCCC is planned to start on 20/11/2014 together with the Semifinals of the 11^th LWCCC.

The Final of the 19^th Olympiad, played by post, will start when the Final of the 16^th Olympiad will be ended and the qualified teams will be known.

The 10^th Ladies’ Olympiad is planned to start on the second quarter of 2015.

At the end of my report, I would like to thanks all the friends who help me in this important and difficult work, especially “my” deputy, Neil Limbert and the Direct Entry Commissioner, Ian M. Pheby.

Amici sumus!

Torino, 28/08/2014.

List of the members of the PRC:

Duncan Chambers (ENG) Vice Chairman

Gian-Maria Tani (ITA)

Sergey Grodzensky (RUS)

Leonardo Madonia (ITA)

Gerhard Binder (GER)

Eric Ruch (FRA) ICCF President, member in all Commissions

Michael Millstone (USA) General Secretary, member in all Commissions

Duncan Chambers asked to be relieved from the duty as Chairman of this Commission, he will stay on the Commission, and I took over the Chair for this report. We give our appreciated thanks to Duncan for his years as Chairman of the Commission, great work!

Replace the following section of 8.7

With

ICCF Playing Rules Server 6) Time Allowed and Penalties d. A competitor who has exceeded the time allowed shall forfeit the game.

The proposal would make the Playing Rules and Tournament Rules consistent. There is no need to involve the TD or create delays when the server can simply set the score for the game.

Comments:

Appeal procedures allow for exceptional circumstances, like a health emergency.

Another possible concern is the IMR (Insufficient Material Rule), an important part of blitz competition or in a time scramble heading to time control in normal OTB.  In such positions, there may only be seconds to make 10-20 moves.  In blitz, you will see people play into the IMR, giving up material to take the last pawn (or a Rook) when short on time.
Part of the reason for the IMR is the difficulty in stopping play to get a decision.  An OTB player is allowed to stop the clocks and seek an arbitrator (see below).  However, this is almost never done unless the arbitrator is standing over monitoring the game, because there is a penalty provision. The penalty would logically be the time wasted searching for the arbitrator or a proscribed penalty time in blitz.  Thus, flag falls in IMR positions are more common as the player tend play on until time control or a flag-fall.

FIDE 6.12d: If a player stops the chess clock in order to seek the arbiter’s assistance, the arbiter shall determine whether the player had any valid reason for doing so. If the player had no valid reason for stopping the chess clock, the player shall be penalised in accordance with Article 12.9.

Time rules in ICCF are already much different, for example, no time expires in the first 24 hours, giving plenty of time to get the TDs attention in unusual situations.  In addition, IMR positions are relatively simple so playing a couple moves "short on time" is not hard while waiting for a decision. It is also unlikely to occur in CC, where a player can offer a draw to an opponent with insufficient mating material, rather than allowing his own flag to fall.
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Comments:

2)

Minimum Score for Titles

Poland

Normally there is requirement for minimum score for all international titles, for example 30% in Poland or 35% in FIDE. For ICCF events currently there is no minimum, so in extreme cases it is enough 10% or even less. The minimum required to be discussed and possibly decided during congress meeting.

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Comments:
This proposal had an even vote in the TRC. And thus it seems to be an issue for the Congress to decide. The TRC will not give a recommendation.
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3)

Titles Achieved in National Championships

Poland

The final stage of the national individual or team championship shall be exempt and international title norms possible if other requirements fulfilled. However, at least one of the norms has to be achieved under normal foreigner requirement. In my opinion, ICCF can implement this FIDE standard.

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Comments:
This proposal received 3 votes against and one in favour. The idea as such is possible, but we also have the case of Myanmar (Burma) in FIDE where one federation fixed their games to get a very high rating not corresponding to the player’s actual skill. We do not wish that to happen that a player gets a title by playing only domestic players do we.

It also came up a proposal that if a national federation do wish to have a titled championship, then a format of playing with 10 domestic players and 5 invited players from other federations would work.

Some people may say that this was just update to eliminate a double negative and that these expressions mean the same or the first one is nonsense, because the minimum is 1! You couldn't be more wrong!

"The minimum number of players not belonging to one and the same federation" actually means the minimum number of different federations represented in an event!

Moreover, I could not find in the minutes authorization for that substantial change.

-MT-Paredes/A (http://www.iccf-webchess.com/event?id=43536) started in 2014 -> 6xESP; TR 2014 says in para 1.e) max 10, but in para 3 (norm table, column C): max 5!

-MT-Hawley (http://www.iccf-webchess.com/event?id=40274) started in 2013 -> 7xENG; TR 2013 says in para 1.e) max 10, but in para 3 (norm table, column C): max 5!

-RUS/Gold-2013 (http://iccf-webchess.com/event?id=39862) started in 2013 -> 10xRUS; TR 2013 says in para 1.e) max 10, but in para 3 (norm table, column C): max 5!

-MT-Crusi/A (http://www.iccf.com/event?id=37645) started in 2013 -> 6xESP; TR 2013 says in para 1.e) max 10, but in para 3 (norm table, column C): max 5!

-MT-Crusi/B (http://www.iccf.com/event?id=37646) started in 2013 -> 6xESP; TR 2013 says in para 1.e) max 10, but in para 3 (norm table, column C): max 5!

-RUS/Gold-2012 (http://iccf-webchess.com/event?id=32258) started in 2012 -> 9xRUS; TR 2014 says in para 1.e) max 10, but in para 3 (norm table, column C): max 5! However, exceptionally for TR 2012 para 3 (norm table, column C) says about: (page 21) min or (page 19) max 10 depending on page you are looking at!

My advice as QC is to correct table description for column C as following "C = The minimum number of players not belonging to one and the same federation" (for all editions TR 2014, 2013, 2012-including numbers in column C), so like was previously.

Comments:

No action from TRC is needed.

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Comments:
The Tournament Rules Commission feels that this is an issue for the server commission. It has no impact to the Tournament Rules.
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_________________________________________________________

I would like to thank all members of the TRC for their dedicated and cooperative work and input!

Kind Regards and Amici Sumus

Per Söderberg, Acting Chairman of the TRC

Bromma, Sept 1^st 2014