The International Correspondence Chess Federation 2014 Congress Sydney, Australia Table of Contents
Hutton Pairing System Implementation (England)
Download 1.23 Mb.
|
- Navigate this page:
- Acknowledgements
Hutton Pairing System Implementation (England)A request to implement the Hutton Pairing System for team events was received from BFCC (England). This was implemented on the server as requested and will be used by BFCC for their national events from September 2014 but, of course, will also be available for use by ICCF or any other member federation. This work was not presented in Krakow as part of the 2013/14 plan, and was completed at the request of a member federation rather than ICCF directly. This cost of this work will be approximately €1,000; this can either be billed directly to BFCC, or paid from the ICCF Services budget. I would like to ask Congress to make the decision about the funding of this work. The voting for this request is presented on the next page. There are implications for other tournament formats, which are used by member federations and not by ICCF, for example the Silli System, which is used by Italy and other member federations. AcknowledgementsOnce again, I am grateful for the warm support I have received over the past year from all ICCF players, delegates, and officials. In particular, I am grateful to members of the ICCF Services Committee. Michal Volf CZE has decided to stand down as testing lead; this will be a loss to the Services Committee and I am very grateful for his contribution to this important aspect of our work over the past twelve months, and very pleased that he will continue as a member of the team. I am also grateful for the high quality of services offered by our professional contractors, Martin Bennedik and Neil Limbert. Rydym yn Ffrindiau Austin Lockwood WLS, Cyfarwyddwr Gwasanaethau ICCF, Awst 2014 Vote to approve the Services Director report and list of priorities. 
Marketing Director Report 31st August 2014
ICCF MARKETING DIRECTOR’S REPORT FOR CONGRESS, SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA In my first year as ICCF Marketing Director, I have had the opportunity to try to catch up on some issues that needed a dedicated MD. The post had been vacant within ICCF for a few years. I will outline some of the initiatives that I have (with the help of many ICCF colleagues) managed to put in place since the last congress in Poland. Sponsorship/ICCF Partners It was time critical to implement the Tablebase claim system and find a reliable, trustworthy system to implement. After much hard work from our President and Services Director, we were able to not only find a provider but also negotiate a sponsorship deal with them. The providers of the system are ChessOK.com and their logo is now on the ICCF.com main page along with a toolbar entitled ‘Endgame Tablebases.’ As one of ICCF’s main sponsors, I would encourage all members to look at ChessOK’s products and services. They are a significant sponsor and partner. The Lomonosov Tablebase, which ICCF utilises, is amongst many other products that you can buy from their website. After putting in place the above, next it was time to have dialogue with our long-standing partners New in Chess. Here, in every issue of their monthly magazine, ICCF feature an advert outlining our webserver for play and that amongst other tournaments, the World Championship is organised by ICCF. This deal was due for renewal this year and NIC wished to have some equalisation for ICCF placing the monthly advert, which is quite expensive. After negotiation, I offered NIC the ability to use ICCF’s webserver mail tool to market their special offers to ICCF players. This feature was very appealing to them and during the FIFA football world cup, the first ever commercial mailing was sent to our players offering discounted products throughout the duration of the football World cup. There was an opt-out of these mailing implemented, giving any player the right not to receive such commercial mailings. Very few of our players opted out, so this was beneficial not only to ICCF and NIC, but to our players receiving information about products at a discounted cost. This initiative has strengthened ICCF’s relationship with one of the World’s leading publications and chess suppliers. Furthermore, I placed a notice on the ICCF webserver informing all that NIC had brought out digital and kindle versions of their monthly magazine. I have the digital version subscription and being able to play through a game in a magazine with a chessboard on screen is revolutionary, making it so easy to use whilst travelling and not having to set up a physical chess set. I will outline further use of ICCF’s mail tool later in this report. At the start of my office, I was introduced to an Indian ICCF player named Asim Pereira. He had developed a smart phone application that worked for viewing ICCF games on this type of device. After testing his application called ‘your move’, it was agreed that this application would be available for winners of the ICCF Promotion class tournaments. The application is very cheap anyway at $0.99 but winners of the promotion class tournaments can obtain a free version from me. On these tournament pages, you will see the logo below which links to the application; 
Feedback has been very positive regarding the features of ‘your move’ Finally, regarding sponsors/ICCF Partners I had intended with the help of Uwe Staroske, to make contact with Chess Base. For reasons given at the end of my report, I was not able to achieve this. Going forward, I would also like to start to develop a relationship with The Week in Chess (TWIC) Mark Crowther, the man behind this well respected chess games and information site is worth contacting. ICCF then would have as partners many of the World’s top chess sites and retailers. I would request a budget from congress to help achieve this aim. (Note: Congress did approve a budget of 6.000 Euro for the year 2015). ICCF Mail tool system Outlining the ICCF Mail tool usage internally, at the time of writing, it has been used 120 times; with Netherlands, USA, and Australia being the most frequent Countries that take the opportunity to communicate to their players with it. The mail tool has also been very successful in informing all zones and Countries of upcoming ICCF tournaments. This has undoubtedly increased entries for events such as the annual webchess open. Any delegate that does not know how to use the system can contact me directly for support. It is a great way of publicising not only ICCF tournaments but also those of your own federation. Thanks to the Service Director and his team for improving the features and look of the mailing system, which is now very professional. Social Media There is an unofficial ICCF Facebook page. I was granted administration privileges last year alongside two other members of ICCF. This group has over 800 members, many recently who do not have an ICCF profile but are interested in chess. From time to time, some ICCF players have posted live games, especially those trying to highlight players using dead man’s defence. I have had to monitor this closely and delete such posts. The group does have some good discussions but I feel it is best left as an unofficial group. Matters that are useful can be picked up and discussed with delegates or the most relevant party. Twitter. I am now able to tweet and I will be using this facility more. Tweets are made when announcements are placed on the ICCF front page. Promotional Games on the ICCF Front Page Thanks to the Dutch federation for the wonderful match set up between ICCF World Champion, Ron Langeveld and FIDE IM Twan Burg and more recently another all Dutch match between GM David Hoeven and FIDE GM Robin Van Kampen. With FIDE GM Anish Giri providing comments to the first game, this created much interest and can only help raise the profile of ICCF. Articles written for ICCF (formerly Amici) Thanks to Gino Figlio who posted an interview with the 25th ICCF World Champion Fabio Finocchiaro. I also was able to obtain an annotated game between SIM Harvey Williamson and former ICCF World Champion Tunc Hamarat. What was special here was that Harvey asked GM Vishy Anand to make to some comments about this game! For those of you who wish to still find these articles click ‘About ICCF’ then go to ICCF Amici. We need to think about how to make more players aware of this location and that of ‘Calendar of events’ where Champions League, World cups and Veterans World cups information can be found.
At the Polish congress last year, there was an interest in providing a place for 1600 and under rated players to play. I set up aspirer sections shortly after returning and they have proved to be successful. Thanks to Ian Pheby who agreed to be the tournament organiser for all these events. Ian has also a team of dedicated tournament directors, learning the TD role in this environment. At the time of writing, 23 sections have started since their concept. Possible new member federations to ICCF I had some dialogue with a female player from Kazakhstan about re-joining ICCF as a member Federation. She has just gained her LGM norm and that is how I became in touch with her (There is a special application for her title at this congress) Kazakhstan was a good-sized member federation before and I obtained a list of their database of their previous CC players. I have sent 2 emails to their FIDE delegate, as yet with no response. I will now attempt to find out if there is a desire to find a possible delegate from the players and give them assistance should this become positive. ICCF Digital Brochure I have spent some time, with the help of LGM Toni Halliwell, in bringing this more up to date. More work needs to take place and will do so, as soon as time permits. 960 chess Entries to the 960 World cup versions this year were disappointing but it maybe that players will enter more when ratings become more established. ICCF will need to promote this more and will need the support and help of all federations. ICCF player survey ICCF conducted a player survey for the very first time. It is important to see how ICCF are perceived by its players and to keep up to date with their needs. I will leave it to our President to discuss this further at congress. Finally, on a personal note and the main reason why I have not completed some tasks aforementioned or done much as I would have liked, is that I had a serious health issue in April. This has prevented me from continuing my work as Marketing Director since then. I am also sad to tell you I cannot be at congress in Sydney as planned. I have to follow my specialist’s advice not to travel at this time. I would like to thank Eric Ruch for delivering not only this report on my behalf but for stepping in to my role when need be. I would also like to thank Gino Figlio, Austin Lockwood, and Martin Bennedik for their full support and implementation of any marketing initiatives. I wish all officials, delegates, family, and friends a successful and enjoyable congress in Sydney. Amici sumus, Andrew Dearnley ICCF Marketing Director Huddersfield, England
The Marketing Committee; Gino Figlio, Uwe Staroske, Arjen Oudheusden, Brian Jones, Michael Millstone, Ron Langeveld, and the four zonal directors. Directory: Congress Congress -> The international correspondence chess federation Congress -> DR. virginia burkett chief scientist for global change research u. S. Geological survey Congress -> Hon daniel webster Congress -> Presentation to the commerce, science and transportation committee united states senate Download 1.23 Mb. Share with your friends:
|