ICCF CONGRESS 2015 - iccfwebfiles.blob.core.windows.net · Web viewThe Welsh Correspondence Chess Federation (WCCF) hosted the 2015 ICCF Congress. The Welsh Correspondence Chess

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The International Correspondence Chess Federation

2015 CongressCardiff, Wales

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ICCF CONGRESS 2015Cardiff, Wales

I - Introduction

The Welsh Correspondence Chess Federation (WCCF) hosted the 2015 ICCF Congress. The Welsh Correspondence Chess Federation (WCCF) is a consortium of correspondence chess bodies, with both British and international scope, which have Welsh members. The primary objective of the federation is to promote the participation of Welsh correspondence chess players in international tournaments, and to form a national team to represent Wales in events organised by the International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF).

The inaugural meeting of the Welsh Correspondence Chess Federation was held on Saturday 18th August 2012, 13:00 - 15:00 at the Scala Cinema and Arts Centre, 47 High Street, Prestatyn, Denbighshire LL19 9AH; the main business of the meeting was to formally establish the federation, to ratify the constitution, and to elect officers. All Welsh chess players with an interest in correspondence chess were cordially invited to attend.

Membership of WCCF is open to any correspondence chess organisation with Welsh members (there are no individual members of WCCF). WCCF was formally recognised by ICCF as the National Correspondence Chess Federation for Wales at Congress in 2012.

The initial member organisations were the British Correspondence Chess Association (BCCA), SchemingMind.com Online Correspondence Chess Club, and the Social Correspondence Chess Association.

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II - Voting Members

Zone One

Austria: Uwe Staroske as proxyBelarus: Sergey Grodzenskiy as proxyBelgium: UnrepresentedBulgaria: Russell Sherwood as proxyCroatia: Josef Mrkvička as proxyCzech Republic: Josef Mrkvička as delegateDenmark: Søren Ottesen as delegateEngland: Andrew Dearnley as delegateEstonia: Pertti Lehikoinen as proxyFinland: Pertti Lehikoinen as delegate designeeFrance: Eric Ruch as delegateGermany: Uwe Staroske as delegateGreece: UnrepresentedHungary: Fritz Baumbach as proxyIceland: Everdinand Knol as proxyIreland: Timothy Harding as delegateIsrael: Eric Ruch as proxyItaly: Gianni Mastrojeni as delegateLatvia: Artis Gaujens as delegateLithuania: Marijonas Ročius as delegateLuxembourg: Ulrich Baumgartner as proxyNetherlands: Willem Adrianus Oudheusden as delegateNorway: Raymond Boger as delegatePoland: Mariusz Wojnar as delegatePortugal: Eric Ruch as proxyRomania: Gianni Mastrojeni as proxyRussia: Sergey Grodzenskiy as delegateScotland: George Pyrich as delegateSlovakia: Ján Helbich as delegate designeeSlovenia: Marjan Šemrl as delegateSpain: Ulrich Baumgartner as proxySweden: George Pyrich as proxySwitzerland: Ulrich Baumgartner as delegateTurkey: Votes registered by emailUkraine: Iurii Koshmak as delegate designeeWales: Russell Sherwood as delegate

Zone Two

Argentina: UnrepresentedBrazil: Gino Figlio as proxyChile: UnrepresentedCuba: Fritz Baumbach as proxyEcuador: UnrepresentedGuatamala: UnrepresentedNicaragua: Guy José Bendaña Guerrero as delegatePanama: UnrepresentedPeru: Gino Figlio as delegateVenezuela: Gino Figlio as proxy

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Zone Three

Australia: Brian Jones as delegateCanada: Leonard 'Corky' Schakel as proxyHong Kong: Everdinand Knol as proxyJapan: UnrepresentedNew Zealand: Brian Jones as proxyUnited States of America: Leonard 'Corky' Schakel as delegate

Zone FourCape Verde: Andrew Dearnley as proxyIndia: Ambar Chatterjee as delegate designeeSouth Africa: Everdinand Knol as delegateTunisia: Unrepresented

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III - Executive Board and Management Committee

Executive Board

Eric Ruch as ICCF PresidentMichael Millstone as ICCF General SecretaryFrank Geider as ICCF World Tournament DirectorGeorge Pyrich as ICCF Finance DirectorAustin Lockwood as ICCF Services DirectorAndrew Dearnley as ICCF Marketing DirectorMarco Caressa as ICCF Zonal Director, EuropeJason Bokar as ICCF Zonal Director, NAPZEverdinand Knol as ICCF Zonal Director, Africa, and Asia

Management Committee

Ian M. Pheby as ICCF Direct Entry CommissionerMariusz Wojnar as ICCF Qualifications CommissionerGerhard Binder as ICCF Ratings CommissionerGino Figlio as ICCF Webmaster

World Champions in Attendance

WCCC XI Fritz BaumbachWCCC XX Pertti LehikoinenWCCC XXIV Marjan Šemrl

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IV - All Participants

Czech RepublicJosef Mrkvička as ICCF National Delegate for Czech Republic and ICCF Auditor, with proxy for CroatiaAlena Mrkvičková as Member of Delegation

DenmarkSøren Ottesen as ICCF National Delegate for DenmarkKim Jensen as Member of Delegation

EnglandAndrew Dearnley as ICCF National Delegate for England and ICCF Marketing Director, with proxy for Cape VerdeRichard Hall as Arbitration Commission ChairIan M. Pheby as ICCF Direct Entry CommissionerStan Grayland as Member of DelegationColin Kidd as Member of DelegationNeil Limbert as Member of DelegationJeanette Dearnley as Accompanying Person

FinlandPertti Lehikoinen as Delegate Designee for Finland and WCCC XX, with proxy for EstoniaOlli Ylönen as Member of DelegationLeila Lehikoinen as Accompanying Person

FranceEric Ruch as ICCF National Delegate for France and ICCF President, with proxy for Israel and PortugalFrank Geider as ICCF World Tournament DirectorCatherine Ruch as Accompanying Person

GermanyUwe Staroske as ICCF National Delegate for Germany, with proxy for AustriaFritz Baumbach as Honorary Member and WCCC XI, with proxy for Cuba and HungaryGerhard Binder as ICCF Ratings CommissionerElisabeth Binder as Accompanying PersonEdda Jankowski as Accompanying PersonMargot Pöschel as Accompanying Person

IrelandTimothy Harding as ICCF National Delegate for IrelandJoan Harding as Accompanying Person

ItalyGianni Mastrojeni as ICCF National Delegate for Italy, with proxy for RomaniaMarco Caressa as ICCF Zonal Director, EuropeLuz Marina Tinjaca Ramirez as Member of DelegationElena Temnianu as Accompanying Person

LatviaArtis Gaujens as ICCF National Delegate for LatviaMaigonis Avotinš as Member of DelegationAnita Avotina as Accompanying Person

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LithuaniaMarijonas Ročius as ICCF National Delegate for LithuaniaDmitrijus Chocenka as Member of DelegationVirginijus Dambrauskas as Member of Delegation

NetherlandsWillem Adrianus Oudheusden as ICCF National Delegate for NetherlandsSimone Boitelle as Accompanying Person

NorwayRaymond Boger as ICCF National Delegate for Norway

PolandMariusz Wojnar as ICCF National Delegate for Poland and ICCF Qualifications CommissionerEwa Wojnar as Partner Programme OrganiserMarzena Wojnar as Accompanying Person

RussiaSergey Grodzenskiy as ICCF National Delegate for Russia, with proxy for BelarusSergey Nefedov as Member of DelegationNikolay Poleshchuk as Member of DelegationNatalia Grodzenskaya as Accompanying PersonAndrey Nefedov as Accompanying PersonVilga Saveleva as Accompanying Person

ScotlandGeorge Pyrich as ICCF National Delegate for Scotland and ICCF Finance Director, with proxy for SwedenGordon Anderson as Member of DelegationKevin Paine as Member of DelegationMargaret Anderson as Accompanying Person

SlovakiaJán Helbich as Delegate Designee for SlovakiaTatiana Helbichová as Accompanying Person

SloveniaMarjan Šemrl as ICCF National Delegate for Slovenia and WCCC XXIV

SwitzerlandUlrich Baumgartner as ICCF National Delegate for Switzerland, with proxy for Luxembourg and Spain

UkraineIurii Koshmak as Delegate Designee for UkraineVadym Kosolapov as Member of Delegation

WalesRussell Sherwood as ICCF National Delegate for Wales, with proxy for BulgariaMark Adams as Welsh Chess Union Representative to WCCFPeter Bevan as WCCF PresidentThomas Johansson as IM Title RecipientAustin Lockwood as ICCF Services DirectorMary-Kate Lockwood as Partner Programme OrganiserWendy Lockwood as Partner Programme OrganiserHelen Sherwood as Partner Programme OrganiserKen Skates AM as Deputy Minister for Culture, Sport and TourismFaye Tanner from the Cardiff Convention BureauAlice Lockwood as Accompanying PersonAlexander Sherwood as Accompanying Person - (logistics and communications support)Ellie Sherwood as Accompanying Person

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Zone Two

NicaraguaGuy José Bendaña Guerrero as ICCF National Delegate for Nicaragua

PeruGino Figlio as ICCF National Delegate for Peru and ICCF Webmaster, with proxy for Brazil and Venezuela

Zone Three

AustraliaBrian Jones as ICCF National Delegate for Australia, with proxy for New ZealandMargaret Jones as Accompanying Person

United States of AmericaLeonard 'Corky' Schakel as ICCF National Delegate for United States of America, with proxy for CanadaJason Bokar as ICCF Zonal Director, NAPZMichael Millstone as ICCF General SecretaryDebbie Millstone as Accompanying PersonSally Schakel as Accompanying Person

Zone Four

IndiaAmbar Chatterjee as Delegate Designee for IndiaUrmila Chatterjee as Accompanying Person

South AfricaEverdinand Knol as ICCF National Delegate for South Africa and ICCF Zonal Director, Africa and Asia, with proxy for Hong Kong and IcelandHannie Knol as Accompanying PersonBallot Marx as Accompanying PersonDalene Marx as Accompanying Person

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V - Programme of Events

16/8/2015 SundayArrival of delegates, hotel check in

09:30-12:30: Meeting of ICCF Executive Board, Tredegar Suite14:00-17:00: Meeting of ICCF Management Committee, Tredegar Suite18:00-19:00: British Correspondence Chess Championship Meeting, Tredegar Suite20:00-00:00: WCCF Social Event and Welcome Party, Tiger Tiger, The Friary, Greyfriars Road, Cardiff (Please note that children under 18 years will not be admitted)

17/8/2015 Monday09:30-10:30: Opening Ceremony, Calon One

Welcome by Ken Skates AM, Deputy Minister for Culture, Sports and TourismWelcome by the WCCF PresidentMusical interlude of traditional Welsh song with harp, soprano, and baritone Hiraeth EnsembleOpening of Congress by Eric Ruch, ICCF President

11:00-12:30: Awards and presentations14:00-18:00: Congress Day One, Calon One14:00-18:00: Accompanying person’s programme, Cardiff City Centre and shops20:00-23:00: WCCF Opening banquet, Caernarfon Suite

18/8/2015 TuesdayThird anniversary of WCCF

09:30-18:00: Congress Day Two, Calon One18:30-20:00: Zone One Europa Meeting, Calon One09:30-18:00: Accompanying person’s programme

St.Fagans National History MuseumLunch at Llanerch Vineyard (not provided)Wine tasting and demonstration of Welsh cuisine and dishes at Angela Gray’s Cookery School

19/8/2015 Wednesday09:30-18:00: Congress Day Three, Calon One09:30-18:00: Accompanying person’s programme, Cardiff Bay18:00-19:00: Zone 3 NAPZ Meeting, Calon One19:30-23:00: Blitz tournament, Caernarfon Suite

20/8/2015 Thursday09:30-17:30: Blaenavon World Heritage Site

Blaenavon World Heritage Centre and IronworksBig Pit National Coal Museum (including lunch provided by WCCF)Rhymney Brewery Visitor Centre (£2.50 entry fee, not provided)

19:30-23:00: Chess match ICCF vs Welsh Chess Union, Norwegian Church, Cardiff Bay

21/8/2015 Friday09:30-12:30: Walking tour of the City12:30-13:00: Boat trip from Bute Park to Mermaid Quay13:00-14:00: Lunch at Mermaid Quay (not provided)14:00-18:00: Free time Cardiff Bay, Millennium Stadium, or Cardiff Castle Museum19:30-23:30: ICCF Closing Banquet at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama

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VI - Sponsors

The Welsh Correspondence Chess Federation is grateful to the following organisations for their generous support of the 2015 ICCF Congress:

English Federation for Correspondence Chess British Correspondence Chess Association SchemingMind.com Scottish Correspondence Chess Association

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VII - Chess Events

ICCF Blitz Tournament - August 19, 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 was Walter Braun (AUT) and in third was Nikolay Poleschuk (RUS) - Well played!

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

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ICCF vs. WCU Chess Match - Norwegian Church, August 20, 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.

In addition, 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!

Of course, gratitude 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.DambrauskasK.Evans 0 1 S.NefedovT.Brown 0.5 0.5 D.ChocenkaW.Hewitt 1 0 F.BaumbachP.Bevan 0.5 0.5 M.AvotinsM.Adams 0 1 R.HallJ.Fathallah 1 0 N.PoleshchukR.Taylor 0.5 0.5 I.KosmakJ.Waterfield 1 0 K.JensenD.James 0.5 0.5 G.PyrichW.Harle 0.5 0.5 J.MrkvickaR.Thomas 0.5 0.5 S.OttesenG.Thomas 0 1 A.ChatterjeeR.Livermore 0 1 A.GaujensA.Wills 0 1 B. Jones

6.5 8.5WCU ICCF

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VIII - President’s Report to Congress

International Correspondence Chess Federation

President’s Report to Congress August 2015

Dear Delegates, ICCF Officials, Chess Friends,

Next month, we will meet for the annual ICCF Congress, to be held for the first time in Wales to celebrate the third anniversary of the Welch Correspondence Chess Federation (WCCF).

The WCCF welcomes all Delegates and ICCF Officials to attend the 44th ICCF Congress in Cardiff, which will be held in the Mercure Cardiff Holland House Hotel and Spa, between 16 August 2015 and 22 August 2015. Much information about travel and accommodations can be found on the congress website https://congress2015.welshccf.org.uk I hope that many of you will be able to join us in Cardiff.

Every four years, ICCF holds a General Election at Congress. This year (2015), delegates and proxies will vote for nominees for the Executive Board (EB), plus the ICCF Auditor. Immediately after Congress, delegates will hold their own elections for a Zonal Director, who while representing all federations in the Zone, will also serve on the Executive Board. Those elected will serve their position from January 1, 2016 through December 31, 2019.

First, I would like to thank all the current EB members and the Auditor for their dedicated work during the last 4 years. All of you shall receive credit (to be shared with the other EB members, Management committee members, and all ICCF officials) for the astonishing progress and modernization of ICCF during this period that I will highlight in my report. You have made my responsibility as President very easy and it has been for me a pleasure and an honour to work with you.

In the forthcoming election, all current EB members are candidates for another term and all will be unopposed, except the World Tournament Director position, which has three excellent candidates. I am very proud that all current members are volunteers to serve under my leadership for another term and I hope that the Delegates will support them by their votes.

I wish to see you many of you next month in Wales.

Amici Sumus

Eric RuchICCF President

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What has been positive during the last four years?

For the first time in the ICCF history, a player survey has been conducted beginning of 2014 and the results have demonstrated that a large majority of players are satisfied with the services provided by ICCF:

o More than 90% of the players are satisfied with the services that the ICCF provides to the players (and more than 50% are very satisfied leaving only 2% that are dissatisfied).

o More than 90% of the players are satisfied with the ICCF webserver (about 57% are very satisfied and only a little more than 2% are dissatisfied).

The ICCF statutes have been modernized; ICCF has been officially registered in Switzerland; and has opened a working office in France to comply with the non-profit status of ICCF.

The ICCF website and server have been unified and a new modern design has been implemented. The server has been globalized and is now available in many languages (globalization effort). Games can be played on many modern devices including tablets and smartphones.

The games played on the server start to benefit from the modern technologies that are now available (automation of Tournament Director Decisions, use of endgame Table Bases…).

We have brought an answer to the profusion of World Championship titles and have arrived at the goal where a final is started every 2 years.

More generally, all ICCF tournaments are running smoothly following a calendar that includes zonal tournaments and is available for all players on iccf.com. Chess 960 tournaments have been introduced and have become standard ICCF tournaments and benefit from a dedicated Chess960 rating system.

The ICCF financial situation is healthy, allowing us future development tasks on the server, marketing, and further development actions. We have already reduced twice the entry fees of the tournaments, increased the DE rebate to the National Federations, increased the prizes for World Cups and the Opens, and increased the financial help for the host of the ICCF congresses.

The server continues its development. There are now almost than 10,000 registered correspondence chess players and the number of webserver tournaments started every year is steadily increasing. In 2014, a record number of entries (2,275) have been processed through the Direct Entry office, an increase of more the 25% with respect to 2013 and more than the double since 2009. In the same time, the number of active players has raised by more than 25% (players having at least one game in progress) and the number of registered players by more than 75%

A number of on-going tasks will be the major objectives for the next years. I can mention some of them:

The number of Member Federations has decreased and no real positive answer has been received from contacts initiated over the last 2 years. To remain the legitimate and leading

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Worldwide Correspondence Chess Federation, ICCF needs a larger number of member federations.

The implementation of the ICCF laws of correspondence chess is designed to increase the leadership of ICCF further over the world of correspondence chess. This is also linked to the modernization of the rules, the modernization of the role, and the duties of the Tournament Directors, the Tournament Organizers, and the on-going development of the automation.

In Cardiff, Delegates will discuss the revised and modernized “TD Manual” prepared by the Arbiter Committee and we plan to create a “TO Manual” during the next year.

The on-going development of the server will again be one of the major objectives of the coming years. As already mentioned, we should all consider the potential of the server and the modern technologies to make the CC more attractive for our players and potential future players. We should also improve the server for our marketing activities, making it more attractive for potential sponsors.

Although ICCF has increased its financial strength during the last 4 years, the Delegates will notice that 2014 has ended with a deficit significantly higher than what was forecast in the Financial Plan. In his report, the Financial Director highlights the main reasons for this increased deficit (delayed start of some major tournaments, increase of the server maintenance budget, and higher Congress allowances to such places as Australia and South Africa. Although this deficit does not endanger the financial solvability of ICCF, it indicates that we need to remain very selective in our objectives and clearly define our priorities for the coming years:

As indicated above, the development of the server will remain the main priority and a significant yearly budget will be allocated to this effort in the Financial Plan. As you will have noted, there are many proposals (from Member Federation delegates and officials) that will be discussed in Cardiff and many of them will require development work on the server (The associated costs of each proposal can be found in the Services Director’s report). During the Services Committee meeting held in Paris end of June, additional Priority 1 tasks have been defined and I strongly recommend that the Delegates vote for the increased development budget to 25,000€ for 2016.

The marketing budget will also remain a high priority for the next for years. There are many new ideas to make CC more attractive for new players, increase our relationships with sponsor, and develop ICCF visibility on social Medias, and so forth. I invite you to read in detail the report of the Marketing Director for a global picture on our future marketing plans.

The reduction of the tournament fees will remain one of my major priorities for the next term. They have already been reduced by 40% – 50% during the previous years (as well as the increase of the Direct Entry rebate to the Member Federations who have chosen to participate in DE), resulting in a significant increase in the number of entries. However, for 2016, I will strongly encourage the Delegates to follow the (wise) advice of our Auditor:

“In my last year’s report, I argued that the financial year 2014 would be critical for further financial decisions, as this would be the first year which would show the impact of the reduction of start fees as from 1.1.2014 of the 2014 on the ICCF’s

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income and profit. Now, given the unfavorable financial results achieved in the year 2014, I don’t recommend a further reduction of fees.”

This year a new system for on-line presentation of the congress proposals has been developed by the General Secretary and the Services Director. Such a new concept can by no means be perfect at the first attempt and the feedback from the Delegates will help the EB to improve and expend this concept in the future. An on-line voting system for the Delegates, replacing the current proxies, is amongst the ideas for the near future.

ICCF, the Zones, and the National Federation are organizing many different kinds of tournaments. In the survey, a large majority of players have shown their appreciation of large available choice of tournaments, but little has been done so far to take advantage of the possibilities offered by the new time controls (e.g. Fischer clock) that are now supported by the server (The promotional league is one example of tournament with no leave available). For tournaments played in successive stages, the timely conclusions of the preliminary and semifinal sections is a must and promoting results on the board rather than by adjudication will be highly appreciated by the players.

I sincerely hope that a significant majority of Delegates will support to this plan for the next 4 years. Although many candidates (including myself) are unopposed for this election, a vote of support is necessary to legitimate the proposals outlined in this report.

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IX - President’s Opening Speech

ICCF Congress 2015 – Cardiff, WalesMonday, August 17, 2015

Distinguished Guests, dear Members of the Welsh Chess Federation, dear Delegates, Member federation delegation members and accompanying persons, dear ICCF officials, ladies, and gentleman.

May I first of all thank M. Skates, Deputy Minister of Culture and Peter Bevan, President of the Welsh Correspondence Chess Federation for those very kind words of welcome and for your great support of this Congress and our Welsh correspondence chess friends for your warm welcome.

It is my great pleasure that an ICCF Congress is being held here for the first time in Wales. I would like to thank all the members of the committee of the Welsh Correspondence Chess Federation for their dedicated work in Congress preparation and especially Austin Lockwood and Russell Sherwood who have been instrumental in the long preparation work throughout this year.

The history of Correspondence in Wales dates back to the 19th century when a first match between the Clubs of Cardiff and Bristol was recorded in 1860. However, it is only in 1991 during the Congress held in Järvenpää that ICCF accepted full membership of Wales (at the same time as Scotland and England), but the federation was unfortunately suspended in 2002 during the Seixal Congress. A decade later, a small group of enthusiastic chess players decided to constitute a new federation, the WCCF (Welsh Correspondence Chess Federation) in August 2012 and the new federation was unanimously elected as a full ICCF National Federation by ICCF Congress in Pretoria.

So it is only a 3 years old (or young?) federation that will organize this year ICCF Congress a record that is unlikely to be beaten for a while!

As you all know, this year is also a year of election during which the Executive Board members will be elected for the next four years. A great team of volunteers have been working during the last four years and many progresses have been made thanks for their dedicated work and they should be warmly thanked for this great achievements:

For the first time in the ICCF history, a player survey has been conducted and the results have demonstrated that a vast majority of players are satisfied and even very satisfied with the services provided by ICCF.

The ICCF website and server have been unified and a new modern design has been implemented. The server has been globalized and is now available in many languages and games can be played on many modern devices including tablets and smartphones.

We have brought an answer to the profusion of World Championship titles and have arrived at the goal where a final is started every 2 years.

More generally, all ICCF tournaments are running smoothly following a calendar

The ICCF financial situation is healthy, allowing us future development tasks on the server, marketing, and further development actions.

The server continues its development. There are now almost than 10,000 registered correspondence chess players and the number of webserver tournaments started every year is

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steadily increasing. In 2014, a record number of entries (2,275) have been processed through the Direct Entry office, an increase of more the 25% with respect to 2013 and more than the double since 2009. In the same time, the number of active players has raised by more than 25%.

Now looking into the future, what will be our main objectives for the next four years?

The number of Member Federations has decreased and no real positive answer has been received from contacts initiated over the last 2 years. To remain the legitimate and leading Worldwide Correspondence Chess Federation, ICCF needs a larger number of member federations.

The implementation of the ICCF laws of correspondence chess is designed to increase the leadership of ICCF further over the world of correspondence chess. This is also linked to the modernization of the rules, the modernization of the role, and the duties of the Tournament Directors, the Tournament Organizers, and the on-going development of the automation.

The on-going development of the server will again be one of the major objectives of the coming years. As already mentioned, we should all consider the potential of the server and the modern technologies to make the CC more attractive for our players and potential future players. We should also improve the server for our marketing activities, making it more attractive for potential sponsors.

The marketing activities and related budget will also remain a high priority. There are many new ideas to make CC more attractive for new players, increase our relationships with sponsor, and develop ICCF visibility on social Medias, and so forth.

ICCF, the Zones, and the National Federation are organizing many different kinds of tournaments. In the survey, a large majority of players have shown their appreciation of large available choice of tournaments, but little has been done so far to take advantage of the possibilities offered by the new time controls (e.g. Fischer clock) that are now supported by the server (The promotional league is one example of tournament with no leave available). For tournaments played in successive stages, the timely conclusions of the preliminary and semifinal sections is a must and promoting results on the board rather than by adjudication will be highly appreciated by the players.

I sincerely hope that a significant majority of Delegates will support with their vote, this plan for the next 4 years.

This year will we introduce many proposals to be considered by the Congress and I would like to quote Henry Ford and Albert Einstein:

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Finally, I would like to welcome new friends attending Congress for the first time and all delegates, delegation members, accompanying persons and families for coming to Wales and wish them a productive and very enjoyable week here in Cardiff.

I pronounce the 44th ICCF Congress, Wales 2015, duly open.

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X - General Secretary Comments to Congress


General Secretary Comments to Congress

September 2015

Dear ICCF Delegates, Officials, Players, and Friends,

The practice of preparing and submitting proposals in advance of Congress is working, but the process can still be improved. Some of the improvements centre on changing the culture of ICCF. In previous administrations, proposals were submitted on the floor of Congress and votes were called without any consultation with committees, commissions, or ICCF officials. Often, the person with the microphone, or whoever monopolized a discussion would weigh heavily on a delegates’ decision about how to vote.

The purpose of Congress and the steep funds it now takes to execute a successful Congress require that delegates be informed about the issues far in advance. FIDE reminds its delegates that 90% of Congress work be completed in advance of Congress, including (a) being informed of the proposals, (b) querying the proposer if there are questions or clarification needed on the proposals, and (c) polling the players the delegate represents to seek a majority opinion to aid in voting.

While delegates are encouraged to explore and discuss the merits of each proposal relative to how the proposal will affect ICCF and the delegate's Member Federation players, frittering away valuable Congress time pontificating about a proposal the delegate never read is both dishonourable and disrespectful. The time for questions and clarifications about the purpose of the proposal is when the proposal is released -- often 6 months in advance of Congress, not on the Congress floor. Many delegates and officials who have toiled for 12-months prior to Congress consider this impolite behaviour.

While opinions are valued from any voting member, there should be a specific reason for commenting on a proposal or topic under discussion during Congress. Sharing an opinion whether you agree or disagree with a proposal without providing a reflective rationale is not necessary -- that is why we have voting. The distinguished delegate from Italy, Gianni Mastrojeni, should be considered an excellent example to follow. He studied the proposals vigorously prior to Congress, asked questions regarding intent and sought clarification, and spoke at Congress from a well-informed position of authority and knowledge. Gianni, and others, reflect how discussions in Congress should occur. To conduct an efficient Congress and not dismiss those participants who have prepared, the following general guidelines should be considered:

If you are simply going to express your position for or against the proposal, there is no need to exhaust Congress resources stating such. Your vote is all that is needed.

If you feel the need to pontificate in an attempt to sway Congress members to your point of view, please consider preparing your arguments well in advance of Congress. The online proposal system has ample provisions for you to express your views to officials, committees, commissions, and other voting members prior to Congress.

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If you have alternate proposals, the “what about …” conversations should occur prior to Congress.

On the subject of voting - please remember that an abstention is not a vote. It means the vote holder has no opinion and does not wish to represent the correspondence chess players of his or her federation in this matter. I can see some instances where after further discussion in Congress, a proxy holder may not have the information necessary to render an opinion of behalf of the proxy he or she is holding. However, for delegates with large numbers of abstentions, it raises the question of why is he or she attending Congress. A delegate is expected to represent his or her Federation players.

I hope that the new online proposal and voting system being implemented will eliminate many of the proxy abuses we all see, but tend to ignore. Perhaps delegates who are unable to attend Congress in person, yet wish to represent their players, will now have an avenue to cast their votes, versus handing over the reins to another voting member. The online system will hopefully reduce or eliminate the practice of trolling for proxy votes and encourage delegates to stand on their own.

Michael Millstone, PhDICCF General Secretary

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1 - Bertl von Massow Awards and Other Awards

The ICCF President outlined the background and criteria which applied for Bertl von Massow awards: - “Medals in Gold and Silver were awarded respectively for 15 and 10 years of faithful service to ICCF, as the Delegate of a National organisation, as Member of the Executive Board, Management Committee or Commissions, for Zonal organisations or as a Tournament Director, or as Team Captain of a winning or highly placed team in an Olympiad or Continental (Zonal) Team Tournament”.

The President Eric Ruch announced the names of officials that the ICCF Executive Board had agreed to receive Bertl von Massow awards in 2014. Each recipient (or their respective delegate) came forward to receive medals and certificates, with the acclamation of Congress.

Gold MedalNikolay Poleshchuk (RUS)

Silver MedalMichael Millstone (USA)Ian M. Pheby (ENG)Corky Schakel (USA)

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2 - Tournament Medals and Certificates – Awards Presentation

At the ICCF Congress 2015, the following tournament medals and certificates will be presented: -

World Champions Engraved Plates to:

26th World Champion – Langeveld, Ron A. H. (NED)

Olympiad 16 Final (postal)

Bronze France1 Lecroq, Michel FRA2 Serradimigni, Robert FRA3 Ménétrier, Manuel FRA4 Ruch, Eric FRA

TC Serradimigni, Robert FRA

Gold and silver medals were presented at the ICCF Congress 2014.

12th North American Pacific Zone Championship

Gold Holroyd, Kenneth USASilver Miettinen, Kristo S. USABronze Biedermann, Thomas USA

15th World Cup Final

Gold Šivic, Dr. Klemen SLOSilver Magalhães, Leonardo Guedes de BRABronze Punzón Moraleda, Jesús ESP

2nd Junior World Cup Final

Gold Tiemann, Christoph GERSilver Hintze, Emanuel GER

Bronze Polyakov, Daniil Dmitrievich RUS

1st Chess 960 World Cup (ICCF Diamond Jubilee)

Gold Stanach, Fabian POLSilver Židů, Jan CZE

Bronze Dźwikowski, Adam POL

25

Champions League 5

Silver The Underdogs II GER1 Moll, Reinhard GER2 Rook, Detlef GER3 Janzen, Norbert GER4 Piecusch, Ralf GER

TC Rook, Detlef GER

Bronze Zugzwang Bocholt 2 GER1 Neß, Heiko GER2 Sikorsky, Horst GER3 Raupach, Prof. Dr. Frank GER4 Hirr, Rudi GER

TC Brodda, Wolfgang GER

Gold medals were presented at the ICCF Congress 2014.

Grandmaster (GM) Titles awarded since the 2014 Congress

Applications under Rule 10.4 (c) - Medals/Certificates to be presented to:

CZE 139151 Stalmach, Kamil* GMLAT 910196 Avotinš, Maigonis GM

*Referred from 2014 - to be presented in 2015 in Cardiff!

SIM Titles awarded since the 2014 Congress

Applications under Rule 10.5 (a) - Medals/Certificates to be presented to:

ARG 180329 Mary, Patrick SIMBRA 70247 Maia, José Eduardo Bastos de Oliveira SIMBUL 50255 Vinchev, Simeon SIMFRA 181023 Pichelin, Xavier SIMGER 84833 Bock, Dr. Steffen SIMGER 85783 Müller, Ralf SIMISL 300204 Jónsson, Dađi Örn SIMLAT 910286 Istlajevs, Vladimirs SIMNCA 630073 González Pereira, Fabricio Orlando SIMRUS 141662 Fetisov, Aleksey Anatolievich SIMRUS 140416 Lednev, Valery Alekseevich SIMSVK 950263 Csjernyik, Ján SIMUSA 84497 Belka, Wieland SIMUSA 514859 Holroyd, Kenneth SIM

26

IM Titles awarded since the 2014 Congress

Applications under Rule 10.6 (d) - Medals/Certificates to be presented to:

AUS 30529 Dunlop, Gordon IMBLR 750235 Malashenkov, Alexei IMBRA 70640 Dutra, Alfredo IMBUL 50286 Tashkov, Rumen IMBUL 50558 Vasilev, Vasil IMCZE 131167 Kouba, Petr IMFRA 181075 Girard, Eric IMFRA 181023 Pichelin, Xavier IMGER 88473 Brömme, Steffen IMGER 89913 Daus, Peter IMGER 85838 Gebur, Thomas IMGER 84891 Hacker, Christian IMGER 85551 Herfurth, Thomas IMGER 85969 Neubauer, Dr. Ralf IMGER 82320 Sikorsky, Reinhard IMISL 300159 Ísólfsson, Eggert IMITA 241356 Delizia, Costantino IMITA 241274 Laghetti, Gaetano IMLAT 910321 Klimakovs, Sergejs IMLTU 920401 Korabliov, Aleksandr IMNED 371172 Burg, Twan IMNED 371088 Oudheusden, Willem Adrianus IMNOR 360553 Glørstad, Trond IMPOR 390342 Grego, Luís José Gonzaga IMROU 440319 Enescu, Constantin IMROU 440685 Pantazi, Adrian IMROU 440269 Pepene, Gheorghe IMRUS 141636 Abramov, Sergey Pavlovich IMRUS 142089 Beilin, Sergey Mikhailovich IMRUS 141470 Filipchenko, Vladimir Mikhailovich IMRUS 141528 Glukhovtsev, Sergey Olegovich IMRUS 141799 Ibragimov, Viktor Aroslanovich IMRUS 940350 Perevertkina, Irina Vladimirovna IMRUS 470175 Sukhareva, Olga Mikhailovna IMSLO 480273 Babič, Darko IMSLO 480249 Kosič, Branko IMSVK 950318 Poljak, Dušan IMTUR 490167 Esen, Nejdet IMUKR 940760 Bozyavkin, Anatoly IMUSA 514323 Kain, Tony IMUSA 514277 Williams, Thomas IMWLS 451416 Johansson, Thomas** IM

27

**See explanation belowWLS 451416 Johansson, Thomas IM

Thomas Johansson has achieved 2 IM Norms as follows: -

2010-10-19 Champions League 2010 C Group 2 (Category 1) with 10 out of 12. 2013-12-06 Champions League 2012 B2 (Category 9) with 7 out of 12.

He is therefore fully qualified for the IM Title.

Sweden has an active CC federation, but player was not a member of NF (SWE at that time) and as a result, there was no application from ND. Therefore, special application was submitted by me last year. Congress 2014 rejected that application.

Player formally became member of the Welsh Correspondence Federation in 2015. Then Welsh Federation submitted an application for this player again. Application was referred by me to the Congress approval. It was appealed by Welsh Federation. Appeals Committee (Other ICCF Rules) decided that this application is a "normal application" and the title was immediately awarded.

LGM Titles awarded since the 2014 Congress

Applications under Rule 10.7 (a)- Medals/Certificates to be presented to:

RUS 141811 Lisitcina, Maria Aleksandrovna LGM

Applications under Rule 10.7 (c) Medals/Certificates to be presented to:

GER 85938 Bolz, Barbara LGMRUS 142034 Dmitrieva, Galina Vladimirovna LGMSLO 480141 Horvat, Anica LGM

LIM Titles awarded since the 2014 Congress

Applications under Rule 10.8 (c) - Medals/Certificates to be presented to:

CZE 130499 Babulová, Mariola LIMGER 85160 Schludecker, Elke LIMROU 440554 Mihai, Laura Cristina LIMRUS 142143 Tryufilkina, Elena Aleksandrovna LIMUKR 940900 Moyseenko, Tetiana LIM

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[VOTE] - Approval of the 2014 Congress Minutes

Code MF Yes No ABS NP MemberAUS Australia 1 Brian JonesAUT Austria 1 Uwe StaroskeBLR Belarus 1 Sergey GrodzenskiyBRA Brazil 1 Gino FiglioBUL Bulgaria 1 Russell SherwoodCAN Canada 1 Corky SchakelCPV Cape Verde 1 Andrew DearnleyCRO Croatia 1 Josef MrkvičkaCUB Cuba 1 Fritz Baumbach (E-Mail Votes)CZE Czech Republic 1 Josef MrkvičkaDEN Denmark 1 Søren OttesenENG England 1 Andrew DearnleyESP Spain 1 Ulrich BaumgartnerEST Estonia 1 Pertti LehikoinenFIN Finland 1 Pertti LehikoinenFRA France 1 Eric RuchGER Germany 1 Uwe StaroskeHKG Hong Kong 1 Everdinand KnolHUN Hungary 1 Fritz BaumbachIND India 1 Ambar ChatterjeeIRL Ireland 1 Timothy HardingISL Iceland 1 Everdinand KnolISR Israel 1 Eric RuchITA Italy 1 Gianni MastrojeniLAT Latvia 1 Artis GaujensLTU Lithuania 1 Marijonas RočiusLUX Luxembourg 1 Ulrich BaumgartnerNCA Nicaragua 1 Guy José Bendaña GuerreroNED The Netherlands 1 Willem OudheusdenNOR Norway 1 Raymond BogerNZL New Zealand 1 Brian JonesPER Peru 1 Gino FiglioPOL Poland 1 Mariusz WojnarPOR Portugal 1 Eric RuchROU Romania 1 Gianni MastrojeniRSA South Africa 1 Everdinand KnolRUS Russia 1 Sergey GrodzenskiySCO Scotland 1 George PyrichSLO Slovenia 1 Marjan ŠemrlSUI Switzerland 1 Ulrich BaumgartnerSVK Slovakia 1 Ján HelbichSWE Sweden 1 George PyrichTUR Turkey 1 E-Mail Votes SubmittedUKR Ukraine 1 Iurii KoshmakUSA United States of America 1 Corky SchakelVEN Venezuela 1 Gino FiglioWLS Wales 1 Russell Sherwood

Subtotal: 47 42 0 4 1

Needed for Majority 21.0

29

The Congress Minutes of 2014 were approved and signed by ICCF President, Eric Ruch (FRA) and ICCF General Secretary, Michael Millstone (USA).

30

5 - Membership Matters

Michael Millstone - General Secretary

Dismissals and Suspensions

ICCF General Secretary, Michael Millstone (USA) reported the following Member Federations were suspended in 2014 for non-payment of dues:

None

Additions

There were no inquiries or action from any potential new Member Federations.

31

6 - Elections

Elections to the Executive Board and the ICCF Auditor were conducted. As we had no Honorary President’s or non-biased Honorary Members present, the Executive Board identified three Congress participants who could perform the job of scrutineer without bias. The EB recommended:

Marco Caressa (Lead Scrutineer) Gerhard Binder Nikolay Poleshchuk

Unfortunately, Nikolay was not present during the elections, so the EB asked Congress to accept Marco and Gerhard as the scrutineers. Congress agreed with no objections. One Federation (Cuba) submitted their votes via e-mail. A ballot was completed on their behalf and handed to the ICCF Auditor who verified the ballot and placed it in the ballot box.

The winners of the election were:

Eric Ruch (FRA) - President Michael Millstone (USA) - General Secretary George Pyrich (SCO) - Finance Director Frank Geider (FRA) - World Tournament Director Andrew Dearnley (ENG) - Marketing Director Austin Lockwood (WLS) - Services Director Josef Mrkvička (CZE) - Auditor

As specified in the statutes and election documentation, elections will be conducted by each Zonal Director immediately after Congress to elect a Zonal Director, which will also serve on the Executive Board, effective January 1, 2016.

32

7 - Finance Director

7a - Financial Report

Dear friends and delegates,

Happily, I am able to join you all again following my absence last year!

ICCF Financial Accounts 2014

Delegates are requested to note the audited Financial Accounts for 2014 contained within the document “ICCF Accounts 2014” distributed separately. Delegates are also requested to note the deficit for the year of 37,985.11 EUR resulting in a reduction to the Capital Account to 275,188.60 EUR. Delegates are respectfully requested to approve these Accounts.

Delegates are also requested to note also that the deficit recorded during 2014 is higher by some 23,855 EUR than that anticipated in the Financial Plan for 2014, (14,130 EUR). Income received during 2014 fell by 14,763.63 EUR (some 15.6%) over the previous year but Expenditure over the same period rose by 48,261.18 EUR (69.1%). In consideration of these figures it should be remembered however that the actual surplus during 2013 (25,191 EUR) was higher by some 20,071 EUR than the figure projected in the Financial Plan (5,120 EUR). Further comparisons reveal an increase in Expenditure over the previous year in respect of Webserver Maintenance of some 14,500 EUR and, despite a small reduction in tournament entry numbers, a reduction of almost 15,000 EUR in overall Income following the reduction in fees from 1 January 2014. The largest item of Expenditure listed is that in respect of Congress Allowances (reimbursement of expenses paid to officials travelling to last year's congress in Australia) although it should be noted that the expenditure incurred came very close to that budgeted.

ICCF Tournament Fees

Delegates will be aware of reductions of Tournament Fees of some 20% effective from 1 January 2014 as approved at the 2013 Congress in Krakow. Despite the deficit sustained in 2014 I consider that, mindful of the Auditor’s recommendation that measures be taken in order to reduce our very substantial accumulated funds, we may wish to consider a further reduction in fees although more modest than that approved in 2013. Whilst Appendices A, B & C (Appendix C is perhaps a little misleading as Zones 2 & 4 organise only Zone Championships and not Promotion tournaments) at the end of this report confirm a very small overall reduction in tournament entries during 2014 we should be able to look forward to an increase in 2015 when will have a new World Cup as well as Champions League and Olympiad events. We should also be mindful that numbers of direct entries continue to increase (an increase in the daily average of 6.23 during 2014 and 6.40 to date in 2015).

Mindful of these considerations I propose selective reductions to our fees directed in the main to those events most popular amongst our players and effective from 1 January 2016 as listed in Appendix D.

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“Free Entries” at Discretion of Zone Directors

Several years ago the Congress approved a scheme whereby each of the 4 Zone Directors were granted discretion to submit up to 20 entries annually to ICCF events on behalf of players from their Zones “free of charge” in order to promote increased activity.

Unfortunately, the response to this scheme has been poor with a total of 10 such entries during 2013 and only 3 during 2014. In view of this situation, Congress may now wish to reconsider its continuing support for this scheme.

For information, I can confirm that 58 new players took up free entry on offer in the 6th Web Chess Open event.

ICCF Fees per Annual Statement of Accounts

As a condition of ICCF membership, all Member Federations are obliged to arrange prompt payment of the membership fees and tournament charges imposed as per the Annual Statement of Accounts. I am pleased to report to Congress that, with 3 exceptions, all fees due for 2013 were paid timeously and that to date (29 June) only 5 Federations have yet make payment in respect of fees for 2014. Consequently, the ICCF General Secretary will not be required to impose any sanctions in terms of withdrawal of voting rights and tournament entry entitlements.

George PyrichICCF Finance Director

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7b - Financial Accounts

- Appendix A – Summary of Postal Entries2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

Postal Entries

World Ch.Final 1

World Ch. Cand.

World Ch. SF. 13

World Ch. Prelim.

World - Master 57 45 29 30 38 25

World - Higher 28 13 18 20 27 29

World - Open 58 36 36 48 35 37

Olympiads 24

World Cup 99

Thematics 46 50 43 30 41 30

MN Events 13 14

202 172 249 128 141 121

35

Appendix B – Summary of Server Entries2011 2012 2013 2014

NF DE Total NF DE Total NF DE Total NF DE TotalWorld Ch. Final 28 0 28 0 0 0

World Ch. Cand. 78 0 78 48 0 48 49 3 52 37 7 44World Ch. SF. 201 5 206 136 7 143 138 5 143 98 19 117World Ch. Prelim. 201 10 211 199 26 225 175 12 187 165 30 195Ladies World Ch. SF. 30 0 30

World - Master 514 132 646 435 149 584 406 167 573 372 172 544World - Higher 240 110 350 242 129 371 249 157 406 169 160 329World - Open 275 327 602 309 329 638 347 458 805 231 314 545

World - Aspirers 11 24 35 129 46 175

Olympiads 46 46 0 0

World Cup 621 227 848 0 719 282 1001 0 0 0

Thematics 139 40 179 109 70 179 112 70 182 92 70 162Master Norm 150 34 184 123 60 183 141 68 209 117 66 183GM Norm 65 25 90 34 18 52 23 29 52 27 39 66

Ch. League 179 46 225 0 0

Vets. WC 347 56 403 378 90 468 446 96 542 331 84 415

Junior WC 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

WS Open 0 0 0 423 215 638 0 586 383 969

DE5A 0 360 360 0 0 0

Chess 960 WC 61 39 100

Chess 960 80 23 103 6 14 20 53 34 87 29 21 50

2,939 1,349 4,288 2,667 1,153 3,820 2,869 1,405 4,274 2,474 1,450 3,924

Appendix C – Entries to Individual Events (Server & Postal)Total Entries Received - ICCF & Zone Events

ICCF Zone 1 Zone 2 Zone 3 Zone 4 TOTAL

2013 4,418 173 13 219 66 4,889

2014 4,045 347 0 299 70 4,761

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Appendix D – Proposed Fee Structure 1 January 2016

2015 2016

2015 Current2016 %

ChangeRebate to NF's

Rebate to NF'sProposed

Event Type Fee DE Fee DE

Olympiad Team Preliminaries (per player) 15.00

22.50

15.00

22.50 0% 11.25 11.25

Champions League (per team and cycle) (DE only) 30.00

45.00

30.00

45.00 0% 22.50 22.50

World Individual Candidates (as first stage entry) 15.00

22.50

15.00

22.50 0% 11.25 11.25

World Individual Semifinals and Preliminaries 25.00

37.50

25.00

37.50 0% 18.75 18.75

World Individual Ladies Semi-final 12.00

18.00

12.00

18.00 0% 9.00 9.00

World Individual Tourneys 7-player 4.00 6.00 3.50 5.25 13% 3.00 2.63

World Individual Tourneys 11-player 7.00 10.50 6.00 9.00 14% 5.25 4.50

World Cup 10.00

15.00 9.00 13.5

0 10% 7.50 6.75

Thematic Tourneys 7.00 10.50 6.00 9.00 14% 5.25 4.50

Master Norm Tourneys 20.00

30.00

20.00

30.00 0% 15.00 15.00

Grand Master Norm Tourneys 25.00

37.50

25.00

37.50 0% 18.75 18.75

Veterans Cup 10.00

15.00 9.00 13.5

0 10% 7.50 6.75

Webserver Open 5.00 7.50 4.00 6.00 20% 3.75 3.00

Chess 960 7.00 10.50 6.00 9.00 14% 5.25 4.50

Invitation Tourneys Category I-III (per game) 1.25 0.75 40%

Invitation Tourneys Category IV-VI (per game) 2.50 1.75 30%

Invitation Tourneys Category VII-XIII (per game) 3.00 2.50 17%

Invitation Tourneys Category XIV+ (per game) 3.50 3.00 14%

Invitation Team Tourneys (per player) 2.00 1.50 25%

International Open Tourneys (per entry) 5.00 4.00 20%

Zonal Events (per game) 0.50 0.50 0%

National Federation events (per game) 0.50 0.50 0%

37

Net Assets Capital Net Assets CapitalCapitalAccumulated Fund 306,773.67 283,149.29Appreciation of Investments 6,400.04 4,984.72Profit & Loss -37,985.11 25,039.70Sub-Total - Capital 275,188.60 313,173.71

Intangible AssetsWebserver Development 2004 81,917.05 81,917.05Webserver Development 2005 19,415.03 19,415.03Webserver Development 2006 12,189.19 12,189.19Webserver Development 2007 5,071.68 5,071.68Webserver Development 2008 4,667.86 4,667.86Webserver Development 2009 4,632.37 4,632.37Webserver Development 2010 8,332.50 8,332.50Webserver Development 2011 21,353.75 21,353.75Webserver Development 2012 11,563.75 11,563.75Webserver Development 2013 23,003.75 23,003.75Webserver Development 2014 18,510.00 0.00Depreciation Webserver -173,150.43 -156,597.68 Sub-Total - Net Intangible Assets 37,506.50 35,549.25

InvestmentsPortfolio at Credit Lyonnais 30,289.91 23,889.87Sub-Total - Investments 30,289.91 23,889.87

StocksMedals 1,506.27 1,506.27Prizes 3,874.41 3,874.41Sub-Total - Stocks 5,380.68 5,380.68

ReceivablesMember FederationsICCF ZonesSub-Total - Receivables 38,733.65 53,590.82

PrepaymentsCongress 2014 0.00 6,754.36Other Meetings 543.66 0.00

Sub-Total - Prepayments 543.66 6,754.36

LiabilitiesSuppliers -1,606.81 -1,730.56 Officials -350.91 -544.90 Tournament Directors -530.98 -431.88 ICCF Congress 2014 -2,175.41 0.00ICCF EU -748.85 -5,507.84 Prizes Deferred -33,914.36 -21,548.36 Accounts Payable Member Federations -3,352.29 -2,565.66 Sub-Total - Liabilities -42,679.61 -32,329.20

Sub-Total - Net Current Assets 1,978.38 33,396.66

Bank AccountsCredit Lyonnais - Current 3,476.89 5,657.46Credit Lyonnais - Savings 189,294.74 209,494.17PayPal FRA 642.53 1,254.41RBS Perth Scotland 11,999.65 3,931.89Sub-Total - Bank Accounts 205,413.81 220,337.93

TOTAL 275,188.60 275,188.60 313,173.71 313,173.71

38,733.65

2014 - Euros 2013 - Euros

Balance Sheet as at 31st December 2014

53,590.82

38

2014 - Euros 2013 - EurosMembership 5,325.00 5,325.00

967.46 523.003,458.94 3,864.635,222.89 6,249.515,782.97 8,234.944,553.09 6,154.131,811.99 2,162.404,390.13 6,138.411,845.88 1,708.50

World Cup 0.00 13,648.034,506.46 7,154.055,188.65 0.00

313.18 196.40Chess 960 World Cup 1,073.58 1,020.24

Zone 1 Individual Events 3,980.52 1,651.88Zone 3 Individual Events 2,562.20 1,611.97

755.00 204.002,372.50 2,322.004,023.00 7,227.50

843.50 856.00208.00 165.00

International Open Tournaments 625.00 0.00Server Games - National Federations 7,157.50 8,399.40Server Games - Zone 1 4,190.00 1,771.20Server Games - Zone 2 0.00 46.80Server Games - Zone 3 635.00 484.80Server Games - Zone 4 105.00 342.00

Bank Interest 8,173.68 7,292.96Donations 0.00 80.00

80,071.12 94,834.75

Invitation Team Tmts.

Chess 960

Invitation Tmts Cat.I-III Invitation Tmts Cat.IV-VI

Veterans World CupICCF Webserver Open

Invitation Tmts Cat.VII-XIII Invitation Tmts Cat.XIV+

World individual 11 playerThematicMaster NormGrand Master Norm

World individual 7 player

Profit and Loss Account for the year ended 31st December 2014

INCOME

World individual candidatesWorld individual semifinalWorld individual preliminary

39

2014 - Euros 2013 - Euros

Congress - Payment to Organisers 5,000.00 5,000.00Congress - Banquet 2,925.41 2,975.47Congress - Other Expenditure 978.92 1,537.19Other Meetings 4,212.14 0.00Officials 140.38 572.56Congress Allowances 29,497.32 9,874.33

World Tourn. Office 516.90 517.10Thematic Tourn. Office 166.30 50.60

DE Rebates to NF's 7,612.75 9,719.25DE Rebates - Zone 1 4,136.25 1,614.50DE Rebates - Zone 3 1,946.25 1,627.50

ICCF Marketing 326.01 800.00Rating Costs 233.64 233.64Prizes 12,116.43 6,325.00Trophies, Medals & Books 2,130.50 1,221.89Webserver Maintenance 26,634.57 12,170.41Server Testing 2,063.03 0.00Other expenditure 403.78 68.94Adjustment from Previous Years -295.49 273.00Exchange Differences 0.00 500.64Debt Written Off 0.00 266.04Bank Charges 653.39 526.81Webserver Depreciation 16,552.75 13,777.22Support to Zone 4 (free entries) 105.00 342.00Allowance for Bad Debts -199.04

118,056.23 69,795.05Surplus/Deficit -37,985.11 25,039.70

80,071.12 94,834.75

EXPENDITURE

Profit and Loss Account for the year ended 31st December 2014

40

Zone 1 Zone 2 Zone 3 Zone 4

No. of WS games 2,952 78 808 570No. of new WS events 58 1 33 10No. of Direct Entries 173 - 217 -

Entry Fees paid via PayPal € 1,651.88 - € 1,611.97 -Refunded to Zones € 1,614.50 - € 1,627.50 -

€ 37.38 -€ 15.53

Variations caused by fluctuations in Fees imposed by PayPal

Zone 1 Zone 2 Zone 3 Zone 4

No. of WS games 8,380 1,270 210No. of new WS events 160 50 10No. of Direct Entries 346 - 299 -

Entry Fees paid via PayPal € 3,980.52 - € 2,562.20 -Refunded to Zones € 4,136.25 - € 1,946.25 -

-€ 155.73 € 615.95

Variations caused by fluctuations in Fees imposed by PayPal

Zones Summary 2013

Zones Summary 2014

The GS asked if the practice of allowing the Zonal Directors’ a certain number of free entries per year was still being exercised and proving to be beneficial. While the numbers of free entries granted in each zone is far less than the maximum, several ZD’s felt it was still a good idea and Congress indicated the desire to continue this practice (without voting).

As part of the FD Report, there was a proposal to reduce tournament fees selectively as described in Appendix D of the FD Report. A vote was called in which Spain was the only dissenting member; however, no explanation was forthcoming from the Spanish delegate proxy holder.

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[VOTE] - Proposal for a Selective Reduction of Tournament Fees (FD Report 2, Appendix D)


Subtotal: 47 45 1 0 1


42

7c - Auditor Report

Introduction

I, Josef Mrkvička, ICCF Auditor have audited the financial statements of the International Correspondence Chess Federation (thereinafter “ICCF”), which comprise the Balance Sheet as at 31st December, 2014, and the Profit & Loss Statement for the year then ended. These audited financial statements form part of the Finance Director’s Report to this Congress.

ICCF Executive Board’s Responsibility for the Financial Statements

The ICCF Executive Board, in particular the ICCF Finance Director George Pyrich, is responsible for the preparation and true and fair view of these financial statements. This responsibility includes designing, implementing and maintaining internal control relevant to the preparation and fair presentation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error; selecting and applying appropriate accounting policies, and making accounting estimates that are reasonable in the circumstances.

Auditor’s Responsibility

My responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements based upon my audit. I have conducted my audit in accordance with the International Standards on Auditing, where appropriated and/or applicable. Those standards require that I comply with ethical requirements and plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance whether the financial statements are free from material misstatement.

An audit involves performing procedures to obtain audit evidence about the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. The procedures selected depend on the auditor’s judgment. An audit also includes evaluating the appropriateness of accounting policies used and the reasonableness of accounting estimates made by the ICCF Finance Director, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements.

I set the level of materiality at EUR 17.00, which is the usual limit from which receipts are required for a cost reimbursement.

Audit Procedures Performed

I performed the following audit procedures:

I checked if all ledger accounts had been opened by correct opening balances, equalling to closing balances as at 31st December 2013.

I checked the formal correctness of all book entries made on various ledger accounts during the year 2014.

I checked if the closing balances of ledger accounts as at 31st December 2014 had been allocated correctly to particular items of the Balance Sheet and the Profit & Loss Statement.

I compared the issued MF’s Statements of Accounts for the year 2014 with the respective book entries.

In a detailed way, I analysed the accounts receivables and accounts payables as at 31st December 2014.

I checked the vouchers and bank statements provided by the Finance Director and compared them with the respective book entries in the Day Book.

43

The discovered discrepancies were submitted to the Finance Director, together with my proposals how these should be rectified. I am pleased to report that all my proposals were welcomed and accepted by the Finance Director, and that appropriate adjustments were made in the final version of the Financial Statements.

Material Findings

After many years with reported profits, ICCF was to report a significant loss amounting to € 37 985.11 in the business year 2014. There are many reasons for this result, such as: - a drop in income from tournament fees, partly resulting from their reduction as from

1.1.2014 (a decrease by almost € 18 000); moreover, there were some important cash bringing tournaments which were not started in 2014, such as World Cup and Champions League;

- an increase of server maintenance costs by almost € 14 500 resulting from major server updates performed in 2014;

- An (expected) increase of congress allowances for ICCF Officers amounting to € 19 600, caused by the high flying costs to Australia.

I suppose that a more detailed analysis will be provided by the Finance Director in his Report.

Despite this apparently bad financial result, the cash position of ICCF only decreased by less than a half in comparison with the reported loss, from € 220 337.93 in 2013 to € 205 413.81 in 2014. This means that a significant part of the costs producing the loss were indirect costs which did not and do not jeopardize ICCF’s solvency.

Again, there were some Member Federations in creditors’ positions towards ICCF. During the year 2014, the total credit increased from 2.5 thousand euro to 3.3 thousand euro and was reported as a liability of ICCF to Member Federations.

The payment culture of Member Federations remained satisfactory and the ICCF Finance Director did not have to impose any interest surcharges for late payments in the last year. No new allowances for bad debts needed to be created in the financial year 2014.

Again, there was a positive development in the market value of the ICCF investments, which increased during the year by € 6 400.04, more than in 2013.

As the Finance Director followed my recommendation from my last year’s report and transferred in time the Zone 1 funds to the Zone 1 bank account, the ICCF’s debt towards Zone 1 significantly decreased at the end of the year 2014. Consequently, the ICCF’s cash position is no longer significantly influenced by the funds, which do not belong to ICCF. I remind you that this situation arose as the Zone 1 Member Federations were allowed to pay for their ICCF and Zone 1 Statements by one payment to the ICCF bank account.

Despite the abovementioned decrease in the year 2014, the ICCF’s cash position remains strong and sound.

Some other material findings:- Concerning the ICCF banquet, ICCF failed to note immediately that the CCLA had

failed to bill ICCF for this. Whilst ICCF had nevertheless sought to arrange payment, it failed to note that our request submitted to our bank to arrange this had not acted upon. Therefore, the amount of € 2 175.41 (€ 2 925.41 less € 750,00 for a double payment, see below) had to be accounted for as ICCF’s debt towards CCLA.

- A double payment of € 750.00 to CCLA occurred with regard to the Zone 1 support to ICCF Congress 2014 in Sydney. The amount was transferred both from the Zone 1 account (correctly as a prepayment in 2013) and the ICCF current account (mistakenly in April 2014). The Finance Director has clarified this issue with CCLA in 2015.

- Owing to a misunderstanding with regard to payment of congress allowances, a duplicate payment was made to one official. The situation was rectified when, upon discovery, the amount overpaid was immediately returned to ICCF.

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Recommendations and Proposals

In my last year’s report, I argued that the financial year 2014 would be critical for further financial decisions, as this would be the first year which would show the impact of the reduction of start fees as from 1.1.2014 on the ICCF’s income and profit. Now, given the unfavourable financial results achieved in the year 2014, I do not recommend a further reduction of fees.

On the other part, ICCF has already organized and still will organize some big cash bringing tournaments in the year 2015 (such as Champions League, World Cup, and Veterans World Cup). Moreover, the congress allowances paid to ICCF Officers for the Congress in Cardiff surely will be lower than those for Sydney will. Consequently, I can speculate that the financial result of 2015 could be significantly better.

Finally, ICCF should seek to clarify the risk resulting from its possible liability to pay VAT and/or other taxes as soon as is possible; if necessary and appropriate, to engage a professional tax advisor for this purpose.

Other than this, I should only like to add that ICCF’s finances continue to enjoy a healthy condition.

Conclusions – Auditor’s Opinion

I believe that the audit evidence I have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for my audit opinion.

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Opinion

In my opinion, the financial statements give a true and fair view of assets, liabilities and accumulated fund of ICCF as of 31 December 2014, and of costs and earnings for the year then ended.

Finally, I should like to express my appreciation of the dedicated and good work of the Finance Director, George Pyrich, during the whole year 2014 and also to express my thanks to him for his perfect co-operation during the course of this audit.

AMICI SUMUS!

Date of preparation:27th June 2015

Name and address of the Auditor:Josef MrkvičkaHouškova 32326 00 Plzeň, Czech Republic

Auditor’s signature:

Following presentation of the Auditor’s report, there was a continued discussion of ICCF’s liability to pay VAT and/or other taxes. Eric has made inquiries on the matter (prompted from last year’s discussion), has not heard back yet, but will continue to check.

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[VOTE] - Proposal to Approve the Finance Director Report


Subtotal: 47 46 0 0 1


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[VOTE] - Proposal 002 - Expense Reimbursement

A discussion about Proposal 002 - “Effective, January 1, 2016, ICCF should reimburse identified officials a fair and equitable rate for expenses incurred while conducting official ICCF business.” was initiated. Several delegates commented that they did not think ICCF should spend extra money on volunteers to cover their expenses while conducting official business on behalf of ICCF. Others offered that any extra money could be used for … (something else?). After some discussion, it was evident that most delegates did not take the time to examine and analyse the proposal in advance of Congress, so it was decided to form a Working Group to cover all things financial and report to Congress with proposals for next year. The Working Group (001) charter is:

Provide impact of approving Proposal ICCF 2015-002 Calculate a new scheme, if necessary, for adoption of Proposal ICCF 2015-002 With a given budget, define how to run a Congress differently with goals of more efficiency

and more participants.

Working Group 001 Members

George Pyrich (Chair) Andrew Dearnley Michael Millstone Willem Adrianus Oudheusden Ulrich Baumgartner

Therefore, Proposal ICCF 1015-002 was withdrawn.

8b - Financial Plan

The financial plan was displayed to all delegates and officials. Significant changes and the reasons why were explained to all. Due to the sensitive nature of the document, the Financial Plan will not be distributed.

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8c - Direct EntryIan M Pheby

Direct Entry [email protected]

[email protected]

Report to the 2015 CongressDirect Entry Programme

22nd June 2015

Dear Chessfriends,

Introduction

I am pleased to submit my fourth report as Direct Entry Commissioner to the 2015 ICCF Congress regarding the Direct Entry Programme. The period of this report will be from the programme start on 5th April 2006 through to 31st May 2015.

Direct Entry Programme

The Direct Entry Programme enables players to register for ICCF events subject to holding the appropriate qualifications for that event by making a payment through PayPal. Unfortunately, some countries are not part of the Direct Entry Programme; I sincerely hope that they join as soon as possible.

The Programme benefits from the automation of the process for entries on the webserver. This process is being continually reviewed to seek possible improvements, and I extend my thanks to all those involved in ensuring this system works so efficiently.

I am pleased to report that the Direct Entry Programme has received its 11,000th eligible entry in January 2015. Since its introduction in 2006, the programme has received an average of about 106 entries per month. The greatest number of entries in a month was in May 2014 when 341 entries were received.

Information about the Direct Entry Programme

From January to December 2014, 2273 entries for ICCF tournaments were registered, that is 6.23 entries per day, representing an increase of about 25% compared with 2013 (1816 entries, 4.98 per day). This is to date a record number of entries in a year. However, from January to May 2015 a total of 966 entries were registered, that is 6.40 entries per day. We are therefore well on the way to breaking the record set in 2014.

Appendix 1 contains details of the entries to the varied tournaments available by Direct Entry, and the level of activity in each tournament.

Rejected Entries

Unfortunately, there are occasions when the Direct Entry Office has to reject entries, and this can occur for a variety of reasons. Whilst a small number of rejections can be expected, 2014

49

saw a very large number of rejections, some 129 in total, which is far too many. Appendix 2 contains details of these rejections.

Delegates are kindly requested to remind those players within their Federation of their need to be qualified to enter the event of their choice. The qualification criteria for the various events appear on the webserver. It would save the players’ disappointment and the Direct Entry Office a lot of work if the number of rejections could be dramatically reduced.

Direct Entry 5th Webserver Anniversary Tournament

To celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Direct Entry Programme, a tournament was organized by Jean-Christophe Chazalette (FRA). The current situation is that the final is taking place with play officially having started on 5th April 2014. The final is a Category VIII event contested by 15 players, and play will cease on 5th April 2016. The prizes for the event are:

1st prize: DE 5th Anniversary Tournament trophy, plus 450 €

2nd prize: 330 €

3rd prize: 220 €

By winning their semi-final groups, the following players are each entitled to 3 free entries in any Direct Entry tournament of their choice. The free entries must be used before 31 st March, 2016:

ICCF NUMBER NAME FEDERATION

181193 Broudin, Melissa FRA390491 Pessoa, Francisco Azevedo POR141826 Terekhov, Andrey Andreevich RUS100129 Terreaux, Gilles SUI142089 Beilin, Sergey Mikhailovich RUS371050 Westera, Bert NED380073 Noble, Mark F. NZL

To date, only three free entries have been used. I have contacted these players individually to remind them of their entitlement.

Direct Entry 10th Webserver Anniversary Tournament

I have proposed to hold a 10th Webserver Anniversary tournament to celebrate 10 years since the start of the Direct Entry Programme in April 2006. Should my proposal receive the necessary support, an announcement seeking entries will be made later in 2015 with a view to start the preliminary groups on 5th April 2016, the 10th anniversary of the Direct Entry Programme.

Appreciation

I wish to thank:

Jean-Christophe Chazalette (FRA) for his continued organization of DE5A. All Tournament Organisers for their continued support of the Direct Entry Office and the

Programme.

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All National Federations with whom the Direct Entry Office has had contact for their cooperation.

----------------------------

It has been and continues to be an honour to serve the ICCF as Direct Entry Commissioner, and I hope to continue to serve the ICCF for many years as your Direct Entry Commissioner.

Ian M PhebyDirect Entry Commissioner

-------0-------

ICCF thanked Ian for his excellent job as Direct Entry Commissioner.

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Appendix 1 – Entries to Direct Entry Programme

2006* 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015**

DE Applications 393 728 821 1038 1070 1368 1260 1816 2273 966Average Applications per day 1.46 1.99 2.25 2.84 2.93 3.75 3.44 4.98 6.23 6.40

World ChampionshipsWCCC - Preliminaries 3 6 23 10 3 10 33 28 30 32WCCC - Semifinals 1 2 5 2 1 5 7 12 18 25WCCC - Candidates 1 6 10 6 1 0 0 4 7 0LWCCC - Semifinals N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 1 0 0 0 0World CupsWorld Cups 47 N/A N/A 95 N/A 224 1 279 0 22Veterans World Cups N/A N/A N/A 28 47 56 85 99 79 33Junior World Cup N/A N/A 6 N/A N/A 1 1 0 0 0Chess 960 N/R N/R N/R N/R N/R N/R N/R 23 43 42European ChampionshipsServer Championship Open N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 33 169 97

Server Championship Preliminaries N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 15 114 53

Server Championship Semifinals N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 5 0 42 0

Server Championship Candidates N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 11 7

Postal Championship Open N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 2 7 1

Postal Championship Semifinals N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 2 3 1

Norm TournamentsGrandmaster Norm 3 6 8 9 19 30 13 25 26 10Master Norm 8 16 22 18 25 39 53 78 66 17Champions LeagueChampions League N/A 103 N/A 166 N/A 0 47 0 0 47Promotion TournamentsEuropean Open Class N/R N/R N/R N/R N/R N/R N/R 56 0 0European Higher Class N/R N/R N/R N/R N/R N/R N/R 28 0 0European Master Class N/R N/R N/R N/R N/R N/R N/R 37 0 0NAPZ Open Class N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 123 191 78NAPZ Higher Class N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 45 65 30NAPZ Master Class N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 48 43 35World Open Class 174 324 313 292 338 302 395 444 323 139World Higher Class 39 56 88 153 93 116 158 166 176 71World Master Class 45 66 63 63 89 137 173 165 186 97World Postal Open N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 12 5

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ClassWorld Postal Higher Class N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 1 2

World Postal Master Class N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 4 3

ThematicsThematics 11 30 14 22 47 73 59 63 95 35Jubilee TournamentsJubilee 960-1 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 23 0 0 0 0Direct Entry EventsDE5A N/A N/A N/A N/A 139 350 0 0 0 0Money Prize TournamentsMoney Prize Tournaments N/A 113 169 131 102 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A

Fast Money Prize N/A N/A N/A 25 34 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/ARapid TournamentsRapid Tournaments N/A N/A 4 10 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/ABlitz TournamentsBlitz Tournaments N/A N/A 7 8 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/AOpen TournamentsAspirer N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 28 146 63Webchess Open 61 N/A 89 N/A 132 0 216 0 384 0Chess 960 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 1 14 13 32 13NAPZ Chess 960 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 8

* From 05/04/2006 to 31/12/2006

** From 01/01/2015 to 31/05/2015

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Appendix 2 – Rejected Entries in 2014

COUNTRY TOTALArgentina 2Australia 7Austria 2Belarus 1Canada 6Croatia 1Cuba 1

Denmark 2England 13Finland 1France 15

Germany 9Israel 3Italy 4

Latvia 1Mexico 1

Netherlands 2Norway 1Panama 1

Philippines 1Poland 2

Portugal 1Romania 1Russia 10

South Africa 1Switzerland 2

Tunisia 2Turkey 3USA 33

129

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REASONS FOR REJECTION TOTAL

Already entered event 4

Entered tournament after closing date 1

No qualification 23

Not eligible for EU events 14

Not eligible for NAPZ events 18

Player requested cancellation - did not mean to enter that event 23

Qualification already used 3

Quoted a qualification of winning an event when only in first place of an unfinished event 1

Player suspended 5

Rating too high 16

Rating too low 18

Tournament Organiser declined entry 3

129

-------0-------

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9 - Title Qualifications

Introduction

Welcome to my second report as ICCF Qualifications Commissioner.

At the beginning, I would like to reflect to the past.

ICCF Titles & ICCF Qualifications CommissionersIn its early days, ICCF created two international titles and then later introduced further titles. It awards the international grandmaster (GM) and international master (IM) titles from 1953, international arbiter (IA) titles from 1966, lady international master (LIM) titles from 1975, lady grandmaster (LGM) titles from 1990, and senior international masters (SIM) from 1998. More details can be found in the webbook "Celebrating 60 years of the ICCF" at page "ICCF Titleholders.”

It might be interesting to know previous ICCF Qualifications Commissioners.Chairmen of the Qualifications Commission were: until 1983 - Horst Rittner (GER) and until 1996 - A. A. (Nol) van 't Riet (NED).

In 1996, functions of the Qualifications Commission had been reallocated (tournament rules, tournaments, and awards of titles) and Qualifications Commissioner (awards of titles) should be able to do the job alone.

From To QC Name Fed1996 2003 George Pyrich SCO2003 2008 Eric Ruch FRA2008 2009 Ron Langeveld NED2009 2013 Neil Limbert ENG2013 Mariusz Wojnar POL

One of my most important duties is to propose improvement of rules and regulations. With this report let me submit few proposals.

Tournament Rules Revision(Input mostly editorial nature)Last year in my report to the congress I presented my findings after extensive revision of basic document for QC, which is Tournament Rules. It was agreed by delegates that my input would be considered by current congress meeting. In attached document (Appendix 1), I proposed specific wording in order to de-conflict internal inconsistencies in few paragraphs. I included also procedure for the award of titles.

The QC asks Congress to accept proposed input.

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[VOTE] - Proposal - Changes to Tournament Rules Document


Subtotal: 47 38 3 4 2


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Tournament Rules - Project for Revised Norm Calculations In 2014, I attempted to reproduce the norm table, but found that although I could reproduce most of the values in the table, there appeared to be several errors. This was highlighted in my report to congress last year. Congress agreed that a corrected version of the norm table would apply to title tournaments starting from 1.1.2015 following verification.

Unfortunately, further problems were subsequently discovered with the methodology. As the original calculations were not documented, it became clear that to reproduce the tables and correct any errors would be an impossible task.

The Executive Board, therefore, decided to continue with the previous norm calculations from 1.1.2015 rather than confuse the issue any further.

These problems were reason that ICCF Services Director Austin Lockwood and me were looking for solution. Researching the issue, we exchanged hundreds e-mails, made numerous simulations and consultations. The result of that is proposal submitted by both of us under ICCF 2015-019: Revised Norm Calculations. See details in Appendix 2.

Proposal covers two phases:

Phase One, Method Development and Documentation (August 2015 to Spring 2016). Appendix II of the ICCF tournament rules will be rewritten based on solid statistical principles and in consultation with a professional statistician. This document will be presented to ICCF Congress in 2016 for ratification.

Phase Two, Implementation (Summer 2016 to 31.12.2016). If the proposed revisions to the ICCF title regulations are accepted by Congress in 2016, the ICCF webserver will be updated, and the new regulations will apply to tournaments starting from 1.1.2017 onwards.

The lack of computational power is no longer an issue, all ICCF tournaments (including postal events) are now managed on the ICCF server; this means that complex calculations can be performed reliably, consistently, and without error.

ICCF can now adopt a far more sophisticated system for measuring tournament performance based on solid statistical principles, therefore making the award of title norms fully commensurate with performance in title tournaments.

We are very grateful to Nol van 't Riet, one of the fathers of the current ICCF rating and title systems, for his support and his patience in explaining the background to the current system, and also for his positive comments on this proposal.

The QC asks Congress to accept project for Revised Norm Calculations.

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[VOTE] - Proposal 019 - Revised Norm Calculations

Phase One, Method Development and Documentation (August 2015 to Spring 2016)Appendix II of the ICCF tournament rules will be rewritten, based on solid statistical principles and in consultation with a professional statistician. This document will be presented to ICCF Congress in 2016 for ratification.

Phase Two, Implementation (Summer 2016 to 31.12.2016)If the proposed revisions to the ICCF title regulations are accepted by Congress in 2016, the ICCF webserver will be updated, and the new regulations will apply to tournaments starting from 1.1.2017 onwards.


Subtotal: 47 43 1 1 2


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Arbiters Manual (major revision)

I was working on revision of Arbiters Manual as a member of group under guidance of ACO chair, Dennis Doren. He made amazing work in a short time.

It is very large revision, in fact a complete re-write of the Arbiters Manual. Changes in related rules are required. It is high of importance since it has an influence on awarded IA titles in the future.Below I quote some changes related to IA title:

Change in the mentor program. New rule that TDs are not allowed to play in tournaments they direct, and backup TDs are

not allowed to play in tournaments they might direct except for national events, friendly matches, and unrated events.

New requirement that every TD pass a test to demonstrate familiarity with the new manual(s), this test to be administered on the server at the convenience of the TD.

Change in the quantitative requirements for obtaining the IA Title if through directing server-based games. Although all postal-based requirements will stay the same (1000 games over a minimum 4 years), the server-based quantitative requirements will become 2000 games over a minimum of 2 years. The qualitative requirements will not change.

The list of ICCF qualifying tournaments for IA-related experience has been expanded, now including Chess 960 events and some previously omitted zonal events, including to be counted retroactively to determine qualification for the IA Title.

The QC asks Congress to accept revised Arbiters Manual, now called TD's Manual.

In my normal day-to-day role as QC 132 title tournaments have been initiated since 2014-10-01 (see list below).

Since the 2014 Congress, I have checked, verified and awarded 63 new titles to players (GM, SIM, IM, LGM, LIM) - see list below. No special applications this year.

Federations submitted two applications for IA title, however they were rejected because of negative recommendation from ACO - candidates didn't met criteria for the title in either case.

Grandmaster Norms per Player

An All Time GM Norm list is maintained on the ICCF webserver and can be found under “About ICCF” – “ICCF Titles” – “All Time GM Norm List”. Once GM title is confirmed this list is automatically updated and all GM norms are registered automatically also. Of course, all GM norms can also be found under the Player Details of every individual player.

Last year all remaining old title tournaments from Gerhard's Eloquery base were uploaded by Martin to the server. For the moment, there is huge amount (about 2,000) of titled events to be verified. Background for that is archival ICCF documentation (congress minutes, QC reports, previous tournament rules, etc.) which have been mostly gathered by me. I tried to review all events and norms case by case manually, but then I faced problems to assign norms and titles to past years and previous rating lists. Therefore, I ask to find solution soon.

I can present now how looks like the current all-time GM Norm list for few top players only. There is one change in comparison to my previous report - currently we have at the top 4 players who gained 13 GM norms.

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Proposal 032 - Non Gender Specific Versions of Ladies Titles

An amendment to this proposal (ICCF 2015-032) was offered. If passed, this would make Proposal 001 void, so proposal 032 was discussed first.

This proposal is submitted by WCCF as an amendment to ICCF 2015-001 (Eliminate Ladies Titles of LIM and LGM). It is proposed that ICCF introduces two new titles, “Correspondence Chess Expert” and “Correspondence Chess Master” (or other suitable names to be discussed, for example “Candidate Master”); these titles will not be gender-specific and will have exactly the same performance requirements as the current LIM and LGM titles. Norms will be available from suitable tournaments commencing from 1.1.2016.

These new titles would be:

- Available to all players regardless of gender, and remove the inequality associated with gender specific titles, - Broadly align ICCF with FIDE in conceptual terms of FM and CM, and, - Open up the potential for the achievement of titles to a wider group of players.

Any female player earning the CCE or CCM title may opt to have the equivalent LIM or LGM shown on her certificate and medal for the next five years.

Any LIM or LGM norms earned in events starting before 1.1.2016 will count towards the CCE and CCM titles respectively.

The CCE and CCM titles will be awarded automatically by the server when the required norms are achieved, including a downloadable certificate. Medals and certificates signed by the ICCF President and General Secretary for the new titles will only be available for presentation at Congress to players who:

- Are able to attend Congress in person, or, - Are female (this should apply for the next five years).

The current LIM and LGM titles will be discontinued. The proposal was to create a non-gender specific version of ladies titles, specifically two new titles. For the next 5-years, ladies earning qualifications for the new title may elect to receive the equivalent ladies title. As this proposal passed, proposal 001 was withdrawn.

It should be noted that during discussion, titleholders would receive their certificate in an electronic format to be uploaded and those titleholders who attend Congress will receive their medal and certificate in person. Rule 10.10.a. requires appropriate update.

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[VOTE] - Proposal 032 - Non Gender Specific Versions of Ladies Titles


Subtotal: 47 23 17 5 2


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After further review by the Qualification Commissioner, one aspect of passing Proposal 32 was not noticed at Congress. The President authorized a post-Congress e-mail vote of all delegates for the following proposal:

A minimum score of 35% will be required for all norms earned in tournaments starting from 1.1.2016

Code MF Yes No ABS NP MemberARG Argentina 1 Pedro Federico HegoburuAUS Australia 1 Brian JonesAUT Austria 1 Tunc HamaratBLR Belarus 1 Mikhail Ivanovich ShablinskyBEL Belgium 1 Paul ClementBRA Brazil 1 Bianor de Oloveira NevesBUL Bulgaria 1 Petjo MarinovCAN Canada 1 Ralph P. MarconiCPV Cape Verde 1 Francisco CarapinhaCHI Chile 1 Guillermo F. Toro Solís de OvandoCRO Croatia 1 Leonardo LjubičićCUB Cuba 1 Pablo Salcedo MederosCZE Czech Republic 1 Josef MrkvičkaDEN Denmark 1 Søren Rud OttesenECU Ecuador 1 Pavao BjazevicENG England 1 Andrew DearnleyEST Estonia 1 Tõnu TiitsFIN Finland 1 Esko NuutilainenFRA France 1 Eric RuchGER Germany 1 Uwe StaroskeGRE Greece 1 Fotis ArbisGUA Guatemala 1 César Augusto Blanco GramajoHKG Hong Kong 1 Hin Sing LeungHUN Hungary 1 Attila KissISL Iceland 1 Dađi Örn JónssonIND India 1 Alok SaxenaIRL Ireland 1 Timothy David HardingISR Israel 1 Yoav DothanITA Italy 1 Gianni MastrojeniJPN Japan 1 Hirokaz OnodaLAT Latvia 1 Artis GaujensLTU Lithuania 1 Marijonas RočiusLUX Luxembourg 1 Thed KlaunerNZL New Zealand 1 Michael Roy FreemanNCA Nicaragua 1 Guy José Bendaña GuerreroNOR Norway 1 Raymond BogerPAN Panama 1 Hermann V. Rösch MPER Peru 1 Gino Franco FiglioPOL Poland 1 Mariusz WojnarPOR Portugal 1 João Luís Salvador MarquesROU Romania 1 Miron SferleRUS Russia 1 Sergey Yakovlevich GrodzenskySCO Scotland 1 George PyrichSVK Slovakia 1 Milan ManduchSLO Slovenia 1 Marjan ŠemrlRSA South Africa 1 Everdinand KnolESP Spain 1 Valentin Costa TrilloSWE Sweden 1 Per SöderbergSUI Switzerland 1 Ulrich BaumgartnerNED The Netherlands 1 Joop JansenTUN Tunisia 1 Wajdi ChouariTUR Turkey 1 Aziz Serhat KuralUKR Ukraine 1 Georgy GoncharenkoUSA United States of America 1 Jason BokarVEN Venezuela 1 César Jesús Reyes MaldonadoWLS Wales 1 Russell Sherwood

Subtotal: 56 18 5 32 0


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The final proposal under the Qualifications Commissioner section was Proposal 003: Effective, January 1, 2016, Member Federation delegates will no longer need to submit applications for player titles.

[VOTE] - Proposal 003 - Player Title Applications No Longer Required


Subtotal: 47 33 12 2 0


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10 - Services Director

Austin Lockwood, ICCF Services Director, July 2015

Dear Friends,

Members of the ICCF Services Committee met in Paris, France, in July to review the progress of the Phase Twelve Plan, and to develop the proposed Phase Thirteen Plan, which I present here for delegates approval at Congress.

As a member of the 2015 Congress organising committee I was determined to use web technology to further the commitment of the current ICCF President and Executive Board to openness, transparency, and engagement. With this in mind, the Welsh Correspondence Chess Federation developed a Congress website designed to encourage ICCF member federations to submit proposals to Congress and for the process of evaluation by relevant commissions and committees to have high visibility.

This project has been very successful; however, this success does have some implications for the Services Committee in planning work in 2016.

The number of proposals generated has been extraordinary; proving beyond doubt that the imagination and creativity of ICCF delegates, officials, and players is alive and well! This prolificacy however is not without cost; if a number of the current proposals to Congress are accepted, then server development costs may be significantly higher than in previous years.

So that we can continue our planned updates, and after some discussions with the ICCF President, I will ask you as delegates to approve a higher budget than in previous years.

I believe that we have made great steps in modernising the way that correspondence chess is played, supported by some ambitious decisions of Congress in Sydney, and driven by a progressive Executive Board. My aim for 2016 (if re-elected as Services Director) is to continue the theme of modernisation and automation, and I am particularly looking forward to integrating the proposed new Arbiter’s manual with the webserver if you, as delegates, approve this innovation. I genuinely believe that we have very exciting times ahead.

Unfortunately, documentation for players and tournament organisers remains a problem, however I am very grateful to Ralph Marconi (CAN) who has agreed to transfer the help file text written by the documentation team to the webserver.

Congress Resolutions 2014 The server now handles flag falls (including forfeits under playing rule 3b) automatically for

all ICCF events started after 1.1.2015; additionally, certain ‘dead’ positions now trigger an automatic draw and most deterministic claims (for example threefold repetition, tablebase claims, etc.) are handled automatically without the need for TD intervention.

The requirement for claims to be entered by team captains in team events has been removed from the server; all claims are now made by players.

Server Updates 2014/2015 (Phase 12) Performance optimizations: Bundling and minification Responsive design for specific pages Hide inactive rating history Webmaster can change promotion games

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Performance optimizations: Reduce number of round-trips for images of chess pieces Responsive design for dialogs Remove popup dialogs Promotion games: More than 2 promotion games (like a gallery) Multi group events: Add a link to player allocation to the list of all groups for the TO TD must enter reason, when adding/subtracting time Friendly URLs International Title Tournaments with category 7 or higher must have an IA as TO Game log improvements Short display name on top of cross tables instead of short name Direct Entry: Zonal restrictions for tournaments Direct Entry: Rating restrictions Structured tournament announcements Player message facilities remain open for 7 days Store player messages permanently Tie breaking rules displayed below cross table and in start list email Hyperlink to game in move notification email Review tables and results screen Add pending adjudications to time report Event list for TDs, TOs, and team captains Manual entry of historic and non-server games by TD and games archivists Globalize mailings Sort achievements on the player details by year Direct entry for team events Display pairing rule on new events list When signing up for a postal event, require postal address Improvements to new events list Enforce age restrictions, when signing up for a tournament Appeal email improvements Recording ETLs Email to backup TD, once TD starts his leave Backup TD should be able to see the leave of the TD

Proposed Server Updates for 2015/2016 (Phase 13)Because of the possible amount of work involved in implementing Congress proposals, the Services Committee have attempted to keep the number of routine updates to an absolute minimum; the following items have been assigned high priority:

Development Improved Paypal integration DE role: can edit event registration tab of all events Hide old registrations from registrations list Registration list changes Search for player or ICCF ID on the registrations list Additional historic events (pre Eloquery) Historically correct display of IA title on cross table Appeals in national tournaments Include player messages in Xfcc Add link to cross table or game to email notifications Add running games to forecast Recalculate rating history of a player Further security improvements Automation of "Document of Withdrawal"

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Trusted user should get a warning when changing another user's email address to a duplicate Do not require an email address for players who died Remove popup messages Conform to EU cookie law Email all players should not disclose email addresses

Marketing New player signup discount Embeddable version of game screen Player bios Report or export for advertising statistics Improvements to player photo uploads Hall of fame Replay a game even if it is your turn Improved game replay Pin news items to the front page Add FIDE title display to promotion games on front page

Review of Technical Implementation of 2015 Congress ProposalsThe following cost estimations are approximate and based on time estimates from Martin Bennedik, estimates of testing requirements, and estimated overheads.

ICCF 2015-001 Eliminate Ladies Titles of LIM and LGMChange norm calculations to eliminate LIM and LGM titles from norm calculations for tournaments starting from 1.1.2016Estimated cost: €250

ICCF 2015-003 Title Norm Application Process ChangesThe server would automatically recognise when the required norms had been achieved and apply the title (including sending notification emails). The process for handling incorrectly set results, or changed results arising from appeals would need to be defined.Estimated cost: €2,000NB: This proposal could be implemented with no development cost by simply removing the NF validation from the QC workflow.

ICCF 2015-005 Eliminate Free Day CalculationA new time control option would be added to the tournament setup screen (mandatory for ICCF tournaments starting from 1.1.2016).This feature would require extensive testing.Estimated cost: €2,000After discussion in Congress, this proposal was deferred to a working group created to study time and leave provisions comprehensively. The Working Group (002) will provide recommendations and proposals to the 2016 Congress.

Working Group: Dennis Doren (Chair) Michael Millstone Austin Lockwood Ron Langeveld Gino Figlio

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ICCF 2015-006 Same playing conditions for all games.The cost of this proposal is negative; if we allow mixed postal and server and server events then a new tournament type will be required in which server conditions can be applied to some games and postal conditions to others; this would require a major overhaul of some core code and extensive testing. It is difficult to estimate the cost of implementing this new tournament type, but it is likely to be in excess of €20,000.Estimated cost: Negative

ICCF 2015-007 Create a Class of Isolated PlayersAn additional icon could be shown by each isolated player alongside his or her flag; this would require some design consultation and code refactoring.Estimated cost €1,000Note that this proposal could be implemented using the current national federation database feature with no cost.

ICCF 2015-008 Unattached PlayersNo technical implementation cost

ICCF 2015-010 Eliminate Normal Leave RestrictionThis would require a new option on the tournament setup screen and some modifications to the take leave screen and leave calculations.Estimated cost: €750

ICCF 2015-011 Equitable Normal Leave AllocationThis would also require a new option on the tournament setup screen and some modifications to the take leave screen and leave calculations.Estimated cost: €750

ICCF 2015-012 Delegates Not Able to Attend CongressA section of the server website would be dedicated to this feature; the layout would be similar to the proposal database on the 2015 Congress website however, additional features would be added for voting.Estimated cost: €2,000

ICCF 2015-014 Coordinated Universal Time for ServerAlthough I have proposed this (and if the server were new, it would be an obvious decision), the task of switching the server to UTC is not trivial. The current time is used in several places in the code and each change would require extensive regression testing. As delegates, you may decide that the benefit does not outweigh the cost, particularly given that the server is currently hosted in the United Kingdom, where local time is identical to UTC for the winter months.Estimated cost: €5,000Note: After some brief discussions, some delegates felt the benefit does not outweigh the cost and the proposal was deferred to the time control/leave working group.

ICCF 2015-016 Revised Arbiters ManualIt is difficult to estimate the cost of implementing the proposed new Arbiters Manual because the technical implications are extensive and broad in nature. All the proposed changes, however, are generally aligned with the current strategy of modernisation and the automation of tasks, which do not require human intervention. Many of these tasks would have been likely to appear on future server development plans anyway, and others overlap with tasks already planned.Taking a workload estimate from Martin Bennedik, and adding overhead for project management and testing, a reasonable estimate for the full technical implementation of the proposed manual is around €9,000.

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ICCF 2015-017 International Arbiter Qualifications(Included in Arbiter’s Manual)

ICCF 2015-018 Revision of Adjudication ProceduresNo server development would be required to implement this proposal in its simplest form; automated adjudicator selection could be added reasonably easily and cheaply.

However, the ideal implementation would involve the switching of games into “for adjudication” status (either at tournament end date, or on withdrawal) automatically. This would be part of a revised and comprehensive player withdrawal system (see also #025 and #027 below).Estimated cost of a revised withdrawal/tournament closing system, with correct handling of adjudications (including TO selection of games to adjudicate), allocation of adjudicator, Document of Withdrawal automation, correct application of substitutions, etc.: €3,500

ICCF 2015-019 Revised Norm CalculationsThis proposal has no development implications for 2015/16 however if accepted it is likely that there will be significant server development required for 2016/17

Congress approved the decision to form another working group to assess and evaluate the Norm Calculations.

Austin Lockwood, WLS, ChairDr. Mark Glickman (Contractor)Gerhard BinderTony KainMarius Wojnar

ICCF 2015-021 Restrict Accumulated TimeThis will require an option to be added to the tournament setup screen for the TO to specify a maximum accumulated time. A validation check would also need to be in place to ensure that the time control was logically consistent and that ICCF rating requirements were met. Systematic testing would be required.Estimated cost: €750

ICCF 2015-022 Optional Sofia RuleAn option would be added to the tournament setup screen allowing the TO to enter the number of moves before which a draw could be offered. The “offer draw” checkbox would be disabled on the game page in games where this move count had not been reached.Estimated cost: €500

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[VOTE] - Proposal 022 - Optional Sofia Rule


Subtotal: 47 36 7 2 2


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ICCF 2015-024 SubstitutionSee #018 above

ICCF 2015-026 Penalty for Resuming a TournamentFurther clarification of this proposal is required before a full evaluation can be made.The proposal as it stands would require previous and current rating lists to be recalculated and potentially for norms to be revoked, it is unclear from the proposal how this should be handled.

ICCF 2015-027 Withdrawal and SubstitutionsSee #018 above

ICCF 2015-030 Extended Reflection Time (use 40+ days)This would require the menu option to extend reflection time to be removed from the game screen for events starting after 1.1.2016, an additional option would be added to the tournament setup screen, and some additional validation added.Estimated cost: €750

ICCF 2015-031 Conditional ContinuationsChange new tournament validation so that conditionals are mandatory in ICCF events.Estimated cost: €250Note: Congress accepted to amend section 4 (a) of the ICCF Playing Rules Server by removing the word “NOT” and now the rule states “Conditional moves are allowed in webserver games”. It means something different from mandatory conditionals in ICCF events, namely conditionals should be default in ICCF events.

ICCF 2015-032 Non Gender Specific Versions of Ladies TitlesThis would require adding fields for the new norms to the database, revising the calculation logic for norms, updating the achievements database and adding new medal images, updating the titles screen, and showing the new norms on crosstables.Estimated cost: €1,500

ICCF 2015-033 Discontinue Free Two Game MatchesNo server development cost would be incurred by discontinuing the free two game matches, however if the matches were replaced with the proposed trios, some checks would need to be added for players joining.Estimated cost: €250

ICCF 2015-034 Linear Conditionals in Server EventsThe UI option would be removed from the tournament set up screen.Estimated cost: €250

Hosting ArrangementsIn my previous report, I announced that the hosting arrangements with domainbox.de were increasingly unsatisfactory, with increasingly extended periods of unavailability and poor out of hours’ customer support.

I am very pleased to announce that the server has been transferred from domainbox.de to Melbourne Server Hosting in Manchester, England. Melbourne offers a fully managed hosting service, which has released Martin Bennedik from his previous server management tasks; this has freed him up to spend more of the time he is contracted to ICCF on development. Server availability since the move to Melbourne has been excellent; the company actively monitor the server for problems around the clock and respond to urgent support requests within a few minutes’

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day or night. I am confident that the extended periods of unavailability we occasionally experienced at the previous hosting company are now a thing of the past.

E-Mail DeliverabilityA persistent problem with the server in the past has been email deliverability; a number of solutions to this issue have been evaluated and tested over the course of the past year. The eventual solution was to install software on the server, which digitally ‘signs’ all email.

Since this software was installed and configured, the number of complaints to the helpdesk about undelivered email has been reduced to almost nothing.

Helpdesk ReportApproximately 250 help desk questions were fielded since the last congress, which represented an increase in about 100 questions over the previous year. The highest number of questions came along the following topics:

The majority came immediately after the major changes to the Webserver (large update in winter).

The next largest group were questions related to rule changes (most particularly the use of Tablebases)

An increase in the questions relating to setting results on the webserver. And many questions related to personal details for players (changing passwords, changing

names, etc.). There seems to be a lack of understanding as to what the individual player can do himself vs. what ICCF should do.

Questions were generally fielded within a day if not within a few hours, with coverage from both Europe and North America. In addition, special thanks to the National Directors and other board members who continue to provide help and guidance to all our players.Thanks and Amici Sumus,Jason Bokar (Help Desk Manager)

Help Files/Documentation UpdateUnfortunately, the lack of online documentation for players remains a problem; the documentation team have written a detailed help document however, we have not yet transferred this to the server content management system. Ralph Marconi (CAN) has offered to do this work and I am very grateful to him for his contribution.

Full and detailed documentation for tournament directors is offered in the proposed new Arbiter’s Manual, and the full text of this document will be added to the server before 1.1.2016 if approved by Congress.

Discussions will continue with the relevant officials to produce online documentation for tournament organisers.

Document ArchiveA request has been received from the ICCF General Secretary for an online storage system, which allows archiving and searching of ICCF documents.

Documents are currently held on Amazon S3 storage, however this does not allow for searching, and allocating permissions to upload/edit/delete can be convoluted.

Alternative document storage services will be investigated.

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Testing ArrangementsNeil Limbert continues to work as a professional tester contracted to ICCF. Previously we relied heavily on volunteers for systematic testing work; unfortunately, because of the nature of this work, this was haphazard and inconsistent. Having the benefit of a professional tester has removed a significant bottleneck to progress, and Neil’s contract will be extended to the end of 2016.We do still require acceptability testers, and I am very grateful to members of the ICCF Services Committee who evaluate new features on the test server before release.

Ongoing Agreement with Martin BennedikMartin Bennedik continues to offer ICCF an excellent service as contracted developer and his contract will be extended to the end of 2016, however in previous years Martin has provided ongoing server maintenance and IT support. As these services are now offered by our hosting company; daily maintenance is no longer agreed with Martin, and we can release these hours for more specialised development work.

This does mean that Martin’s availability will be limited to agreed blocks of time during which he is exclusively available for ICCF work; one implication of this change is that new releases will only be deployed to the server when we know that Martin is available during the high risk period following a new release.

This agreement will be reviewed when Martin’s contract is next renewed at the end of 2016.

BudgetIf a number of the proposals to Congress are accepted this year are accepted, the amount of server development work required will be significantly increased from previous years. To compensate for this possibility, the Services Committee have attempted to reduce the number of other high priority development tasks, however there is still a high risk that the previous development budget of €15,000 will be considerably overspent in 2016.

I ask delegates, therefore, for an increased development budget of €25,000.

AcknowledgementsI am again grateful for the confidence and support offered to me by all ICCF players, delegates, and officials since we last met in Australia. I am particularly grateful for the support of my deputy, Jason Bokar, and all other members of the ICCF Services Committee, who participate fully in the important work of the committee, including responding to helpdesk requests, giving feedback on new server features, and acceptance testing.

I am also grateful for the high quality of services offered by our professional contractors, Martin Bennedik and Neil Limbert.

If re-elected as Services Director, I will look forward to continuing the important work of modernising ICCF services for the next four years.

Rydym yn Ffrindiau – Amici SumusAustin Lockwood, Cyfarwyddwr Gwasanaethau ICCFManceinion, Gorffennaf 2015

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Silli Pairing System Implementation, ItalyDelegates will recall that we discussed the implementation of the Hutton Pairing System last year in Sydney. This was at the request of the English Federation for Correspondence Chess; the English federation offered to fund this implementation, however Congress agreed that the implementation would be funded by ICCF.

The system was installed on the server and EFCC have started a number of events using the Hutton Pairing System over the course of the last year.

The Hutton System is available to all ICCF federations for national team tournaments, and it is encouraging to see that the Australian federation have now also started an inter-state team tournament using this server feature.

ASIGC, the Italian federation have now requested that we implement the Silli pairing system on the server. This is a very similar request to last year’s request from England; ASIGC are willing to pay for the implementation, however I would like to ask delegates to approve this work at the expense of ICCF. Once implemented, the system will of course be available for all ICCF federations to use for national events.

The estimated cost of implementing the Silli System on the server is €1,500.

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[VOTE] - Services Director Budget

Proposal for a budget of 25,000 euro + VAT (up to a total of 30,000 euro) for webserver development (as outlined in the SD report).


Subtotal: 47 44 0 3 0


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11a - ICCF Archives - WebserverUtrecht, July 12th 2015

Since December 2014, the server archives include the termination tag in the pgn header. This means that wins based on time forfeit or abandonment can now be spotted not only in the cross table on the website but in the archives as well. ChessBase has also amended their pgn import functionality to include this tag as a comment to the last move of the game.

In April 2015, an issue regarding dates in the pgn archives was reported. Currently the dates have zero suppression for day and month, which does not comply with the pgn standard that requires dates to be ‘full length’, like for example “2015-07-12”. Chess software that relies on pgn standard implementation, like Chess Assistant, cannot import dates that are incorrectly formatted. As of today, this issue has not yet been fixed on the ICCF server.

The 2013 report contained the following proposal, which was accepted when I repeated this in 2014:“For future uploads I intend to propose an addition to the current export facility. The main point for such an enhancement would be facilitating exports based on availability date instead of end date of a game. Currently games that have ended in a specific month are excluded from the archive for that month when the tournament has set this visibility restriction. Upon completion of the tournament such games should be included in the monthly upload even though the games have ended in an earlier month. This enhancement would eliminate the need for a period refresh of the main archives.”

As of July 2014, this proposal has been accepted for a future update. Depending on priorities of other change requests, the July 2014 refresh of the game archive might be the last of its kind.

The above change has not yet been implemented as of today, which means that tournaments with visibility restrictions are still not included in the archives. Based on feedback after a periodic refresh of the main archive reflecting a certain ‘confusion’ I have decided not to redo the archives this way until the server software is improved.

In previous years, I also tried to reflect a bit on developments regarding historic and email archives. Past year there have been such developments but to my knowledge, a clear project lead has not yet been established.

Ron LangeveldICCF Archivist (Server)

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11b - ICCF Archives - Postal

Activity report for Postal Archives is really short.

"No game received this year and no input from TD by server facility on postal tournament as I know; some help for old games input find with Pierre Ruiz-Vidal from France."

Bien amicalement,Laurent

One clarification from Ian M. Pheby. Ian noted that though some TDs input games from postal tournaments onto the server; however, not all games from these postal tournaments are available on the server.

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12 - Marketing Director

I will outline matters that have been worked upon or enhanced this past year. Most of my efforts have involved improving relationships with ICCF sponsors and attracting new ones, working with the services director/webmaster to improve features of the server and encouraging players to upload their photograph. These and other initiatives, I will outline in a little more detail...

ICCF Partners and SponsorshipGreat strides have been made with our partnership with New in Chess, who are very keen to promote ICCF and Correspondence chess. There can be no doubt that CC games contribute in many books written by New in Chess authors, with opening theory regularly tested and developed by our players. New in Chess will offer sponsorship in terms of prizes for some ICCF events and are currently supplying player photograph prizes from their online shop. A first ever commercial mailing was sent on behalf of New in Chess to all ICCF players featuring a NIC yearbook subscription offer. Two or three mailing will take place every year from NIC with special offers.

Chessbase There has been little commercial contact with Chessbase over the last few years. I aim to rectify this with a visit to their office in Hamburg in September. I would like to offer them the use of mailing system as NIC are utilising with success. There are possibilities for sponsorship of some ICCF tournaments in return. There was an article published by Chessbase sent in by GM Arno Nickel regarding draws within CC. This was an ‘open letter’ from Arno, which Chessbase seized upon to discuss and of course promote their correspondence database of games! Without doubt, there are mutual beneficial issues to explore with Chessbase and I will report on progress next year.

Chessdom.com agreed to sponsor the new Champions League season. They have publicised the event on their website and are wishing to feature games from it. This is a new sponsor and ICCF welcome and look forward to working in cooperation going forward.

Convekta and ICCF have a tablebase access deal for our TD to check and verify claims.I have also re-worked and updated all sponsors in the ICCF ‘sponsor’ tab including National Federation sponsors and their corresponding URLs, which now all work again.

Your Move currently sponsors the promotion class tournaments and this deal will be review next year.

ICCF Mail Tool SystemThe ICCF Mail tool has now become a key part of being able to communicate with players both from an ICCF prospective and for use by member federations. I have also used a new angle in opening it out for ICCF sponsors such as New in Chess to inform ICCF players periodically of their discounted offers or special deals. This strengthens our relationship as well as providing players with a way of finding out what is on offer from our partners. Of course, there is an opt-out option for our players should they not wish to receive such mailings. At the time of writing, the mail tool has been used 171 times; with Netherlands, USA, Wales, and Australia being the most frequent countries that take the opportunity to communicate to their players with it. Do not forget, it is a fantastic way of sending a chess newsletter periodically to your players. The mail tool continues to be also very useful for reminding players of forthcoming or existing ICCF events. Delegates and players will have also seen recently that the ICCF Executive Board used the mail tool to encourage players to have dialogue and involvement with their delegate in the 2015 congress proposals. Any delegate that does not know how to use the system can contact Gino or me directly for support. It still amazes me many federations have not used it yet!

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Social MediaThe ICCF Facebook page continues to have discussion on various issues. It tends to be the same dozen or so contributors involved in debates. This group has over 1,000 members but many who do not have an ICCF profile. The group does have some good discussions but I still feel it is best left as an unofficial group.

TwitterTweets inform of messages placed on the ICCF front page.

Promotional Games on the ICCF Front PageThe feature games were given a better look with player’s photographs now included next to the board. Another enhancement was to have the ability to increase the number of games featured and for a choice of which of these games to view. My thanks once again go to the Dutch federation for continued support and to Finland and India. Games currently show between ICCF World Champion, Ron Langeveld and GM Matthias Kribben; ICCF World Champion, Pertti Lehikoinen and FIDE GM S.P. Sethuraman; and finally between GM Auvo Kujala and FIDE GM Krishnan Sasikiran. FIDE GMs playing ICCF top players is always of interest. Gino and I will continue to seek games between such players and it is hoped to tempt more top FIDE GM to feature on the ICCF front page.

ICCF Aspirer SectionsThe aspirer sections are now well established and part of the ICCF regular tournaments thanks to the hard work of Ian M. Pheby.

Possible New Member Federations to ICCFKazakhstan dialogue has still not been fruitful. The FIDE delegate has not responded to two emails, so it looks likely there is nobody to ignite CC within this country at present.

Chess 960ICCF are still pursuing a sponsor for 960 events. There is nothing on the horizon at present.

ICCF Player PhotographsThis feature brought in last year has now been improved and enhanced in order that players can now upload their photograph themselves instead of via the delegate. This has led to far more players doing so that the previous system. ICCF have been offering a bi-monthly prize of fifty euros to spend in the New in Chess shop for a randomly selected player who already has their photograph on their profile. Draw prize winners have been announced on iccf.com. This has proved to be popular incentive and one, which I would like to continue. Still there is much more room for support for this feature and delegates need to promote this to their players. When a new tournament starts, it is a nice personalisation to see whom one is playing. A disclaimer has also been written and can be seen by the player before uploading their photograph.

Finally, many of you will know of my serious heart attack which prevented me from doing much in 2014, but as my health stabilises, I will try my best to be more active, especially with the help of the marketing commission to discuss some of these forthcoming initiatives;

ICCF Hall of Fame Player achievement page Token codes New player sign up discount Embedding games feature

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I would like to thank Gino Figlio, Austin Lockwood, and Martin Bennedik for their full support in discussing and implementing new marketing initiatives and Neil Limbert for testing them, which has made a faster release for players to enjoy.

I wish all officials, delegates, family and friends a successful and enjoyable congress in Cardiff, see you there!

Amici sumus,

Andrew DearnleyICCF Marketing DirectorHuddersfield, England.

NB. The Marketing Committee consists of Gino Figlio, Uwe Staroske, Arjen Adrianus Oudheusden, Brian Jones, Michael Millstone, Ron Langeveld and the zonal directors.

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13. Tournaments

13a - World Tournament Director (WTD) Report Dear Delegates, Officials, and Friends of ICCF,

I am pleased to submit the World Tournament Director’s report.

Tournaments Direct Entry 10th Webserver Anniversary Tournament

Following the success of the Direct Entry 5th Webserver Anniversary Tournament started in 2011, the Direct Entry Commissioner Ian M Pheby (ENG) proposes the organization of an International tournament to mark the 10th anniversary of the Direct Entry Programme.

Entry by DE only for DE Federations only 3 stages: Preliminaries, Semi-final, and Final 10 moves / 30 days, conditional moves available Rated; Title norms possible Prize fund: 1,000 Euros. Registration starts on 5th November 2015 Registration closes on 5th March 2016 Preliminary stages will start on 5th April 2016 (the 10th anniversary of DE Programme) Arrangements for Semi-final and Final stages will be announced in due course and will

depend on the total number of entries.

Tournaments Proposals - (See Appendix I)

Calendar of Events The Calendar of Events will be diffused after the congress. I wish to thank all of the people who have helped me in my WTD duties. I should like to list all of their names but to do so would result in a never-ending list and also risk missing out someone.

Amici Sumus,

Frank Geider

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ICCF World Tournament Director Appendix I

TOURNAMENTS PROPOSALS Many acceptable proposals for invitational individual and team tournaments have been received by the World Tournaments Director and the following have been confirmed:

Please, do not forget that according ICCF Tournament Rules (Paragraph 12.2, 12.3, 12.4 and 12.8):

12.2 - Applications for ICCF recognition of international tournaments must be submitted to the World Tournament Director (WTD) who has delegated authority to approve such tournaments, or give recommendations to Congress. The WTD should report to the next Congress on all approved applications for formal ratification and inclusion in the Minutes.

Where, in the opinion of the WTD, there could be a potential problem (for example, involving a breach of these guidelines or another ICCF member federation), he will have the right to refer the application to the next Congress for debate and possible approval. Approvals of applications for multiple tournaments/groups from any federation may be subject to a referral to the Congress if the WTD considers it appropriate.

12.3 - Applications for invitation tournaments should be submitted at least 6 months before the intended start date of the tournament and all approvals granted will lapse if a tournament has not been started within 6 months of the approved start date. In such a situation, a renewed approval application is required and invitations should not be issued until renewed approval has been granted.

12.4 - Applications for open tournaments must be submitted to the ICCF World Tournament Director (WTD) at least four months before it is due to start. It should not be advertised until ICCF approval has been formally confirmed. The WTD will consider the number of similar events, which are planned concurrently, and any ICCF open tournaments that are due to start, before giving formal ICCF approval.

12.8 - All approval requests must include details of the prizes offered, and the source of the prize fund. Where a federation has previously met problems paying prizes promptly, it will be a condition of approval that the entire prize fund be deposited with ICCF prior to the start date. In these circumstances, the deposited monies will be invested securely and any interest accrued will be credited to the national federation, and the ICCF Financial Director will be responsible for the prompt payment of all prizes. All other financial details (appearance fees ...) must be included in the request sent to the WTD.

Appendix I

AUSTRALIA: Australian Masters 2016 (AUS)

ICCF Webserver, Invitational tournament Cat. X 11 players Start Date: 1 July 2016 Entry fees payable by untitled players No prizes money TO: Brian Jones (AUS) TD: IA to be determined

Australian Candidate Masters 2016 (AUS) ICCF Webserver Invitational Tournament Cat. IV 11 players Start Date: 1 July 2016 Entry fees payable by untitled players No prizes money TD / TO: Brian Jones (AUS).

Australian Masters 2015 (AUS) Already approved event in Sydney Congress 2014 (change in blue)

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ICCF Webserver, Invitational tournament, Category IX or X, 10 players, Start Date: 1 July 2015 No entry fees or prize money TO: Brian Jones (AUS).

Australian Candidate Masters 2015 (AUS) Already approved event in Sydney Congress 2014 (change in blue) ICCF Webserver, Invitational tournament, Category III or IV, 10 players, Start Date: 1 July 2015 No entry fees or prize money TO: Brian Jones (AUS).

ENGLAND: Charles Rich Memorial (ENG)

ICCF Webserver Invitational tournament, Category III-V, 15 players, 10 moves in 50 days, Start Date: December 2014 or January 2015, TD: I/A Neil Limbert (ENG). Appendix I

GERMANY: Germany Grandmasters 04-A (GER)

Already approved event in Sydney Congress 2014 (change in blue) ICCF Webserver, Invitational tournament (4 Germany, 7 other NF), Cat. XII, 11 players, Start date: Spring 2015

Germany Grandmasters 04-B (GER) ICCF Webserver, Invitational tournament (3 Germany, 8 other NF), Cat. XII, 11 players, Start date: Spring 2015

Germany Advanced Masters 01 (GER) ICCF Webserver, Invitational tournament (6 Germany, 6 other NF), Cat. XI, 12 players, Start date: Spring 2015

Germany Masters 04 (GER) Already approved event in Sydney Congress 2014 (change in blue) ICCF Webserver, Invitational tournament (6 Germany, 7 other NF), Cat. VII, 13 players, Start date: Spring 2015

Germany Candidate Master 02-A (GER) Already approved event in Sydney Congress 2014 (change in blue) ICCF Webserver, Invitational tournament (6 Germany, 6 other NF), Cat. IV, 12 players, Start date: Spring 2015

Germany Candidate Master 02-B (GER) Already approved event in Sydney Congress 2014 (change in blue) ICCF Webserver, Invitational tournament (6 Germany, 6 other NF), Cat. IV, 12 players, Start date: Spring 2015

Germany Candidate Master 02-C (GER) ICCF Webserver, Invitational tournament (6 Germany, 6 other NF), Cat. IV, 12 players, Start date: Spring 2015 Appendix I

BdF Diamant 6 (GER) Already approved event in Sydney Congress 2014 (change in blue) ICCF Webserver, Invitational tournament for Men and Ladies (6 Germany and 7 other NF), Cat. III, Ladies Cat. XV 13 players, Start date: Spring 2015

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BdF Smaragd 6 (GER) Already approved event in Sydney Congress 2014 (change in blue) ICCF Webserver, Invitational tournament for Ladies (5 Germany and 8 other NF), Cat. 0, Ladies Cat. IX Elo average 2151+ 13 players, Start date: Spring 2015

Germany Grandmasters 05-A (GER) ICCF Webserver, Invitational tournament, Cat. XI - XIII, 11 - 17 players, Start date: Spring 2016

Germany Grandmasters 05-B (GER) ICCF Webserver, Invitational tournament, Cat. XI - XIII, 11 - 17 players, Start date: Spring 2016

Germany Advanced Masters 02-A (GER) ICCF Webserver, Invitational tournament Cat. IX - XI, 11 - 17 players, Start date: Spring 2016

Germany Advanced Masters 02-B (GER) ICCF Webserver, Invitational tournament, Cat. IX - XI, 11 - 17 players, Start date: Spring 2016

Germany Masters 05-A (GER) ICCF Webserver, Invitational tournament, Cat. VI - VIII, 11 - 17 players, Start date: Spring 2016 Appendix I

Germany Masters 05-B (GER) ICCF Webserver, Invitational tournament, Cat. VI - VIII, 11 - 17 players, Start date: Spring 2016

Germany Candidate Master 03-A (GER) ICCF Webserver, Invitational tournament, Cat. IV - V , 11 - 17 players, Start date: Spring 2016

Germany Candidate Master 03-B (GER) ICCF Webserver, Invitational tournament, Cat. IV - V , 11 - 17 players, Start date: Spring 2016

Germany Candidate Master 03-C (GER) ICCF Webserver, Invitational tournament, Cat. IV - V , 11 - 17 players, Start date: Spring 2016

BdF Diamant 7 (GER) ICCF Webserver, Invitational tournament for Men and Ladies, Cat. III, Ladies Cat. IX 11 - 17 players, Start date: Spring 2016

BdF Smaragd 7 (GER) ICCF Webserver, Invitational tournament for Men and Ladies, rated 11 - 17 players, Start date: Spring 2016

LATVIA: Gedimins Salmins Memorial (LAT)

ICCF Webserver, Invitational tournament, Cat. VI (approx.) 15 players Start date: December 2014 TO: Artis Gaujens (LAT). Gedimins Salmins (1933 - 2012) - ICCF IM Appendix I

LITHUANIA: Donatas Lapienis Memorial (LTU)

ICCF Webserver Invitational tournament in memory of GM Donatas Lapienis (1936-2014) 15 players Cat. XII Start date: September 1, 2015 Prize: 1st place – 300 EUR Donatas Lapienis (1936-2014): ICCF Grandmaster, holder of the highest ICCF rating (2715) in 1989-1991. Famous Lithuanian chess coach.

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ROMANIA: Silviu Nenciulescu Memorial (ROU)

ICCF Webserver, Invitational tournament, TO: SIM Miron Sferle (ROU), TD: IA Valer-Eugen Demian (CAN).

Silviu Nenciulescu Memorial A Cat. VIII+, 13 players (max. 7 Romanian players), Start date: 20 April 2015, Start fee: none, Prizes: Trophy for first place, Diplomas for second and third places.

Silviu Nenciulescu Memorial B Cat. IV+, 13 players (max. 7 Romanian players), Start date: 20 April 2015, Entry fee: none, Prizes: Diplomas for the first three places. Silviu Nenciulescu (1954-2014) Chess wise National Master Silviu Nenciulescu was one of the most well-known chess players from Romania. He also had an extensive contribution as a member of the Correspondence Chess Commission, as a tournament organizer and national team captain. In recognition for his overall activity, Romanian Chess Federation awarded him Diploma of Honour in 2000. Professional wise Chemistry Professor Silviu Nenciulescu had an outstanding teaching career at the most popular school in Pitesti, Romania. In parallel, his work generated no less than 11 books and several articles.

Romanian Chess Federation – 90 years (ROU) ICCF Webserver, Invitational tournament, Cat. VI+, 13 players (max. 7 Romanian players), Start date: 20 October 2015, Entry fee: none, Prizes: none, Other provisions: - The minimum entry rating for this tournament is 2376+ - Generally, no more than 1 player from a foreign country will be selected. Appendix I

In case of several entries, the higher rated player will be selected at the discretion of the organizer. TO: SIM Miron Sferle (ROU), TD: IA Valer-Eugen Demian (CAN).

SPAIN: North Atlantic Team Tournament NATT-VII (ESP)

ICCF Webserver, Team tournament, 11 teams, 8 boards, Teams: will be later communicated, 10 moves in 50 days, start date: May 2016, Not an invitational tournament (The Federations nominated the teams), No prize fund

Magistral AEAC 2015 (ESP) ICCF Webserver, Invitational tournament, Section A Cat. XII, 15 players Start date: October 2015 TO: Sánchez Ródenas, Antonio (ESP)

Section B Cat. VIII, 15 players Start date: October 2015, TO: Sánchez Ródenas, Antonio (ESP) Section C Cat. IV, 15 players Start date: October 2015 TO: Sánchez Ródenas, Antonio (ESP)

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SLOVAKIA: Peter Marczell Memorial (SVK)

ICCF webserver, Invitational tournament, 13-15 players Cat.: XII-XIII Start date: April 2016 Prize fund: 3000 EUR TD: IA Karel Glaser (CZE) TO: Milan Manduch (SVK) Peter Marczell (1941-2014) Peter Marczell was a leading Slovak chess grandmaster. For many years, he represented Slovakia and former Czechoslovakia in both individual and team competitions (Olympiads, Appendix I European Championships). He was the first Slovak chess grandmaster who reached the rating 2600. In April 2016 we´ll commemorate 75th anniversary of his birth. Slovak chess players will remember him by organizing an international inviting tournament.

Alexander Horváth Memorial (SVK) ICCF webserver, Invitational tournament, 13-15players Cat. IX-X Start date: May 2016 Prize fund: 1000 EUR TD: IA Stanislav Škerlík (SVK) TO: Milan Manduch (SVK). Alexander Horváth (1954 – 2013) Alexander Horváth senior international master was a leading Slovak chess player. He represented Slovakia in many individual and team competitions. He created and owned the well-known chess database Opening Master. He was a member of the Slovak team that won the Final of the VII. European Championship.

U.S.A.: 2016 USA Invitational (ICCF-US)

ICCF webserver, Invitational tournament, Tie Breaks: 1)Baumbach, 2)SB, 3)Head-to-Head

Section A 15 Players, Cat. XII+, Start Date: March 31 2016 Prizes USD 950, 500, 100, Sponsor: ICCF-US TO: Anthony Kain (USA).

Section B 15 players, Cat. VII+, Start Date: August 31, 2016 Prizes USD 300, Sponsoring ICCF-US, TO: Dennis Doren (USA).

Section C 15 players Cat. IV+ Start Date: August 31, 2016 Prizes: None Sponsor: ICCF-US TO: Dennis Doren (USA). Appendix I

WALES: Welsh Congress Invitational (WLS)

ICCF Webserver, Invitational tournament, Cat. 0 or I, 13 players, Start Date: 1 December 2015, No entry fees or prize money, TO: Russell Sherwood (WLS).

Welsh Invitational Championships (WLS) ICCF Webserver, Invitational tournament, Cat. IV, V, VI players,13 Players, Start Date: 1 March 2016 Welsh Players £5, Invited Players for Free, No Prize Fund, TO: Russell Sherwood (WLS).

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[VOTE] - Proposal to Approve the WTD Report

Code MF W No ABS NP MemberAUS Australia 1 Brian JonesAUT Austria 1 Uwe StaroskeBLR Belarus 1 Sergey GrodzenskiyBRA Brazil 1 Gino FiglioBUL Bulgaria 1 Russell SherwoodCAN Canada 1 Corky SchakelCPV Cape Verde 1 Andrew DearnleyCRO Croatia 1 Josef MrkvičkaCUB Cuba 1 Fritz Baumbach (E-Mail Votes)CZE Czech Republic 1 Josef MrkvičkaDEN Denmark 1 Søren OttesenENG England 1 Andrew DearnleyESP Spain 1 Ulrich BaumgartnerEST Estonia 1 Pertti LehikoinenFIN Finland 1 Pertti LehikoinenFRA France 1 Eric RuchGER Germany 1 Uwe StaroskeHKG Hong Kong 1 Everdinand KnolHUN Hungary 1 Fritz BaumbachIND India 1 Ambar ChatterjeeIRL Ireland 1 Timothy HardingISL Iceland 1 Everdinand KnolISR Israel 1 Eric RuchITA Italy 1 Gianni MastrojeniLAT Latvia 1 Artis GaujensLTU Lithuania 1 Marijonas RočiusLUX Luxembourg 1 Ulrich BaumgartnerNCA Nicaragua 1 Guy José Bendaña GuerreroNED The Netherlands 1 Willem OudheusdenNOR Norway 1 Raymond BogerNZL New Zealand 1 Brian JonesPER Peru 1 Gino FiglioPOL Poland 1 Mariusz WojnarPOR Portugal 1 Eric RuchROU Romania 1 Gianni MastrojeniRSA South Africa 1 Everdinand KnolRUS Russia 1 Sergey GrodzenskiySCO Scotland 1 George PyrichSLO Slovenia 1 Marjan ŠemrlSUI Switzerland 1 Ulrich BaumgartnerSVK Slovakia 1 Ján HelbichSWE Sweden 1 George PyrichTUR Turkey 1 E-Mail Votes SubmittedUKR Ukraine 1 Iurii KoshmakUSA United States of America 1 Corky SchakelVEN Venezuela 1 Gino FiglioWLS Wales 1 Russell Sherwood

Subtotal: 47 45 0 0 2


Proposal for approval of proposed tournaments as identified in the WTD report, including VWC 9 and 10 organised by the English Federation.

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13b - Title Tournaments Director

1. WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

1.1 WCCC FinalsThe Final of the 29th WCCC was started on 20/06/2015 with 17 players from 11 different countries. The TD is IA Ian M. Pheby (ENG).

The Final of the 26th WCCC ended on 27/06/2015. The winner, GM Ron Langeveld (NED), was already known. The runner-up was GM Florin Şerban (ROU) and GM Rafael Leitão (BRA) got the third place.

The Final of the 28th WCCC, started on 10/06/2013, is going on regularly, with 89% of the games already finished.

1.2 WCCC Candidates’ TournamentsThe Sections of the 32nd the 33rd and the 34th WCCC (started in 2012, 2013 and 2014) are going on regularly.

The 2015 Sections (35th WCCC) will start on 20/09/2015.

1.3 WCCC SemifinalsThe Sections of the 37th and the 38th WCCC (started in 2013 and 2014) are going on regularly.The 2015 Sections (39th WCCC) were started on 20/06/2015 (11 Sections with 121 players).

1.4 WCCC PreliminariesThe Sections of the 37th and the 38th WCCC (started in 2013 and 2014) are going on regularly.The 2015 Sections (39th WCCC) were started on 20/03/2015 (12 Sections with 156 players).

2. LADIES’ WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

2.1 LWCCC FinalsThe Final of the 9th LWCCC ended on 25/09/2014 after problematic adjudications.

The new Ladies’ World Champion is IM and LGM Irina Vladimirovna Perevertkina (RUS); LGM Maria Aleksandrovna Lisitcina (RUS) was the runner-up and LGM Vilma Dambrauskaitè (LTU) got the third place.

The Final of the 10th LWCCC was started on 20/11/2014 with 11 players from 8 different countries. The TD is IA Ian M. Pheby (ENG).

2.2 LWCCC SemifinalsThe Semifinals of the 11th LWCCC were also started on 20/11/2014 (2 Sections with 30 players). The TD is IA Ian M. Pheby (ENG).

3. OLYMPIADS

3.1 CC Olympiads FinalsThe Final of the 16th Olympiad (postal) is still ongoing. There are only 2 running games, but the winner team is already known: The Czech Republic. The runner-up is Germany and France has the third place.

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The Final of the 18th Olympiad (webserver) is going on regularly. There are still 7 running games. Germany, Russia, Slovenia, and Spain are fighting for the medal places.

3.2 CC Olympiads PreliminariesThe Semifinals of the 19th Olympiad (postal) are still ongoing, with many running games.The Semifinals of the 20th Olympiad (webserver) are quite over -- just one game is still running.

4. LADIES’ OLYMPIADS

See point 7.7.

5. GRAND MASTER NORM TOURNAMENTS

5 GMN Sections were started in 2014 (in 2013 the GMN Sections were 4).

2 GMN Sections have been started in the first 6 months of 2015.

Unfortunately, the waiting time is high.

6. MASTER NORM TOURNAMENTS

14 MN Sections were started in 2014 (in 2013 the MN Sections were 16).

6 MN Sections have been started in the first 6 months of 2015.

The waiting time is quite low.

7. NEXT NORM TOURNAMENTS TO BE STARTED

7.1 WCCC FinalThe Final of the 30th WCCC is planned to start on June 2017.

7.2 WCCC Candidates’ TournamentsThe Candidates’ Tournament of the 35th WCCC was already announced and is planned to start on 20/09/2015.

7.3 WCCC SemifinalesThe Semifinals of the 40th WCCC are planned to start on June 2016.

7.4 WCCC PreliminariesThe Preliminaries of the 40th WCCC are planned to start on March 2016.

7.5 Ladies’ World ChampionshipsThe Final of the 11th LWCCC and the Semifinals of the 12th LWCCC will start not before the end of 2016.

7.6 OlympiadsThe Final of the 20th Olympiad and the Preliminaries of the 22nd Olympiad (both played by web-server) are planned to start on December 2015.

The Final of the 19th Olympiad, played by post, is planned to start on June 2016 if the qualified teams will be known in due time.

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The Preliminaries of the 21st Olympiad, played by post, could start on the same date, unless the Congress will decide to dismiss the postal Olympiads. This will be a webserver tournament per 2014 Congress.

7.7 Ladies’ OlympiadsThe 10th Ladies’ Olympiad will start on 1/09/2015.12 Member Federations entered a team.

8. DEPUTY TTCNeil Limbert decided to resign from the office of Deputy TTC. Many thanks to Neil for his dedicated work!

The new Deputy TTC is Rubens Battistini (ITA).

9. THANKSAt the end of my report, I’d like to thanks all the friends who help me in this important and difficult work, especially my “boss” Frank Geider, the Direct Entry Commissioner Ian M. Pheby and all the Tournament Directors: without their daily work, it would not be possible for our players to enjoy their favourite hobby!

Amici sumus!

Torino, -5/06/2015.

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13c - Non-Title Tournament Commissioner

The NTTC Commissioner was excused for personal reasons. After Congress, we learned that Markus Hömske resigned his position. Congress would like to thank Markus for all his hard work.

After extensive searching and debate, the Executive Board nominated Dr. Guido Bresadola as the NTTC, effective immediately.

Two proposals were considered in this section. The first was to discontinue the free 2-game/player match offerings. If this proposal fails, the second follow-up proposal is to change the free 2-game/player match format to a free 3-game/player match format.

[VOTE] - Proposal 33a - Discontinue Free Two Game Matches


Subtotal: 47 13 21 12 1


As Congress decided the free 2-game/player matches would continue to be offered, the next proposal was whether to change the 2-game/player match format to a 3-game/player match format.

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[VOTE] - Proposal 033b - Change the 2-Person Match Format to a Three-Player Match Format

Code MF Yes - (3) No - (2) ABS NP MemberAUS Australia 1 Brian JonesAUT Austria 1 Uwe StaroskeBLR Belarus 1 Sergey GrodzenskiyBRA Brazil 1 Gino FiglioBUL Bulgaria 1 Russell SherwoodCAN Canada 1 Corky SchakelCPV Cape Verde 1 Andrew DearnleyCRO Croatia 1 Josef MrkvičkaCUB Cuba 1 Fritz Baumbach (E-Mail Votes)CZE Czech Republic 1 Josef MrkvičkaDEN Denmark 1 Søren OttesenENG England 1 Andrew DearnleyESP Spain 1 Ulrich BaumgartnerEST Estonia 1 Pertti LehikoinenFIN Finland 1 Pertti LehikoinenFRA France 1 Eric RuchGER Germany 1 Uwe StaroskeHKG Hong Kong 1 Everdinand KnolHUN Hungary 1 Fritz BaumbachIND India 1 Ambar ChatterjeeIRL Ireland 1 Timothy HardingISL Iceland 1 Everdinand KnolISR Israel 1 Eric RuchITA Italy 1 Gianni MastrojeniLAT Latvia 1 Artis GaujensLTU Lithuania 1 Marijonas RočiusLUX Luxembourg 1 Ulrich BaumgartnerNCA Nicaragua 1 Guy José Bendaña GuerreroNED The Netherlands 1 Willem OudheusdenNOR Norway 1 Raymond BogerNZL New Zealand 1 Brian JonesPER Peru 1 Gino FiglioPOL Poland 1 Mariusz WojnarPOR Portugal 1 Eric RuchROU Romania 1 Gianni MastrojeniRSA South Africa 1 Everdinand KnolRUS Russia 1 Sergey GrodzenskiySCO Scotland 1 George PyrichSLO Slovenia 1 Marjan ŠemrlSUI Switzerland 1 Ulrich BaumgartnerSVK Slovakia 1 Ján HelbichSWE Sweden 1 George PyrichTUR Turkey 1 E-Mail Votes SubmittedUKR Ukraine 1 Iurii KoshmakUSA United States of America 1 Corky SchakelVEN Venezuela 1 Gino FiglioWLS Wales 1 Russell Sherwood

Subtotal: 47 16 18 12 1


This proposal also failed, essentially leaving the existing free 2-game/players matches unchanged.

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13d - Champions League

No report or updated status was provided. Several delegates complained that the time controls were too fast. However, after it was explained that the time controls were published in the tournament announcement prior to the tournament, there were no further comments.

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13e - Aspirer Tournaments

Dear Chessfriends,

1. Introduction

I am pleased to submit my second report as Tournament Organiser of the Aspirer tournaments to the 2015 ICCF Congress. The period of this report will be from 12th August 2014 through to 17th June 2015.

2. Aspirer tournaments

The Aspirer tournaments enables players who are new to the ICCF, without an ICCF rating or have ICCF ratings of less than 1600 to participate within ICCF events where they are not likely to be outclassed. They therefore should get some enjoyable games and hopefully become quite active within the ICCF family.

Players may either register via their National Federation or through the Direct Entry Programme.

3. Aspirer tournament entries

During the period of this report I have received a total of 176 entries which have been split into 25 separate events. Of these 25 events, some 11 are already complete.

Appendix 1 contains details of the breakdown of the entries.

4. Appreciation

Finally, I wish to thank my Tournament Directors for their hard work in these events. The Tournament Directors are (in alphabetical order):

SIM Biedermann, Thomas (USA)

IM Kain, Tony (USA)

Maylott, Peter S. (AUS)

Sherwood, Russell (WLS)

Tseng, Wilbur (USA)

Ian M PhebyTO, Aspirer tournaments

-------0-------

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Appendix 1

1. Entries

Total entries though National Federations = 45

Total entries through the Direct Entry Programme = 129

Total entries by Zonal Director = 2

Total = 176

2. Entries by National Federation

Number of National Federations = 29

Argentina = 3 Australia = 23 Belgium = 1 Canada = 3

Chile = 1 Croatia = 1 Czech Republic = 3 Denmark = 1

England = 13 France = 1 Germany = 11 Greece = 3

India = 1 Japan = 2 Mexico = 1 Netherlands = 7

Panama = 1 Poland = 5 Portugal = 1 Puerto Rico = 1

Romania = 3 Russia = 5 Scotland = 10 Slovenia = 2

South Africa = 1 Spain = 4 Turkey = 1 USA = 66

Venezuela = 1

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13f - Postal Tournaments

Year 2014The number of entries in Promotional Postal Tournaments is slowly decreasing. In 2014, I started 20 sections (4 WT/M, 7 WT/H, and 9 WT/O) with 90 players (2 players were replaced after having received their start-list), while in 2013 the players were 100 in 22 sections.

Year 2015In the first 6 months of 2015, I started 7 sections (2 WT/M, 2 WT/H and 3 WT/O) with a total of 32 players.

Countries and ZonesThe players of 2014 Promotional Postal Tournaments came from 17 different countries (in 2013 the number of countries was 19). As usual, most of the players were from Europe (77%); the other ones came from NAPZ (22%) and Africa/Asia (1%). Unfortunately, we had no players from Latin America.

The most players came from Germany (39); the second and the third most players came from the USA (13) and Scotland (6), while in 2013 the third country was Italy.

ICCF Diamond Jubilee Postal World Cup 19The Final of this important postal tournament, started on 1/07/2014, is going on without any problem. 69% of the games are already over.

Tournament DirectorsAs usual, many thanks to “my” Tournament Directors (Rubens Battistini, Bjørn Brobakken, and Thed Klauner for the Promotional Tournaments; Laurent Tinture for the Final of the Diamond Jubilee) for their excellent work!

Amici sumus!

Torino, -5.07.2015.

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13g/h - Thematic and Chess 960

Bologna, July 12th 2015.

Dear Chessfriends,

As in previous years, about 200 players participated in thematic tournaments last year. Some months ago, I cancelled a postal tournament because I received only 2 entries and some weeks ago, I did the same for one of those of the series of server themes because any new tournament has not departed within one year. Now I will propose 11 themes (4 by post and 7 on the server) for 2016. Obviously, entries to the series of themes will continue to be always available and I will see if to replace that I have cancelled.

Chess 960 Tournaments

I have started 10 new sections in 2014 and 7 in the first 7 months of 2015. There is a small increase every year and I am quite satisfied.

The 4th Chess 960 World Cup saw the participation of 95 players (were 103, 72, 100 in the previous WCs) of which there were 10 titled players. We have the winner in the Diamond Jubilee 1st Chess 960 World Cup (1 game to go): SIM Fabian Stanach (POL) who scored 11.5. Congratulations to him! The Final of 2nd Chess 960 World Cup, the Semifinals of 3rd Chess 960 World Cup and the preliminaries of 4th Chess 960 World Cup are currently running. The 5th Chess 960 World Cup will start in March 2016.

As usual, I ask all the National Federations to publish the information about 2016 themes and Chess 960 events on their websites and magazines.

Amici sumus.

The TT OfficeLeonardo Madonia

Theme N°

Entries not later than...

Startdate

1 1.01.2016 15.01.2016 2 15.02.2016 1.03.2016 3 1.04.2016 15.04.2016 4 15.05.2016 1.06.2016 5 1.09.2016 15.09.2016 6 15.10.2016 1.11.2016 7 1.12.2016 15.12.2016

Themes:

1 Staunton Gambit, A43

1. 4244 3735

2 Scottish, C45

1. 5254 5755 2. 7163 2836 3. 4244 5544 4. 6344 6835 5. 4436 4866

3 King's Indian, Fianchetto Variation, E61

1. 4244 7866 2. 3234 7776 3. 7273 6877 4. 6172 4746 5. 7163 5878 6. 5171

4 Frankenstein-Dracula, C27

1. 5254 5755 2. 2133 7866 3. 6134 6654 4. 4185 5446 5. 3423 2836 6. 3325 7776 7. 8563 6765 8. 4145 4857 9. 2537 5848 10. 3718

5 Shara-Henning Gambit, D32

1. 4244 4745 2. 3234 5756 3. 2133 3735 4. 3445 3544

6 Cozio Defence, C40

1. 5254 5755

2. 7163 4745 3. 5445 4845

7 Sicilian Najdorf, Keres Attack, B81

1. 5254 3735 2. 7163 4746 3. 4244 3544 4. 6344 7866 5. 2133 5756 6. 7274

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Webserver Thematic Themes for 2016

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Postal Thematic Themes for 2016

Theme N° Entries not later than... Startdate

1 15.01.2016 1.02.2016 2 15.04.2016 1.05.2016 3 15.09.2016 1.10.2016 4 15.11.2016 1.12.2016

Themes: 1 Budapest Gambit, A51

1. 4244 7866 2. 3234 5755

2 Queen's Indian, E18

1. 4244 7866 2. 3234 5756 3. 7163 2726 4. 7273 3827 5. 6172 6857 6. 5171 5878 7. 2133 6654

3 Philidor Defence, C41

1. 5254 5755 2. 7163 4746 3. 4244 7866

4 French Defence, Winckelmann-Reimer Variation, C15

1. 5254 5756 2. 4244 4745 3. 2133 6824 4. 1213 2433 5. 2233 4554 6. 6263

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13i - Inter-Zonal Team Tournaments

Background

The IZTT, which were inaugurated by our former president Med Samraoui of Algeria, are held every two years as a team event among the different geographical zones of ICCF and normally start during the month of December of each evenly numbered calendar year. Each team consists of eight players playing a double round robin against at least four opponents. This makes it possible to qualify for title norms as at least eight games are being played. The purpose of these events is to play in the spirit of "amici sumus" (we are friends) and to give players in remote and less developed regions more exposure to competitive correspondence chess.

Completed Tournaments

1st Interzonal Team Tournament – Start Date: 1 September 2000

Tournament Organiser Tournament DirectorMed Samraoui of Algeria (IA) IM Carlos Flores Gutiérrez of Spain (IA)

The event was started with five teams making it four opponents and eight games per participant.

1 Europe A 35½ out of 642 Africa/Asia 353 Europe B 334 Latin America 29½5 North America/Pacific 27

2nd Interzonal Team Tournament – Start Date: 15 September 2002

Tournament Organiser Tournament DirectorIM Med Samraoui of Algeria (IA) SIM Carlos Flores Gutiérrez of Spain (IA)

1 Europe A 44½ out of 642 North America/Pacific 343 Africa/Asia 314 Europe B 305 Latin America 20½

3rd Interzonal Team Tournament –Start Date: 15 December 2004

Tournament Organiser Tournament DirectorSIM Med Samraoui of Algeria (IA) SIM Carlos Flores Gutiérrez of Spain (IA)

The event was enlarged to six teams with five opponents and ten games per participant.

1 North America/Pacific 45½ out of 802 Europe A 43½3 Europe B 42½4 Africa/Asia 375 Latin America 36½6 Europe C 35

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4th Interzonal Team Tournament – Start Date: 15 December 2006

Tournament Organiser Tournament DirectorSIM Everdinand Knol of South Africa SIM Carlos Flores Gutiérrez of Spain (IA)

1 Europe A 49 out of 802 Europe C 46½3 North America/Pacific 444 Europe B 425 Latin America 316 Africa/Asia 27½



1 Europe C 48 out of 802 Europe A 46½3 Latin America 414 North America/Pacific 385 Europe B 346 Africa/Asia 32½



1 Europe A 51½ out of 802 Europe B 463 North America/Pacific 424 Europe C 35½5 Latin America 32½ 3 team points6 Africa/Asia 32½ 2 team points

7th Interzonal Team Tournament – Start Date: 28 January 2013

Tournament Organiser Tournament DirectorsSIM Everdinand Knol of South Africa Iain Smuts of South Africa (IA)

and SIM Per Söderberg of Sweden (IA)

The event was now expanded to ten teams playing a single round robin format. This gives players the opportunity of meeting more opponents (from five to nine) without increasing the number of games (down from ten to nine). The feedback that I got from players is that they prefer the single game version with more opponents.

1 North America/Pacific B 40½ out of 722 Europe D 403 Europe B 39½ 14 team points4 North America/Pacific A 39½ 12 team points5 Europe A 396 Europe C 38½

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7 Latin America 378 Africa/Asia C 33½9 Africa/Asia B 2810 Africa/Asia A 24½

Results of Ongoing Tournaments

8th Interzonal Team Tournament – Start Date: 31 March 2015

Tournament Organiser Tournament DirectorSIM Everdinand Knol of South Africa SIM Per Söderberg of Sweden (IA)

The event was enlarged to eleven teams with ten opponents and ten games per participant and has an equal number of games with both the white and black pieces.

390 games are still in progress. The results so far are:

1 North America/Pacific B 72 Europe A 63 Europe C 5½4 North America/Pacific A 55 Europe D 56 North America/Pacific C 57 Europe E 4½8 Latin America 3½9 Africa/Asia A 310 Europe B 311 Africa/Asia B 2½

Future Tournaments

The 9th Interzonal Team Tournament is planned to start during December 2016.

Interzonal Individual Tournaments (IZIT)

At the Congress held in Kraków in Poland approval was given to organise an IZIT based on the following criteria:

A set number of players from each zone are entered. These are divided into groups playing for norms and to qualify for semi-finals and a final.

1st Interzonal Individual Tournament – Start Date: 28 February 2014

Tournament Organiser Tournament DirectorSIM Everdinand Knol of South Africa Marco Caressa of Italy (IA)

There are 11 preliminary groups of 9 players each (all category 2) making title norms possible.

These preliminaries are now well on their way and will be completed in the near future. The semi-finals will then be arranged. It is suggested to arrange a new event of this nature every second year with the next one starting in December 2015.

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13k - Calendar of Events

The World Tournament Director shared the updated Calendar of Events. This calendar is updated as needed and is available on the ICCF Website.

ICCF TOURNAMENTS

WC Final Jun JunWC Preliminaries Mar Mar MarWC Preliminaries Jun Jun JunWC Preliminaries Sep Sep Sep

Ladies' WC Final 11

Olympiads (postal) 19 Final JunOlympiads 20 Final Dec

Olympiads 21 DecLady Olympiads 10 Sep

World Cup 18 Final XWorld Cup 20 Semi-Finals X

World Cup 21 Preliminaries X4th Chess 960 World Cup X5th Chess 960 World Cup X

4th Veteran World Cup - Final Feb5th Veteran World Cup - Final Sep6th Veteran World Cup - SF Sep

8th Veteran World Cup - Prelim X9th Veteran World Cup - Prelim X

10th Veteran World Cup - Prelim X

DE10A Apr

Champions League 7 X

7th Webchess Open Sep

1st Inter Zonal Individual Tournament - Semi-Finals x1st Inter Zonal Individual Tournament - Final x

2nd Inter Zonal Individual Tournament - Preliminaries Dec2nd Inter Zonal Individual Tournament - Semi-Finals x

3rd Inter Zonal Individual Tournament - Preliminaries x8th Inter Zonal Team Tournament Mar9th Inter Zonal Team Tournament Dec

2016Q4Q1 Q2

2015Q3Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

2017Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

ZONAL TOURNAMENTS

Zone 1 10 EU Team Championship Final X

11 EU Team Championship Semi Finals X 69th EU Individual Championship, Final x70th EU Individual Championship, Final x

EU Candidates Tournament X X XEU Semi final tournament X X X

Zone 2CADAP 24 Final DecCADAP 25 Final Dec

CADAP 2013 Master Norm (when filled) x x x x x x

Zone 37 PATT x

13th NAICCC xNAPZ Championship x x

Zone 4AA Zonal Championship Preliminaries 18 19 20AA Zonal Championship Semi-Finals 15 16 17 18

AA Zonal Championship Final 13 14 15 16 17

Q3 Q4

2015 2016 2017

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

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14 - Rules

The Executive Board unanimously nominated Dennis Doren (USA) to the position of Rules Commissioner. Prior to Congress, Dennis had assembled an Arbiters Committee consisting of previous members and new volunteers. The team essentially wrote two Tournament Director's Manuals (one server-based, one postal-based) from scratch as an alternative to the outdated Arbiters Manual.

The draft TD Manual will be voted on later in Congress. Several delegates expressed views that they disagreed with the nomination, most notably because Dennis does not possess an IA Title, which they felt was required for the position. When pressed to suggest an alternative candidate, the room became silent.

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[VOTE] - Approval for Dennis Doren as Rules Commissioner


Subtotal: 47 30 4 10 3


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REPORT OF THE CHAIR OF THE ARBITER COMMITTEEDennis Doren, submitted on 9 July 2015

This report summarizes the activities of the Arbiter Committee since the October 2014 Congress.

The Committee Membership This was the first year I served as the Chair of the ICCF Arbiter Committee. During this year, I had the great privilege of working with a fine group of people from across the ICCF membership and leadership. The members of the Committee were (in alphabetical order):

(1) SIM Thomas Biedermann; (2) International Arbiter IM Valer-Eugen Demian; (3) International Arbiter IM Frank Geider, World Tournament Director; (4) International Arbiter Markus Hömske; (5) Peter Maylott; (6) International Arbiter GM Zdeněk Nývlt; (7) International Arbiter SIM Ian Pheby, Direct Entry Commissioner; (8) International Arbiter IM George Pyrich, Finance Director; (9) International Arbiter IM Ragnar Wikman, Chair of Appeals Committee (Playing Rules); and (10) International Arbiter Mariusz Wojnar, Qualifications Commissioner

Tasks: AccomplishedTasks Accomplished

The main task for the Arbiter Committee this year was to update and revise the existing Arbiter Manual. This work started in November 2014 and essentially ended in April 2015. This work was done in stages.

Foundation for Revising the Arbiter Manual

The Committee first determined the philosophy for the revision. Three components were delineated for that philosophy:

(a) that "everything" pertaining to the work of Tournament Directors (TDs) would be brought together in "one place" instead of having these rules/procedures scattered across various ICCF documents,

(b) that the rules for server-based games would be put into a separate manual from those pertaining to postal games (reflecting the growing difference in procedures in TD work between the two types of games, as well as to facilitate ease for TDs in finding what they need), though both manuals would use exactly the same numbering system to avoid potential confusion by users, and

(c) that we would reflect the increased automation for server-based games while not making substantive changes in this regard for postal games.

As we did our work, we also developed and followed governing principles in revising the Arbiter Manual:

(a) increasing the amount of detail written to ensure greater clarity in the rules and procedures;

(b) emphasizing incapacitation from improper actions by players, Team Captains, and Tournament Directors instead of relying on penalties to deter such actions;

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(c) including statements of philosophy in numerous sections (since rules can never be fully comprehensive in covering all situations, so people applying the rules would have guidance from the intended philosophy for more atypical circumstances);

(d) increasing the likelihood that TDs would be aware of, and therefore would follow the Manual's rules and procedures;

(e) increasing the degree to which novice TDs would receive mentoring during their initial TD experiences (in keeping with the ACO role of ensuring training for TDs); and

(f) adding references for each manual entry concerning where the information came from, and hence where information written on the same topic can be found in other ICCF documents.

Process of the WorkThe Committee worked together on revising the Manual in segments. We first developed a comprehensive list of topic headings. I then brought together in one document all of the existing rules and procedures from across the various ICCF documents (both the existing Arbiter Manual and all other ICCF documents) under each relevant proposed topic headings. Wherever there was a conflict or lack of clarity across the rules, or where the existing rule was outdated, a new section was written. Proposed changes were also added for the Committee's consideration. Decisions were made about content by gathering input from all of the 11 members of the ACO who had interest in commenting about each section. I then re-wrote each section to incorporate the ACO input/decision. Finally, the ACO had the opportunity to read and suggest changes to the revision. After the final draft was completed, the whole Committee was again given the opportunity to suggest wording changes. A few areas where also updated based on new information learned after the revision had appeared completed.

Final productThe existing Arbiter Manual consists of 19 pages in large font. The revision resulted in two manuals (with a name change from Arbiter Manual to Tournament Directors' Manual, or TDM): the Tournament Directors' Manual - Server (TDM-S) and the Tournament Directors' Manual - Postal (TDM-P). The TDM-S is 44 single-spaced pages while the TDM-P is 58 single-spaced pages (with overlapping material from the TDM-S). Obviously, a great deal more information is contained in the revised set of manuals. As stated above, the main reason is to make the Manuals far more comprehensive and therefore useful for TDs.

Congress proposal

The final step was to summarize all of the changes in a single proposal for the consideration and vote of Congress. That proposal was submitted, and became number 2015-016.

Second Task of the CommitteeThe other task for the ACO this year was the initial stage of processing applications for the title of International Arbiter. There were only two applications filed with me between the end of last year's Congress and the date of this report. Information was gathered concerning both applications, which resulted in the recommendation against the title in both cases. Criteria for the title were seen as not being met in either case.

Tasks AnticipatedIf proposal 2015-016 (concerning the revised Manuals) is approved by the Congress, various things will need to occur for the full implementation of the revised Manuals. These include the full development and server implementation of the "manual review tests" and working with the Service Committee on developing and implementing the automated TD selection process and mentor

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assignment process, among many other more minor server-based updates. Some work has already been done on these and related areas. Presuming that the Congress accepts proposal 2015-016, I will work closely with the Service Committee towards the implementation of the full set of revisions in the new manuals.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to do the above work for the ICCF. I have felt especially privileged to be trusted with the major project of updating the Arbiter Manual. My hope is that you find the work of the ACO to be to your liking and satisfaction.

Dennis Doren, Chair, ICCF Arbiter Committee

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[VOTE] - Proposal 004 - Revision of ICCF Playing Rules Server 1(g)

Current ICCF Playing Rules Server, section 1(g) states: “These rules will normally apply for all tournaments played using the ICCF webserver, unless varied by tournament announcements and starting notices”. Proposal the following changes:

“These rules will normally apply for all tournaments played using the ICCF webserver, unless varied by tournament invitations (necessary), tournament announcements (necessary) and which will then be confirmed in the starting notices”.


Subtotal: 47 42 4 0 1


109

[VOTE] - Proposal 005 - Eliminate Free Day Calculation

This proposal calls for the elimination of the Free Day provision in managing time controls in webserver games. After much discussion, it was decided that delegates did not have enough time to analyse the proposal and a call to form a Working Group to analyse all proposals related to time controls, leave, and provide recommendations to next year’s Congress. The members of the Working Group (002) are:

Dennis Doren, Chair Austin Lockwood Ron Langeveld Michael Millstone Gino Figlio

110

[VOTE] - Proposal 2015-006 – Same Playing Conditions for all Games

From 1.1.2016, in order to be rated by ICCF, all the games in a section of an event must be played under the same time control, leave allocation, and transmission method. Clarification - this proposal only applies to webserver tournaments, i.e., webserver tournaments will only be played by webserver and approval of this proposal would eliminate nodes.


Subtotal: 47 40 5 1 1


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[VOTE] - Proposal 021 - Restrict Accumulated Time

This proposal calls to restrict accumulated time to a maximum of 99 days (+24 hours). The proposal was deferred to the Time/Leave Working Group.

[VOTE] - Proposal 010 - Eliminate Normal Leave Restriction

This proposal calls to eliminate the normal leave "use it or lose it" provision. The proposal was deferred to the Time/Leave Working Group.

[VOTE] - Proposal 011 - Equitable Normal Leave Allocation

This proposal calls to change normal leave allocation from January 1 to the tournament start date. The proposal was deferred to the Time/Leave Working Group.

After this decision, the CZE Delegate expressed his disappointment that many crucial proposals were deferred and not voted at Congress although they had been published 6 months before Congress. He stressed that these proposals had been thoroughly discussed in the Czech CCA and he was prepared to vote on them just at this Congress.

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[VOTE] - Proposal 013 - Tournament Proof of Acceptance

Once an application for an invitational tournament has been granted by the WTD, and before the start of the tournament, the Tournament Organiser (TO) is required to demonstrate to either the WTD that for each player in start list, there exists a written (e-mail) acceptance of willingness to play, by the player in question or his or her National Federation. Failing this, the tournament shall not be allowed to start, and the tournament approval becomes void.


Subtotal: 47 9 33 2 3


113

[VOTE] - Proposal 024 - Substitution

Add new paragraph to 8b of the ICCF Playing Rules Server

e. TEAM: If no moves have been made, there is no limit to the number of times a team may make substitutions. A withdrawn player shall not suffer any suspension or penalty.


Subtotal: 47 27 15 5 0


114

[VOTE] - Proposal 026 - Penalty for Resuming a Tournament

Any player who loses two or more games in a tournament under ICCF Playing Rules Section 3 – Failure to Reply -b or Section 6 – Time Allowed and Penalties – d should be removed from the tournament and only the games he has actually played and concluded should be evaluated for rating calculation. The finished games should NOT be evaluated for norm purposes and the norm requirement should be rearranged according to table ICCF Tournament Rules – International Correspondence Chess Title Regulations – Section 3 (The Norm Requirement Table) with one player deducted. In team tournaments, the player should be considered as withdrawn from the tournament and ICCF Playing Rules Section 8 – Withdrawal, death, [and Substitution] should be applied.

115


Subtotal: 47 2 41 3 1


116

[VOTE] - Proposal 027 - Withdrawal and Substitutions

Proposal - If no moves have been made, there is no limit to the number of times a Team Captain, or Tournament Organiser may make substitutions. An accepted withdrawn player shall not suffer any suspension or penalty.


Subtotal: 47 16 25 6 0


117

[VOTE] - Proposal 029 - Require a Positive Score for a First Place Finish

It is proposed that for multi-round and promotion tournaments that a positive score be required for a first place finish to be awarded. If no player in these types of tournaments achieves a positive score, then no player is awarded qualification to the next round or to the next higher class.


Subtotal: 47 35 8 1 3


118

[VOTE] - Proposal 030 - Extended Reflection Time (use 40+ days)

It is proposed that section 3 (b) of the ICCF Playing Rules Server be modified.

The proposal was deferred to the Time/Leave Working Group.

[VOTE] - Proposal 031 - Conditional Continuations

It is proposed to amend section 4 (a) of the ICCF Playing Rules Server by removing the word “NOT”.

The rule should state, “Conditional moves are optional at the discretion of the Tournament Organiser”


Subtotal: 47 41 5 0 1


119

[VOTE] - Proposal 034 - Linear Conditionals in Server Events

In light of Proposal 031 - Conditional Continuations passing, this proposal was withdrawn.

[VOTE] - Proposal 037 - Remove Rule 5f) from ICCF Server Rules:

5f) The Tournament Director and opponents must be notified immediately if any substantial failure of hardware or software occurs.


Subtotal: 47 44 1 0 2


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[VOTE] - Proposal 038 - Reinstate Old Rule 5e) Team to the ICCF Server

Add to the ICCF Server Rules:

5e) TEAM: Through the Team Captain the Tournament Director must be notified immediately of any disagreement between competitors about the game.


Subtotal: 47 10 29 7 1


121

[VOTE] - Proposal 039 - Congress Approval of Change of Server Rule 3b)

The Congress needs to approve the change of ICCF Rules Server Rule 3b), as it was made by the Executive Board and alleged to be “only” a clarification.

Congress decided that this proposal was passed last year and a vote was not needed.

122

[VOTE] - Proposal 016 - Revised Arbiters Manual

A very large set of revisions, essentially a complete re-write of the Arbiters [sic] Manual along with changes in related rules currently found in other documents. After some discussion, the main concern was that for TDs directing national events only, they should not to have to take the test in English. Therefore, the Congress vote was slightly amended to, “Revised "Arbiters (TD) Manual" and Related Rules, with the amendments regarding English requirements for national tournaments as discussed in Congress”.


Subtotal: 47 40 0 7 0


123

[VOTE] - Proposal 017 - International Arbiter Qualifications

Zonal Promotional tournaments, Championship games, and Invitational Tournaments are “zonal tournaments.” Presently, the Qualifications Commissioner does not include TD work in “zonal tournaments” as qualification toward the ICCF International Arbiter title. It is proposed that this be changed and that “zonal tournaments” be credited toward a TD’s qualification for the IA title. It is proposed further, that this change be retroactive to include all past Zonal Promotional Tournaments, Championship, and Invitational tournaments that have not been previously credited to the TDs who handled these games.


Subtotal: 47 45 0 1 1


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[VOTE] - Proposal 018 - Revision of Adjudication Procedures

To do either or both of two things related to adjudication procedures:

Option 1: To develop and maintain an ongoing group of volunteers from among ICCF GMs, ICCF SIMs, and other ICCF players rated 2500+ to serve as (anonymous) adjudicators from which Tournament Organizers must select anytime a TD calls for adjudication. (This selection process would be automated to the degree possible.) The formation of this group and any rules and training related to adjudication procedures would be the responsibility of the Chair of the Arbiter Committee. This would be consistent with the existing ACO role of overseeing "all aspects of TD and arbiter work, training, [and] development" in the ICCF (quoted from the Arbiter Manual, both current and revised). The World Tournament Director would be responsible for overseeing the implementation of this new adjudicator selection process (once the ACO has developed the program), this role being consistent with the WTD’s responsibility for "all matters specifically related to the direction of tournaments" (quoted from the Arbiter Manual). Some exceptions would be allowed (through a TO's request to the WTD) for using someone other than a member of this volunteer adjudicator group for exceptional circumstances (such as unique language issues, or in the case where the rating of one of the usual adjudicator's may not be high enough for the situation).

Option 2: To develop a panel of 3 very high-rated people who would serve to review all initial adjudication decisions where (a) the adjudication occurred specifically because a player in an individual (versus team) event died and was ruled by the TD as an accepted withdrawal for that reason, and (b) the initial adjudication decision was for a win for the deceased player's opponent. This review would involve each member of the panel determining if the adjudicator's decision was "reasonable", and would not conduct a completely new adjudication process. The panellists would each work independently of one another in reaching his/her conclusion. If at least 2 of the 3 panellists found the adjudicator's decision was "unreasonable", then the game outcome decision would be overturned in favour of a draw. If none or only one of the panellists found the decision to be "unreasonable", the decision would stand. Specific procedures and details of timing requirements for implementing this option would be worked out by the ACO Chair and WTD in consultation, if this proposed option were accepted.

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[VOTE] - Proposal 018a - Revision of Adjudication Procedures (Option 1)


Subtotal: 47 46 1 0 0


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[VOTE] - Proposal 018b - Revision of Adjudication Procedures (Option 2)

A vote of "YES" will mean that a new panel of 3 reviewers will be developed to review rulings of adjudicated loss by deceased players.


Subtotal: 47 34 3 9 1


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[VOTE] - Proposal 035 - To Adjudicate a Win Also for a Deceased Player

In the Arbiters Manual, 2.4.3.3 c) it is written that in case of a player dies during play and adjudication must be performed, then passing away will be treated as a claim of draw without analysis.

The proposal is to remove this from the Arbiters Manual.

MF Yes No ABS NP MemberAustralia 1 Brian JonesAustria 1 Uwe StaroskeBelarus 1 Sergey GrodzenskiyBrazil 1 Gino FiglioBulgaria 1 Russell SherwoodCanada 1 Corky SchakelCape Verde 1 Andrew DearnleyCroatia 1 Josef MrkvičkaCuba 1 Fritz Baumbach (E-Mail Votes)Czech Republic 1 Josef MrkvičkaDenmark 1 Søren OttesenEngland 1 Andrew DearnleySpain 1 Ulrich BaumgartnerEstonia 1 Pertti LehikoinenFinland 1 Pertti LehikoinenFrance 1 Eric RuchGermany 1 Uwe StaroskeHong Kong 1 Everdinand KnolHungary 1 Fritz BaumbachIndia 1 Ambar ChatterjeeIreland 1 Timothy HardingIceland 1 Everdinand KnolIsrael 1 Eric RuchItaly 1 Gianni MastrojeniLatvia 1 Artis GaujensLithuania 1 Marijonas RočiusLuxembourg 1 Ulrich BaumgartnerNicaragua 1 Guy José Bendaña GuerreroThe Netherlands 1 Willem OudheusdenNorway 1 Raymond BogerNew Zealand 1 Brian JonesPeru 1 Gino FiglioPoland 1 Mariusz WojnarPortugal 1 Eric RuchRomania 1 Gianni MastrojeniSouth Africa 1 Everdinand KnolRussia 1 Sergey GrodzenskiyScotland 1 George PyrichSlovenia 1 Marjan ŠemrlSwitzerland 1 Ulrich BaumgartnerSlovakia 1 Ján HelbichSweden 1 George PyrichTurkey 1 E-Mail Votes SubmittedUkraine 1 Iurii KoshmakUnited States of America 1 Corky SchakelVenezuela 1 Gino FiglioWales 1 Russell Sherwood

Subtotal: 47 14 27 4 2


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16 - Ratings Commissioner

Report for the Congress at Cardiff 2015

Dear friends,

Since last year’s Congress, four rating lists were published on time including special ratings for Chess960. Soon I will work on the list 2015/4 which will be published on September 15 and will be valid from first of October, business as usual, but I want to point out some important topics.

Do we have a new case of rating manipulation?

I detected that we had a new case of rating manipulation during last year. I do not like to call it an attempt to cheat because no rule is violated. However, it is a try to abuse the current rules.

The new method:

finishing 211 games between June 2014 and May 2015 over 4 periods moving down the own rating by finishing bad positions during the first two periods (92

games, - 190 points) finishing 119 games in the 3rd and 4th period, mostly by draw and based on the artificial

low own rating (+ 358 points) using the “gap” between two rating periods to avoid the “max-games-limit in rule 16” and to

increase the advantage

Evidently, the method worked already in 2013.

Since the last improvements of the rating rules in 2011, the player’s last published rating is used for the calculation of the rating difference in a game. This should avoid the problem caused by Tritt to start many games with a low start rating and to finish them some periods later. So far, this rules change worked well.

An Australian player recently found a new hole in the calculation procedure. In March 2015, he finished 50 games (42 draws, 7 wins). In these games, his rating is not the high value of 2015/2, which is only valid for games finished at April 1st or later. Instead, the low value of 2015/1 has to

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be used for the evaluation – following the rules! The effect became obvious to other players and to me with his forecast for 2015/3. It showed 2612.

This value is completely unrealistic and inappropriate. I analysed his performance in recent periods:

2015/1: score 20/49 against 2314 gives a performance of 2249 2015/2: score 36/57 against 2386 gives a performance of 2479 2015/3: score 31, 5/54 against 2386 gives a performance of 2445 Overall: score 364,5/637 against 2268 gives a performance of 2320

Something had to happen to avoid the value of 2612 in the rating list 2015/3. I tested on the server to use 2485 instead of 2254 for the 50 games finished in March. This lead to a new rating of 2460. After the change was visible in the forecast, I got immediately complaints from the player and the Australian delegate. Of course, it would have been against the rules and I cancelled the change again to avoid an appeal.

A second option would have been to overwrite the calculated value by the performance of the recent period (2445). Those corrections were already done in the past by Nol (Widmann) and by me (Tritt). Therefore, it would be a kind of “common law”. Currently this way is covered by rule 16 but only if the number of games in a period is > 800/k. In none of the four periods, this applied.

I started a long and friendly discussion with the player and he was willing to abstain from the GM-level. We found a compromise to set down his actual rating to 2552 by excluding the damaging effect of the development factor k.

I will carefully observe his future behaviour. Today it seems that he plays a “normal” number of games and with his high rating now it will be difficult for him to increase it further by playing draws.

Independent of the short-term action it is necessary to change the rules.

Proposals for changing the rules:

The rule 16 was written at the time where we had one-year-periods. Now with quarter periods we need a lower value to avoid such differences between a calculated result and the performance in the evaluated period.

The maximum of 800/k was proposed by the mathematician Nol with reference to Prof. Elo. I think it is not reasonable to make it depending from the development factor k. In some cases in the past only 40 games lead to this exception, in other cases it was 80 games.

I looked into the calculations of the recent six lists:

3 to 8 players were concerned by 800/k 2 to 4 players had more than 60 games 3 to 10 players had more than 50 games 8 to 22 players had more than 40 games.

In my opinion, a value of 50 would be reasonable.

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16 - For each player whose rating was based on at least 30 games at the beginning of the period the new rating is calculated using the formula of item 6, except for those players who finished more than 50 games in the current period. For those players a new rating is calculated, based on the formula 5 only for their games in that period. If the result of item 6 is obviously inappropriate, the Rating Commissioner may replace it with the value of item 5. Such an exception has to be justified to the concerned player and his national delegate.

Another small problem, which arose in recent years, is the rounding if the calculation results in a new rating of xxxx.5. Players expect that such a value have to be rounded up to xxxx+1 as it was when the ratings were calculated with my local software. The server software often rounds down to xxxx. I asked our programmer Martin Bennedik for check and correction. He insisted that the rounding must be defined in the working rules before he can make a change. This affects rules 8 and 17. Both extensions (in red) are taken from the FIDE handbook.

8 - The expected game result We is the percentage expectancy, obtained from item 4, based on the difference between the player’s rating and the opponent’s rating as defined in Tournament Rule 9.4. If this difference is > 350, it is snipped to this value for the evaluation. Values from item 4 are used precisely as shown; no extrapolations are made to establish a third significant figure.

17 - The new rating for the next ICCF rating list is rounded to the nearest integer whole number. The fraction 0.5 is rounded upward.

The change of rule 8 will also affect our norm tables. For their creation and current values an extrapolation with a third significant figure was used as I could find out in an analysis following the remarks of Mariusz at last year’s Congress.

General Review

Since 1987, we have several times adjusted our rating rules to consider special CC-problematics, to avoid abusing, to improve the presentation a.s.o. But the basic principles created by Elo and taken from FIDE were never touched: The rating scale is an arbitrary one with a class interval set at 200 points. The table of item 4 shows the conversion of difference in rating into scoring probability and is based on the normal probability function of statistical probability theory.

The probabilities in item 4 represent the situation of OTB chess in the 1960s and may still represent it for OTB nowadays. However, CC has changed dramatically since then due to the use of computers and the tremendous growing number of draws. Looking on the results of high-level tournaments today shows that it is ridiculous to expect a score of 76% between 2 players differentiated by one class or 64% for a rating difference of 100.

This situation requests a general review of the statistical base of our system including the development factor and the norm tables. During next months, I intend to use the one million results collected on the server and my local database to examine the real distribution depending on rating difference, level, and time. That is not an easy task and maybe we will need professional statistical advice as proposed by the Service Committee.

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Other ongoing tasks

Forecast including running games with assumed results Improvement of the withdrawal wizzard and the Robo-TD Cleaning players’ database Importing more old tournaments from Eloquery (zonal, national, friendly matches)

Looking forward to seeing you in Cardiff !

Amici sumus

Gerhard BinderICCF Ratings Commissioner

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[VOTE] - Proposal - Rating Commissioner Rule 16


Subtotal: 47 46 0 0 1


133

[VOTE] - Proposal - Rating Commissioner Rule 8 and 17


Subtotal: 47 45 0 1 1


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17b - Appeals Committee Report (Playing Rules)

Once again I have to start by repeating myself - last year I wrote things this:

"There are still quite a few emails directed to Appeals which clearly belong to the TD level. In most cases, this is not a deliberate attempt to bypass the TD; it is simply unfamiliarity with the terminology, sometimes combined with unfamiliarity with computers, and with the English language.

Consequently, the task of the Chairman could be made much easier (though of course cases like this can be solved in a matter of minutes) if the national federations were to explain the difference between TD and Appeals (and how to make the proper contacts via the server!) to their players, for example on their own websites.

I have also noticed an increase in another type of misaddressed appeals - quite a few appeals came from players in purely *national* events! Our Committee deals only with appeals in international events - dealing with dissatisfied players in national events and in friendly team matches is on the national federations' responsibility! Even two of the zones (2 and 3) have arranged to handle appeals in purely zonal events themselves, and for this reduction in our workload, I am quite grateful.

Dear tournament organisers, when you enter a new national event on the webserver, do not automatically hit 'default' on Appeals - make sure you enter your national appeal handler! And if you haven't appointed one, make sure you do so ASAP!"

I warn you - I *will* keep repeating myself until this kind of silliness has diminished considerably!

Despite this, our Committee has had some "real" work to do as well. Last year's nasty "hacking appeal" continued this year, when one of the players involved in the previous incidents once again appealed the TD's decision to "undo" the moves (in a new game!). Once again, however, our Committee unanimously rejected the appeal. In addition, a few other cases have been treated in full plenary sessions.

Still, most of the "real" appeals are handled by myself, without my having to bother the entire Committee - many (if not most) of them are just based on misunderstandings of the Rules.

Apart from these kinds of incidents, our (and my) work proceeds quite smoothly.

During the year a few personnel changes have taken part. For personal and health reasons two longstanding members have withdrawn - Jose Amorim (BRA) and Cecilio Hernáez (ESP). A very heartfelt thanks to both of them for their long and dedicated service in our Committee! In their place, we have one new member - Per Söderberg (SWE). Welcome into the team, Per!

Finally, I wish to express my sincere thanks to all members of the Committee for the valuable input you have provided during the past year. The current member list is given in the Appendix.

Amici sumus

Ragnar WikmanChairman of the ICCFAppeals Committee(Playing Rules)

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Appendix:

Current members of the Appeals Committee (Playing Rules)

Ragnar Wikman (FIN) - Chairman

Ian Brooks (ENG)Marco Caressa (ITA)Carlos Flores (ESP)Leo Lahdenmäki (FIN)Ralph Marconi (CAN)Per Söderberg (SWE)Wes Underwood (USA)

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17c - Appeals Committee (Other Rules)

The Committee ruled on one case since the last Congress. An application was made for an IM title for a player who had previously earned the title, but it was not submitted by his ND. He transferred NFs, and the application was submitted. The Qualifications Commissioner accepted the nomination, but decided to not post the title immediately because the 2014 Congress rejected a special application for this title, which was submitted by the QC. The Appeals Committee (Other ICCF Rules) unanimously voted that the application was a new application unrelated to the 2014 special application, so should be treated as all other title applications. The committee gave a special salute to the QC for noticing that the player had met IM requirements and for submitting the special application.

A few notes sent to this office directly from players were referred to either the proper committee or their National Delegates.

Sincere thanks go to Committee members Artis Gaujens (LAT), Ing. Pablo Salcedo Mederos (CUB), and Alok Saxena (IND). Corky Schakel, Committee Chair

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17d - Arbitration Committee

I am pleased to report that the Committee has not been required to determine any referral since the 2014 Congress in Sydney though one matter is currently being considered and is sub judice. Nonetheless, I have continued to give informal advice to ICCF Officials from time to time. The Committee, current members myself, Alan Borwell (SCO), Fritz Baumbach (GER), Ragnar Wikman (FIN)) and Brian Jones (AUS) remain ready, willing and able to deal with all referrals during the coming year.

RVM HALL Chairman

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[VOTE] - Proposal 015 - ICCF Zonal Realignment

This is a proposal to combine present Zone 3 (NAPZ) and Zone 4 (Africa/Asia) into one new Zone (Zone 3). This will also require a change to the Executive Board composition as there will only be three ZDs versus four.The new structure would be:

Zone 1 - Europe Zone 2 - Latin America to include the Caribbean Islands Zone 3 - Rest of the World (RoW)

It is worth noting that this proposal was supported by a 4:3 majority of Federations from Zones 3 & 4 (USA, CAN, AUS, and NZL in favour), and; therefore, this proposal was defeated by Federations unaffected and not part of the proposal.


Subtotal: 47 13 24 9 1


139

[VOTE] - Proposal 009 - Eliminate the Free Subsidy for Zone 4 Tournaments


Subtotal: 47 15 25 6 1


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18a - Zone 1 Report

Dear EU Officials and Delegates,

2014 was a successful year, with a large increase of tournament entries. The new structure of European Championship was largely appreciated by players, also from postal ones. The first half of 2015 seems to confirm this success.

The election of Zonal Directors will be arranged immediately following ICCF Congress 2015.All European Federations are invited to cast the vote.

Financial Matters

See Appendix 1

Auditor

See Appendix 2

European Team Championships

The Final of the 8th E.T.C. Final is finished.The new European Team Champion is Sweden followed by Italy and Russia.The Final of the 9th E.T.C. started on 10th June 2014 with 13 teams.More than 60% of the games have been finished.

TD for EU T.C. Finals is IA Thed Klauner from Luxembourg.

The Semi-finals of the 9th E.T.C. finished on 30.08.2014.The Semi-finals of the 10th E.T.C. began on 10.06.2014 with 31 teams divided in 3 preliminary groups. 886 games finished (out of 1240, 71,5 %) at 30.06.2015

TD for EU T.C. Semi-Finals is IA Karel Glaser from Czech Republic.

European Individual Championships

FinalsThe Final of the 68th E.I.C. started on 15.12.2013 with 17 players (3 GM, 11 SIM and 2 IM). 9 games are still ongoing. The champion was not defined yet.

TD for EU I.C. Finals is IA Valery Myakutin from Russia.

Candidate’s TournamentThe first EU WS Candidate’s Tournament started on 15.03.2014.4 sections with 15 players each, all Cat. 8.375 games finished (out of 420, 89,3 %) on 30.06.2015.

EU WS Candidate’s Tournament 2015 started on 15.03.2015.5 sections with 15 players each, all Cat. 9.92 games finished (out of 525, 17,5 %) on 30.06.2015.

TD for EU I.C. Candidate’s Tournament is IA Valery Myakutin from Russia

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In section 1/2015 TD is IA Marco Caressa from Italy.

Semifinals + Preliminaries + Open Round

See Appendix 3 Old O-H-M Class

See Appendix 3

Gerhard Radosztics MemorialThe Final began on 15.09.2012 with 7 teams. (TD IA Ian M. Pheby – ENG). The tournament is played by postal mail. There are 2 unfinished games.

Thor Løvholt Memorial1st Thor Lovholt Memorial Tournament FinalThe Final started in September 2013 with 11 teams who had all qualified via the Semi-Finals. There is only one game remaining in the whole tournament and the winners are Ukraine. They should be presented with Gold Medals at the ICCF Congress in Cardiff. The 2nd & 3rd placed teams (for Silver & Bronze Medals) will be Sweden & France but the final remaining game will decide which of these teams finishes 2nd. 2nd Thor Lovholt Memorial Tournament Semi FinalsThe Semi-Finals of the 2nd tournament started in September 2013 & the End Date is 30 September 2015. 30 federations entered the tournament & were organised into three semi-finals. Three teams from each semi-final will qualify for the Final, plus the two best-scoring 4th placed teams.

Semi-Final 1: There is just one game remaining but it does not affect the top places. Belarus (34 pts), Italy (32 pts) & Bulgaria (31 pts) have qualified for the Final.Semi-Final 2: There are just two games remaining but they do not affect the qualifying places. Ukraine (34.5 pts), Austria (33 pts 2 games remaining), Sweden 31.5 pts (one game remaining) & Slovenia (31 pts) have qualified for the Final.Semi-Final 3: Finished: Germany (35 pts), Switzerland (33 pts), Turkey (31.5 pts) & England (30.5 pts) have qualified for the Final.

The 2nd Final is therefore ready to begin & I recommend this is started in October 2015.

3rd Thor Lovholt Memorial Team Tournament: I recommend that a 3rd tournament be started in early 2016. This should be decided by EU Meeting at Congress.

New Tournament OrganiserThis tournament was my idea & I am very pleased that it has been a success. It has allowed small federations to compete with larger federations on an equal basis. Unfortunately, I cannot continue as Tournament Organiser or TD. I therefore request that the EU meeting appoint a new organiser as soon as possible.

Thank you.

Neil LimbertTournament Organiser

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Witold Bielecki MemorialThis European national team tournament is the second edition of a team event for players with low ELO (average rating not higher than 2000).

Preliminaries were played from 2012-01-25 to 2013-12-07 with 22 teams divided in 3 preliminary groups. Final started on 2013-09-08 with participation of 9 national teams: Belarus, Austria, Finland, Russia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, Poland, and Romania, and is almost completed - there are only 3 running games.All 3 top finishing teams are already known - winner is Belarus, before Ukraine and Czech Republic. Members of these 3 teams receive certificates.

TO and TD for this event is IA Mariusz Wojnar from Poland.

European Postal Cup 92 players from 15 countries entered this postal tournament.23 teams of 4 players each started to play on 15.07.2011 in 3 Preliminary Groups. (T.D.: M. Hömske -FRA). 8 games are unfinished.

European Team Postal CupThis new event for National Federations is scheduled to commence on 15.12.2015.TO is Deputy Zonal Director Sergey Grodzenskiy.

Chess 960 Team Cup for Europe

See Appendix 2

Baltic Sea CupThe 9th Baltic Sea Team Tournament is organized by Germany and started on 30/03/2014.13 teams are playing this event (Estonia 2 teams, Finland, Germany 3 teams, Latvia, Poland 2 teams, Russia 3 teams, and 1 International Team with players from Germany, Russia, and Sweden.

TD for this event is IA Willi Moedl from Germany.

Friendly match “One country vs Rest of Europe”As it was agreed such a match “One country vs Rest of Europe” would be organized annually. Match “Russia vs Rest of Europe” started on 15.12.2012 on 100 boards. Russia has won the match, final score is 120,5 : 79,5.Match “Germany vs Rest of Europe” started on 17.03.2014 on 265 boards. Germany has won the match, current score is 265,5 : 238,5 .Match “Italy vs Rest of Europe” started on 07.03.2015 on 127 boards. Europe leads the match, current score is 45,5 : 43,5 .

This year we are going to organize a match «Czech Republic vs Rest of Europe”. The match is to be started in December 2015.

TD Carlos Cranbourne (ARG).

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Proposals

Proposal of Zone 1 Financial Director

Introduction of measures to avoid accumulation of a large amount of cash reserves (increasing the amount of our donations to ICCF Congress organisers, etc,)

Finally, I would like to thank all the friends who actively worked in European Zone Executive Board, all Tournament Directors and webmaster.

Thank you all.

Marco Caressa Sergey GrodzenskiyZonal Director for Europe Deputy Zonal Director for Europe

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18a1 - Zone 1 - Appendix I - Financial Accounts

Dear friends and delegates,

Delegates are requested to note the audited Financial Accounts for 2014 presented in Appendix A.

Delegates are also requested to note the surplus for the year of 6,246.65 EUR (a little more than a fivefold increase on the 2013 amount of 1,225.96) resulting in an increase of the balance held in the Capital Account to 18,617.26 EUR.

In consideration of these Accounts, Delegates should note the following:

1. As is evident from the summary in Appendix B, the introduction of the new structure of Zone 1 events as approved at the 2013 Congress has proven to be a huge success (The table shows 2013 events held under the old structure converted to the new.)

2. The obvious consequence of this success has been the considerable increase in entry fees received achieved despite reductions in fees from 1 January 2014.

3. If this success continues (and there is little reason to suggest that that current entry will fall substantially) then we will likely find a situation where year on year we will accumulate a large amount of cash reserves. Consequently, we may wish to consider the introduction of measures to help avoid such a situation, perhaps increasing the amount of our donations to ICCF Congress organisers (1,000 euros in 2015) and perhaps even donating to ICCF in order to meet part of the costs incurred by developments and improvements to the ICCF server. Other similar suggestions should also be considered.

4. I can confirm that the large majority of our Member Federations arrange prompt payment of fees and that at 28 July only 4 Member Federations had yet to make payment of fees for 2014.

Delegates are respectfully requested to approve these Accounts.

George Pyrich Finance Director – ICCF Zone 1

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Zone 1 - Appendix A – Annual Accounts 2014Balance Sheet as at 31st December 20142014 - Euros 2013 - EurosNet Assets Capital Net Assets CapitalCapitalAccumulated Fund 12,370.61 11,144.65Profit & Loss 6,246.65 1,225.96Sub-Total - Capital 18,617.26 12,370.61ReceivablesMember Federations 7,181.67 1,309.92ICCF 752.60 5,507.84Sub-Total - Receivables 7,934.27 6,817.76Prepayments2014 ICCF Congress 0.00 750.00Sub-Total - Prepayments 0.00 750.00LiabilitiesOfficials -76.40 -76.40ICCF Europa -157.30Tournament Directors -161.00 -174.40ICCF (Server Events) -2,042.10 -1,959.10Sub-Total - Liabilities -2,279.50 -2,367.20Sub-Total - Net Current Assets

5,654.77 5,200.56

Bank AccountsCredit Lyonnais - Paris 12,962.49 7,170.05Sub-Total - Bank Accounts

12,962.49 7,170.05

TOTAL 18,617.26 18,617.26 12,370.61 12,370.61

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18a2 - Zone 1- Appendix II - Auditor

Introduction

I, Josef Mrkvička, Zone 1 Auditor have audited the financial statements of the Zone 1 – Europe of the International Correspondence Chess Federation (thereinafter “Zone 1”), which comprise the Balance Sheet as of 31st December 2014, and the Profit & Loss Statement for the year then ended. These financial statements form a part of the Zone 1 Finance Director’s Report to this General Meeting.

Zone 1 Management’s Responsibility for the Financial Statements

The Zone 1 management, in particular the Zone 1 Finance Director George Pyrich, is responsible for the preparation and true and fair view of these financial statements. This responsibility includes designing, implementing and maintaining internal control relevant to the preparation and fair presentation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error; selecting and applying appropriate accounting policies, and making accounting estimates that are reasonable in the circumstances.

Auditor’s Responsibility

My responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements based on my audit. I conducted my audit in accordance with the International Standards on Auditing, where appropriated and/or applicable. Those standards require that I comply with ethical requirements and plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance whether the financial statements are free from material misstatement.

An audit involves performing procedures to obtain audit evidence about the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. The procedures selected depend on the auditor’s judgment. An audit also includes evaluating the appropriateness of accounting policies used and the reasonableness of accounting estimates made by the Zone 1 Finance Director, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements.

I set the level of materiality at € 17.00, which is the usual limit from which receipts are required for a cost reimbursement.

Audit Procedures Performed

I performed the following audit procedures: I checked if all ledger accounts had been opened with correct opening balances,

corresponding to the closing balances as at 31st December 2013. I checked the formal correctness of all book entries made on various ledger accounts during

the year 2014. I checked if the closing balances of ledger accounts as at 31st December 2014 had been

allocated correctly as particular items of the Balance Sheet and the Profit & Loss Statement. I compared the Statements of Accounts for the year 2014 distributed to Member Federations

with the respective book entries. In a detailed way, I analysed the accounts receivables and accounts payables as at 31st

December 2014. I checked the vouchers and bank statements provided by the Zone 1 Finance Director and

compared them with the respective book entries in the Day Book.

During these procedures, no material discrepancies were discovered.

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Material Findings

In the year 2014, Zone 1 introduced a new scheme of Zone 1 Championship individual tournaments, significantly different from the old scheme before 2014. It is obvious that this new scheme attracted players and encouraged them to multiply their entries. As a result, income from tournament fees increased three times in comparison with 2013.

This dramatic increase in income, together with a subproportional increase in costs, led to a big increase in yearly profit from € 1 225.96 to € 6 246.65. However, in my opinion, Zone 1 should not expect the same profit in the year 2015, as the positive effect of a “novelty on the market” might evaporate, especially in the lower class tournaments.

In my last year’s report, I called your attention to the negative impacts of the practice to execute the payments for the Zone 1 Statements together with the payments for the ICCF Statements. I recommended to the Zone 1 Finance Director either to discontinue the current procedure, or at least to make sure that the Zone 1 funds be transferred to the correct bank account before the balancing day. The Zone 1 Finance Director chose the latter option and transferred the Zone 1 funds to the Zone 1 bank account in November 2014. Consequently, now I can state that in comparison with the last year, the amount of Zone 1 funds held by ICCF on behalf of Zone 1 significantly dropped, and that as at 31st December, 2014 Zone 1 had control over almost all its funds on the specific Zone 1 bank account. Nevertheless, despite this positive development, I still would prefer two separate payments to two accounts.

Recommendations and Proposals

Apart from my remarks as above, I have no other special recommendations and/or proposals.

Conclusions – Auditor’s Opinion

I believe that the audit evidence I have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for my audit opinion.

Opinion

In my opinion, the financial statements give a true and fair view of assets, liabilities and accumulated fund of Zone 1 as of 31 December 2014, and of costs and earnings for the year then ended.

Finally, I would like to express my appreciation of the dedicated and good work of the Zone 1 Finance Director, George Pyrich, during the whole year 2014, and to thank him for his perfect co-operation with me during the course of audit.

AMICI SUMUS!

Date of preparation:26th June, 2015

Name and address of the Auditor:Josef MrkvičkaHouškova 32326 00 Plzeň, Czech Republic

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18a3 - Zone 1 - Appendix III - Tournament Office

Dear Chessfriends,

I send you my report about the EU Office.

Old EU Promotional Tournaments

In 2013, I started the last tournaments of Class O-H-M for 402 players and 46 of them were postal. From 2008, the first year when the EU tournaments have been inserted on the server ICCF, the entries have always been from 300-400.

New European server and postal Championship

The new reorganization liked right away to the players and I received 942 (!) entries in 2014, 804 servers, and 138 postals. EU WS PR: 34 tournaments in 2014, 18 in 2015 until nowEU WS OR: 66 tournaments in 2014, 30 in 2015 until nowEU PO SF: 9 tournaments in 2014, 2 in 2015 until nowEU PO OR: 21 tournaments in 2014, 6 in 2015 until now

In the first 6 months of 2015, 476 players have been started in their groups.

Chess 960

The 1st C960 EU Team Championship started in November 2013 with 9 Teams.Now Russia, Slovenia, Germany, and Lithuania are playing the Final and Slovenia is leading on Russia.

amici sumusLeonardo Madonia

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18b - Zone 2 Report

End of a Cycle

For more than 20 years, I have been involved in Correspondence Chess activity. First in CADAP (1993) as a temporal replacement of my friend Ing. Antonio Lascurain (who passed away in that time) working as the editor of the APA magazine. Then, after hosting the 1997 ICCF Congress in Buenos Aires, I became Zonal Director in the ICCF Congress 1998 in Riga. Just a few years later, in 2005 it was fun to be again the host of the ICCF Congress in Argentina (Villa La Angostura - Patagonia). It has been a long time and now is high time to quit, need to make a change in my life and focus in other personal issues. I have no regrets and feeling happy to realize that I have gained many friends worldwide.

As I always been doing every year, in my final CADAP report I would like to send a special recognition to my Latin American friends who helped and gave me a full and strong support in my task as Zonal Director: Guillermo Toro Solis de Ovando (CHI), Márcio Barbosa de Oliveira (BRA), Pedro Federico Hegoburu (ARG), Armando Alexis, Pérez Pérez (CUB), Juan Carlos Perez Rodriguez (ARG), Joachim Dorner (GUA), César A. Blanco Gramajo (GUA), Gino Figlio (PER) and the list may be endless… It was an honour to share with them all the passion we have for Chess.

Carlos Leon Cranbourne ARG Zonal Director and CADAP PresidentMárcio Barbosa de Oliveira BRA CADAP Secretary and Deputy Zonal DirectorJuan Carlos Perez Rodriguez ARG CADAP Zonal Tournaments DirectorPedro Federico Hegoburu ARG CADAP Zonal Tournaments DirectorArmando Alexis Pérez Pérez CUB CADAP Zonal Tournaments DirectorJuan Alberto Martello ARG CADAP Zonal Tournaments Director

CADAP Calendar Events

Latin American Tournaments (ongoing) 2015

CADAP XXIII Zonal (Cat. 10) – Final stage

Programmed Latin American Tournaments for the next year 2016 (*)

Latin American CADAP 24 Zonal Tournament (Final Section)- Start date December 2016

Latin American 2016 Master Norm Tournament- Start date between September & November 2016

11 Pan-American Team Tournament- Start date March 2016

(*) Schedule to be confirmed by the next Latin America Zonal Director

Warning: Of course, I will be on-line until you find a proper replacement in the next ZonalDirector election, but please be aware that I will not be able to start any more correspondence chess activity.Carlos Leon CranbourneCADAP ICCF Zone 2 Zonal Director

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18c - Zone 3 Report

Dear Colleagues,

It is my pleasure to report the activities of the North Atlantic Pacific Zone (NAPZ) since the 2014 congress held in Sydney/Parramatta – Australia.

Zonal Leadership and Structure

The structure for NAPZ is as follows:NAPZ Director: Jason BokarNAPZ Deputy Director: Valer Eugen DemianNAPZ Tournament Organizer: Glen Shields (on leave as of June 2015 – Tom Biedermann will fill this role)With additional help from the following people: Tom Biedermann (accounts and tournament set-up), Dennis Doren (tournament set-up).

Unfortunately, and sadly, Glen Shields had some health problems during June 2015. He has decided to reduce his participation in ICCF and chess in general, and take a leave until his health stabilizes. This is a big loss for NAPZ and ICCF given then deep personal commitment that Glen had given to ICCF. I hope you will join with me in thanking Glen, whole-heartedly, for all the work and effort he has given over the years, and to wish him a speedy recovery! Post Congress note - sadly, Glen passed away shortly after Congress. Our heartfelt condolences go out to his family, friends, and all the people of the chess community Glen so warmly touched. Rest in peace.

Country ReportsUSA National Federation Report 2015:

By Corky Schakel and team

GM Jason Bokar will take over as ICCF-US Director during the ICCF-US Congress in Cardiff, Wales August 2015. As NAPZ Director, Jason continues as an ICCF Executive Board member. Jason was ICCF-US Deputy for several years prior to 2008 before a major job change, so was unable to take the ICCF-US Director position at that time.

SIM Tom Biedermann is appointed as ICCF-US Deputy Director, maintaining all current duties including Treasurer. For the last three years Tom has handled finances for ICCF-US, including processing all entries, and has helped with recruiting players to fill out brackets and selecting recipients for invitations for ICCF-US and events from other National Federations. Tom will be a major help as ICCF-US makes the transition to GM Jason Bokar as ICCF-US Director.

Corky looks forward to continuing on the ICCF-US Board, to handle New Player applications, and help with invitations for players to participate in major events. I offer my thanks to all players for making the last eight years as our National Federation Rep rewarding, and just lots of fun.

Webmaster Dan Perry maintains the iccfus.com website, posting announcements from ICCF, ICCF-US activities, and an entry fee page. Friendly Match Organizer Dennis Doren has started thirteen Friendly Matches again this year, now up to 45 since 2007. The Friendly Post newsletters link is on iccfus.com. Titles officer Robert Rizzo reports that the following titles will be recognized at the Congress in Cardiff: IM, Tony Kain, Thomas Williams; SIM, Kenneth Holroyd, Wieland Belka.

Carl Siefring selects invitations from other NFs and for our annual invitational. Ken Holroyd has joined the ICCF-US Board, assisting with invitation selection and USCCC planning. Tony Kain,

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Dennis Doren, and Kristo Miettinen volunteer as TDs and TOs. Glen Shields has been TO for NAPZ events, enormously successful these last two years, accounting for 46 Open, Higher, and Master Class sections. He has left it well organized as Tom Biedermann takes over NAPZ responsibilities while Glen takes a leave.

USCCC20 Final is ongoing, as is USCCC 21 Semi, which started July 4, 2014. The ICCF-US invitationals, the Walter Muir Memorial, Hans Berliner Invitational, and Viktor Palciauskus Invitational have become annual events as USA Invitational with three sections. Section A is CAT 13 again this year. Thanks to Dennis Doren and Tony Kain for organizing these events!

From 466 membership applications, we have confirmed 160 new players. For 2014, ICCF-US accounted for 739 Direct Entries, up from 548. CCLA events accounted for 1132 games on the ICCF server and USCF another 544.

Dennis Doren was appointed Arbiter Committee Chair, joining Michael Millstone and Jason Bokar as ICCF officials. Thank you all volunteers, and all players!

Corky Schakel, ICCF-US Director

Australia National Federation Report 2015:By Brian Jones and teamAustralia now has a record 168 mainly active web-server players out of a total membership of over 280. A few are competing at a high level, including World and Zone championship and promotional tournaments, but most are playing in social events and friendly matches without using engines.

Our national championships and supporting events are held annually and continue to grow and for 2015 include new Chess 960 and interstate team championships. Peter Maylott has been instrumental in setting up Chess 960 within NAPZ.

In 2015, we started two new International Invitation tournaments on the web-server; namely, the Australian Masters (CAT X) and the Australian Candidate Masters (CAT IV). It is planned that these tournaments will be held annually to provide much-needed title opportunities for Australian players.

We operate with a small management team (Councilors) and continue to maintain a website and to produce a quarterly magazine, which is sent to all members via post and/or email.

We remain keen to organize Friendly matches with other Federations and Correspondence clubs.

Many of our members still have mixed views about the use of chess engines in our tournaments.

Hong Kong National Federation Report 2015:By Henry LeungHong Kong finished the 14th Hong Kong Championship in May 2015, the winners are as follows:1st Allan Johnston, 2nd Dr H.K. Tsang, 3rd Hysan Wong.

The 15th HKC will also start later this year; in addition, the Hong Kong Team is playing in the PATT-6 and performing hopefully well amongst the teams.

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Canada National Federation Report 2015:By Ralph Marconi

The most important news would be that Canada is fielding its first Women's Team in the upcoming Women's Olympiad.Canadian team:

Bd1. (RUS) Mrachek, Svetlana (2112) (Team Captain) Bd2. (USA) Smith, Madge (1725) Bd3. (CAN) Glover, Vanessa (1709) Bd4. (AUS) Byrne, Veronica (1555)

The non-Canadian players are all members of the CCCA, and thus can play for Canada. Canada has 7 team friendlies in progress. The dates indicated are the start dates. The scores are current as of June 2015.

2015.03.31 Canada 5½-3½ Croatia2015.02.15 Canada 8½-18½ Finland2014.10.15 Canada 15-19 Venezuela2014.08.15 Canada 25-50 France2014.05.02 Canada 23-30 Romania2014.01.17 Canada 36½-52½ U.S.A2013.11.18 Canada 27½-36½ Australia

The following are some of our Canadian players participating in international Invitationals: Paul Morley completed play with 7-7 in the Palciauskas Invitational - Section C Paul Morley completed with 7½-8½ in the Van Geet Memorial - Section B IM Al Fichaud is representing Canada in the Australia 85th Anniversary CCLA

In addition, he is completing his play in the 37th WCCC Semi-final (WCCC37SF03) Paul Morley, Arthur Prystenski, and Michael Dufour are representing Canada in the 39th WCCC Prelims:

WCCC39PR12 (Paul Morley) WCCC39PR07 (Arthur Prystenski) WCCC39PR05 (Michael Dufour)

IM Richard Labonte is playing in the Palciauskas Invitational - Section B SIM Dan Rotaru is finishing play in the Van Geet Memorial - Section A Craig Sadler is finishing play in the Van Geet Memorial - Section C

https://www.iccf.com/event?id=52056



http://www.iccf-webchess.com/EventCrossTable.aspx?id=37963

http://correspondencechess.com/ccca/can.vs.aus.2013.htm

http://correspondencechess.com/ccca/can.vs.usa.2014.htm

http://correspondencechess.com/ccca/can.vs.rom.2014.htm

http://correspondencechess.com/ccca/can.vs.fra.2014.htm

http://correspondencechess.com/ccca/can.vs.ven.2014.htm

http://correspondencechess.com/ccca/can.vs.fin.2015.htm

http://correspondencechess.com/ccca/can.vs.cro.2015.htm

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NAPZ Events and Stats 2015By Jason Bokar

The NAPZ Tournament Office oversees two tournament types:

1. The NAPZ Promotional Tournaments 2. The NAPZ Championship

1. NAPZ Promotional TournamentsThe NAPZ Promotional tournaments provide a means for NAPZ players to increase their playing strength and to qualify ultimately for the NAPZ Championship and other highly rated ICCF tournaments. The NAPZ Championship, in turn, offers high-ranking NAPZ players a chance to qualify for titles and possible entry into the World Championship cycle.

The NAPZ Promotional series, dormant for several years, was reinstated March 2013.

Promotion Tournaments 2012 2013 2014 2015**NAPZ Open Class N/A 123 191 78NAPZ Higher Class N/A 45 65 30NAPZ Master Class N/A 48 43 35

2015 is on track to be at the same level as 2014.

2. NAPZ Championship TournamentThe 12th North American Invitational Championship (NAIC) began August 2013. This event served as the Zone 3 Championship as the 4th NAPZ championship. We have a winner! Kenneth Holroyd claims undisputed 1st place! Congratulations Ken!

The 5th NAPZ Championship has also started this year (April 30, 2015) and is ongoing. We have qualifiers from 6 different countries! Play is ongoing!

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18d - Zone 4 Report

It is my privilege to report on our zone’s activities over the past year since the Congress of 2014 held in Sydney – Australia

The Zonal Team

The zonal team consists of the following officials:

Zonal Director (ZD) and Tournament Organiser (TO):SIM Everdinand Knol of South Africa.

Deputy Zonal Director (DZD) and webmaster:Sailesh Chandra of India.

Tournament Directors (TD): Dr Amber Chatterjee of India.Francisco Carapinha of Cape Verde.Alok Saxena of India.SIM Dr Michael Millstone (IA) of USA.

Website

Our DZD has established a website for our zone. It is a small but promising beginning and we will support him with the development of it in the future. We thank him for his efforts and wish him the best of luck.

For more information, please visit the site at https://iccfafroasia.wordpress.com

Tournaments

The following tournaments were started during the past year:

The TO for all these events is SIM Everdinand Knol:

On 16 January 2015: The 13th Africa/Asia Zonal Championship Final – TD SIM Dr Michael Millstone (IA).

On 17 February 2015: The 15th Africa/Asia Zonal Championship Semi Final:

TD section A – Dr Amber Chatterjee.TD section B – Francisco Carapinha.TD section C – Alok Saxena.

The following tournaments are still in progress:

The 17th Africa/Asia Zonal Championship Preliminary Sections A to D – TD Francisco Carapinha.

The 17th Africa/Asia Zonal Championship Preliminary Sections E to H – TD Alok Saxena. The 17th Africa/Asia Zonal Championship Preliminary Sections I and J – TD Dr Amber

Chatterjee.

https://iccfafroasia.wordpress.com/

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The following tournaments have been completed during this year:

The 12th Africa/Asia Zonal Championship Final which was won by GM Mark F Noble from New Zealand.

The 14th Africa/Asia Zonal Championship Semi Finals. The 16th Africa/Asia Zonal Championship Preliminaries.

This zone intends to start the following tournaments during the coming year – the format will depend on the amount of entries received.

The 6th Africa Continental Championship. The 6th Asia Continental Championship.

The interest in the two above mentioned continental championships is not very encouraging and the matter will receive attention.

The 14th Africa/Asia Zonal Championship Final. The 16th Africa/Asia Zonal Championship Semi Finals. The 18th Africa/Asia Zonal Championship Preliminaries.

Appreciations

In conclusion, I thank all the people mentioned in this report as well as a special word of thanks to all the players from our zone many of whom are still participating in cc events under various forms of difficult economic and political circumstances.

SIM Everdinand KnolZonal Director for Africa/Asia – July 2015

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20 - Internal Matters

[VOTE] - Proposal 012 - Delegates Not Able to Attend Congress

A pre-Congress online voting system will replace much of the current system of proxies representing delegates who are not able to attend Congress. All proposals to Congress will be presented on the ICCF website and will be available to anyone who has an ICCF ID and password. Immediately following the deadline for officials’ reports, the proposals will be closed for comment; at this point, all the comments by ICCF officials will be shown alongside the proposals.

As soon as proposals are closed for comment, they will become open for online voting; all ICCF delegates will be able to see the following five options under each proposal:

1. I have not yet discussed this proposal with my federation and I do not yet have an opinion.2. I have discussed this proposal with my federation and I vote in favour of the proposal.3. I have discussed this proposal with my federation and I vote against the proposal.4. I would like to participate in the Congress discussion about this proposal, and I will decide

how to vote following this discussion5. My proxy (or delegate designee) will participate in the Congress discussion about this

proposal, and I trust him or her to vote in the best interests of my federation.

Option 1 will be selected by default.

If option 1 is selected, there will be no vote cast for this proposal by the federation, and the delegate, delegate designee, or proxy will have no vote at Congress. If either option 2 or 3 are selected, then the vote will be automatically cast and the delegate, delegate designee, or proxy will have no further vote on this proposal at Congress. If either option 4 or 5 are selected, the delegate, delegate designee, or proxy will have the opportunity to vote in person at Congress.

Online voting will be closed 7-days before the opening of Congress. Votes cast will be secret until the completion of live voting for that proposal. A spreadsheet will be generated of the voting for each proposal to facilitate the work of the General Secretary at Congress.

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[VOTE] - Proposal 012 - Enfranchisement for Delegates Who Are Not Able to Attend Congress


Subtotal: 47 36 7 3 1


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Proposal 020 - Honorary Member and Lifetime Achievement Awards (Statute Vote)

1. Honorary Membership

The ICCF has an unwritten rule that Honorary Membership of the ICCF is awarded to players for 25 years of outstanding service and distinction to the ICCF, or earlier if Congress considers the recipient to be deserving of Honorary Membership.

It is proposed that formal adoption occurs that Honorary Membership is awarded to players for 25 years of outstanding service and distinction to the ICCF, or earlier if Congress considers the recipient to be deserving of Honorary Membership.

2. Lifetime Achievement Award

The ICCF has an unwritten rule that the Lifetime Achievement Award is awarded to players for 50 years of outstanding service and distinction to the ICCF. This is far too long, and some players with significant exceptional service and distinction to the ICCF are currently unlikely to receive this award even though they are deserving of it.

It is proposed that formal adoption occurs that the Lifetime Achievement Award is awarded to players for 35 years of exceptional service and distinction to the ICCF, or earlier if Congress considers the recipient to be deserving of this award.

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[Vote] - Proposal 020 - Honorary Member and Lifetime Achievement Awards (Statute Vote)


Subtotal: 47 40 3 3 1

Needed for Statute Change (2/3) 28.7

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Proposal 028 - Increasing the Timeliness of Manual Updates

Current rules preclude changes to ICCF documents without specific votes by the Congress even when those rules, procedures, and lists of duties are found to be in error. This proposal is to allow a specific two people, the Chair of the Arbiter Committee (ACO) and the Rules Commissioner (RC), to make certain types of changes to existing ICCF documents without specific prior Congress approval. The only types of changes either of these people would be allowed to make would be the following:

(a) When automation (through the server) has changed the procedure for accomplishing something as compared to how a (now outdated) segment of a document states the procedure should be accomplished;

(b) When any error is found in any ICCF document, as compared to what was intended at the time the entry was made;

(c) When the purpose is solely to clarify a portion of a document if a portion has been found to be insufficiently clear (that is, either being open to two different interpretations or lacking in detail in describing what is required); and

(d) When the purpose is to remedy a conflict between two documents, or segments of the same document (such conflicts most typically occurring when one document is updated and not all other documents were updated in concordance). When addressing such a conflict, the determination of which entry (between conflicting ones) to favour will be either (i) the newer entry (if it can be determined which entry is newer than the other(s)) or, if relative newness cannot be determined, then (ii) from a poll by the ACO Chair or RC of the Executive Board members that results in uniform agreement of everyone who responds to the poll within 2 weeks of its circulation. Without the fulfilment of either one of these options, any conflict of rules will still need to be resolved by the Congress and cannot be changed by the ACO Chair or RC.

Under no circumstance should this proposal be read to allow either the ACO Chair or the RC to make any change on his/her own to any existing document where that change would constitute a new rule or procedure beyond the types listed above.

When the ACO Chair or the RC makes any change to any document, that official will use the server mailing system to inform everyone of relevance of the change. After that notification, the change will be considered in effect, without any Congress vote. Subsequent to that notification, anyone affected by the change who believes the change constitutes something beyond the above, such as being a new rule instead of simply a clarification, that person can file an appeal to the Appeals Committee (Other ICCF Rules) which will address the appeal in its usual manner.

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[Vote] - Proposal 028 - Increasing the Timeliness of Manual Updates

Modified to read, “Increasing the Timeliness of Manual Updates (with provision that after the proposed change, a review, and approval by the Executive Board is required to approve the change(s)).


Subtotal: 47 41 2 3 1


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Deadlines to 2016 Congress

General Secretary, Michael Millstone, shared detailed timeline deadlines to the 2016 Congress.

Deadlines Timelines to 2016 Congress

Deadlines+ for Congress – 2016 (Bremen, Germany)+ dead-line (noun)dead.line [‘ded,lain] (dead.lines)Time limit – the time by which something must be done or completed

Most etymologists agree that the word “deadline” first appeared during the American Civil War (1861-1865).According to author Christine Ammer, deadline was coined at the hellish Andersonville, GA prison camp, and first appeared in writing in the report of Confederate Inspector-General, Colonel D.T. Chandler, on July 5, 1864. In describing the horrific conditions, he famously wrote:

The Federal prisoners of war are confined within a stockade 15 feet high, of roughly hewn pine logs, about 8 inches in diameter, inserted 5 feet into the ground, enclosing, including the recent extension, an area of 540 by 260 yards. A railing around the inside of the stockade, and about 20 feet from it, constitutes the “deadline,” beyond which the prisoners are not allowed to pass . . . [as a large portion is] at present unfit for occupation . . . [this] gives somewhat less than 6 square feet to each prisoner . . .

An even earlier writing of the term in an inspection report on Andersonville from Confederate Captain Walter Bowie on May 10, 1864:

On the inside of the stockade and twenty feet from it there is a dead-line established, over which no prisoner is allowed to go, day or night, under penalty of being shot.

An October 31, 1865 Report of the Secretary of War that was introduced in the Trial of Henry Wirz (the prison keeper at Andersonville):

And he, the said Wirz, still wickedly pursuing his evil purpose, did establish and cause to be designated within the prison enclosures containing said prisoners a “dead line,” being a line around the inner face of the stockade or wall enclosing said prison and about twenty feet distant from and within said stockade; and so established said dead line, which was in many places an imaginary line, in many other places marked by insecure and shifting strips of [boards nailed] upon the tops of small and insecure stakes or posts, he, the said Wirz, instructed the prison guard stationed around the top of said stockade to fire upon and kill any of the prisoners aforesaid who might touch, fall upon, pass over or under [or] across said “dead line” . . .

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Tasks (weeks before Congress) Deadline Description

Congress Documents (T-20) March 28, 2016 Congress invitations, programme, and agenda are distributed.

Proposals Deadline(T-14) May 9, 2016

All proposals to be considered for the 2016 Congress voting must be submitted to the General Secretary by either a National Delegate or ICCF Official.

Delegate and substitute delegate selections due (T-6)

July 4, 2016All Delegates, Honorary Presidents, and Honorary Members must register as voting members with the ICCF General Secretary. No voting member will be accepted after this deadline.

Officials Reports Due (T-6) July 4, 2016 All EB/MC Reports due to the General Secretary for Distribution

Voting Member Distribution(T-4)

July 18, 2016 The ICCF General Secretary will distribute to the Member Federation Delegates the list of voting members attending Congress.

Proxy Nominations Due (T-2) August 1, 2016

Member Federations wishing to assign a proxy must send their written declaration to the ICCF General Secretary. No new proxy nominations or change in proxy nominations will be accepted after this deadline.

Medals(T-2) August 1, 2016 Officials responsible for collecting medals/certificates of

players/teams will be identified.Proposal Voting(T-1) August 8, 2016 Deadline to enter online votes for any/all proposals closes.

Voting Member and Proxy Distributions(T-1)

August 8, 2016 The list of voting members and proxies will be distributed by the ICCF General Secretary.

EB/MC Meetings August 14, 2016 EB/MC Meeting starts the day before Congress.Congress Starts(T-0) August 15, 2016 Full Congress starts on August 15

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21. Commissions, Committee, and Working Groups

All ICCF Committees and Commissions Members were reviewed. The present membership is identified below.

Rules CommissionDennis Doren, USA (Rules Commissioner; ACO Chair)

Thomas Biedermann, USA (Deputy Rules Commissioner)Josef Mrkvička, CZENikolay Poleschuk, RUSUwe Staroske, GERSergey Grodzenskiy, RUSJean-Christophe Chazalette, FRAJuan Alberto Martello, ARGGerhard Binder, GERRagnar Wikman, FINKenneth Reinhard, USALeo Lahdenmäki, FIN

Ex-officio members:Eric Ruch, FRAMichael Millstone, USA

Rating CommissionGerhard Binder, GER (Chair)

Mariusz Wojnar, POL, (Deputy Ratings Commissioner)George Pyrich, SCOJo Wharrier, ENGRagnar Wikman. FINValery Myakutin, RUSAnthony Kain, USA


Marketing CommitteeAndrew Dearnley, ENG (Chair)

Gino Figlio, PERUwe Staroske, GERWillem Adrianus Oudheusden, NEDBrian Jones, AUSMichael Millstone, USARon Langeveld, NEDZonal Directors

Services Committee (SC)Chair: Austin Lockwood, WLS (ICCF Services Director)

Deputy: Gino Figlio, PER


Other ICCF officers to be co-opted on an ad-hoc basis for consultation where appropriate.

CommissionersGerhard Binder, GER (Ratings Commissioner)

Mariusz Wojnar, POL (Qualifications Commissioner)Gino Figlio, PER (Webmaster)Ian M. Pheby, ENG (Direct Entry Commissioner)

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Testing TeamAustin Lockwood, WLS (Team Lead)

All ICCF officials are expected to contribute to testing updates, which fall under their specific area of responsibility.

Translation TeamAustin Lockwood, WLS (Team Lead)

Eric Ruch, FRAGino Figlio, PER(Core team only listed here; other translators may be co-opted for specific tasks and languages).

Web Content TeamAndrew Dearnley, ENG (ICCF Marketing Director, Team Lead)

Gino Figlio, PER (Webmaster)Eric Ruch, FRAWillem Adrianus Oudheusden, NED

Documentation Team (Help Files)Austin Lockwood, WLS (Team Lead)

Gino Figlio, PER (Webmaster)Tony Kain, USARex Cristal, USAJason Bokar, USAJim Ramsden, AUS (Proofreading)Dennis Doren, USARussell Sherwood, WLS

Accessibility TeamAustin Lockwood, WLS (Team Lead)

Peter Maylott, AUS

Helpdesk TeamGino Figlio, PER (Helpdesk Manager/Team Lead)

Ian M. Pheby, ENGAustin Lockwood, WLSMarkus Hömske, FRAJason Bokar, USA

Professional ConsultationMartin Bennedik, GER (Development)Neil Limbert, ENG (Testing)

Appeals Committee (Playing Rules)Ragnar Wikman, FIN, (Chair)

Ian Brooks, ENGMarco Caressa, ITACarlos Flores (ESP)Leo Lahdenmäki, FINRalph Marconi, CANPer Söderberg, SWEWes Underwood (USA)

Appeals Committee (Other ICCF Rules)Leonard (Corky) Schakel, USA (Chair)

Artis Gaujens, LATPablo Salcedo Mederos, CUBAlok Saxena, IND

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Arbitration CommitteeRichard V.M. Hall, ENG (Chair)

Alan P. Borwell, SCOFritz Baumbach, GERRagnar Wikman, FINBrian Jones, AUS

Disciplinary CommitteeFrank Geider, FRA (Chair)

Marco Caressa, ITAJuan Alberto Martello, ARGAndrey Nikolaevich Pavlikov, RUSLeonard (Corky) Schakel, USADinand Knol, RSA

Arbiter CommitteeDennis Doren, Chair

SIM Thomas Biedermann; International Arbiter IM Valer-Eugen Demian; International Arbiter IM Frank Geider, World Tournament Director; International Arbiter Markus Hömske; Peter Maylott; International Arbiter GM Zdeněk Nývlt; International Arbiter SIM Ian Pheby, Direct Entry Commissioner; International Arbiter IM George Pyrich, Finance Director; International Arbiter IM Ragnar Wikman, Chair of Appeals Committee (Playing Rules)International Arbiter Mariusz Wojnar, Qualifications Commissioner

2015 Congress Working Groups

Working Group 1 - Financial IssuesCharter:

Provide impact of approving Proposal ICCF 2015-002 Calculate a new scheme, if necessary, for adoption of Proposal ICCF 2015-002 With a given budget, define how to run a Congress differently with goals of more efficiency and more

participants.George Pyrich, SCO (Chair)

Andrew Dearnley, ENGUlrich Baumgartner, SUIWillem Adrianus Oudheusden, NEDMichael Millstone, USA

Working Group 2 - Time Controls and Leave IssuesDennis Doren, USA (Chair)

Austin Lockwood, WLSMichael Millstone, USARon Langeveld, NEDGino Figlio, PER

Working Group 3 - Norm CalculationsAustin Lockwood, WLS (Chair)

Dr. Mark Glickman (Contractor)Gerhard BinderTony KainMariusz Wojnar

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22. Future Meetings

Germany presented a proposal to host the 2016 Congress in Bremen, Germany from August 14 to 20. Some highlights of the proposal are presented below:

Basic Facts about Bremen

The Free Hanseatic city of Bremen (short: State of Bremen) is the smallest state of Germany’s 16 states. The State of Bremen consists of two cities: Bremen and Bremerhaven. Both cities are separated from each other and surrounded by Lower Saxony.

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The city of Bremerhaven is a rather young town; it was founded in 1827 by Johann Smidt, although early settlements were founded already in the 12th century. In a literal sense, “Bremerhaven” means the harbour of Bremen – and indeed, it has a long history as a trade port. Bremerhaven is located at the mouth of the River Weser and is playing today an important role in Germany’s trade. The city of Bremen has a very long history and tradition. It is said to be founded in 787 – in this year Willehad of Bremen became the Bishop of Bremen.

Today Bremen is a commercial and industrial city with a major port on the River Weser. It is situated about 60 km (37 mi) south from the Weser mouth (and from Bremerhaven) on the North Sea.

Patron saint: Ansgar

Inhabitants: about 660.000 (Bremen: 550.000; Bremerhaven: 110.000)

ClimateBremen has a moderate oceanic climate due to its proximity to the North Sea coast and temperate maritime air masses that move in with the predominantly westerly winds from the Atlantic Ocean. However, periods in which continental air masses predominate may occur at any time of the year and can lead to heat waves in the summer and prolonged periods of frost in the winter. In general, though, extremes are rare in Bremen.

The warmest months in Bremen are June, July, and August, with average high temperatures of 20.2 to 22.6 °C (68.4 to 72.7 °F). The coldest are December, January, and February, with average low temperatures of -1.1 to 0.3 °C (30.0 to 32.5 °F). Typical of its maritime location, autumn tends to remain mild well into October while spring arrives later than in the southwestern parts of the country.

Travelling to BremenBy Air

In terms of its proximity to the city centre, Bremen City Airport is hard to beat. The distance from the airport to the centre of Bremen is only 3.5 kilometres. You can catch tram no. 6 from right outside the terminal. Alternatively, it is easy to buy a ticket from the machine on the tram.The journey by tram from the airport to the city centre and to the congress centre (Domsheide stop) takes only nine minutes (departures at least every ten minutes; every 20 mins. from 8pm.). Taxi transfers to the Exhibition and Congress Centre also take around 15 minutes (fare approx. €14.00).The airport is also easily accessible by road – it even has its own link to the A281 highway.Bremen's international airport offers direct flights to many destinations and the most important German and European hubs.

How to Get ThereTram: 6Stop: Flughafen (Airport)For intercontinental flights it is recommended to fly to one of the larger airports (Frankfurt, Hamburg, Berlin, Hannover) and then to Bremen. Flights from all major cities to Bremen are available. There is a direct train connection between these cities and Bremen.

By RailThere is a railroad connection from all major European or German cities to Bremen. The distance from the main station to the Congress Hotel is about 1,5 km. Bus and tram services run from the square outside the station. There is also a tram from the station to the Congress Hotel.

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By RoadThe Bremer Kreuz intersection is a major transport hub linking the A27 Cuxhaven-Bremerhaven-Hannover highway and the A1 Hamburg-Osnabrück-Rhineland highway. Bremen can also be reached via the A28 highway from East Friesland and Groningen in the Netherlands as well as via the A 29 highway. The easiest route into the city centre is via the Bremen-Arsten or Bremen-Hemelingen exits from the A1. There is a state-of-the-art traffic management system in the city centre.Underground parking in the hotel: EUR 20,-- / 24 hours

Bremen Low-Emission Zone

Bremen's low-emission zone came into effect in January 2009. Only cars displaying the green discs are permitted to travel in the districts of Altstadt and Östliche Vorstadt, some parts of Schwachhausen and most of Neustadt. If you are staying in accommodation within the low-emission zone, you can drive in this area for the duration of your stay without having to display a disc. Instead, you must display a booking confirmation that is clearly visible though the front windscreen and that indicates where you are staying and how long for.

This does not apply if you are staying in accommodation outside the low-emission zone. If this is the case, you will need a green disc or special dispensation to drive your vehicle in this area.The Bürgerweide car park is located outside the low-emission zone. The ÖVB Arena and the exhibition centre remain accessible via Daniel-von-Büren-Strasse, Friedrich-Rauers-Strasse and Falkenstrasse, Kaufmannsmühlenkamp and Findorffstrasse. To use the other multi-storey car parks in Bremen city centre, however, you will need a valid disc.

Accommodations

Radisson Blu Hotel BremenBöttcherstraße 2D-28195 BremenTelefon: +49 (0)421 - 36960Fax: +49 (0)421 - 3696 960Email: [email protected]

Rooms

Single room: EUR 109, -- /dayDouble room: EUR 125, --/dayBreakfast includedFree Wi-Fi throughout the hotelBusiness Centre (open 24 hours): 2 computers, 1 printerFitness centre, indoor pool, saunaRooms are available up to 8 weeks before the start of the CongressKeyword: Deutscher Fernschachbund e. V.

Alternative lower cost accommodation available within walking distance:IBIS Hotel Bremen RembertiringRembertiring 51, 28203 BremenTel.: +49-421-36970Fax: +49-421-3697109email: [email protected]://www.ibis.com/de/hotel-0738-ibis-bremen-city/index.shtml

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

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Web: www.bdf-fernschachbund.de/bremen

Congress ProgrammeSunday, 14th August 2016· Arrival of delegates· Meeting of the ICCF Executive Board· Meeting of the ICCF Management Committee· Welcome Party, Radisson Blu, Bremen 19 – 22

Congress ProgrammeMonday, 15 August 2016Opening CeremonyCongress Day oneOpening Banquet in the hotel Radisson Blu, BöttcherstrasseAccompanying persons programme

Congress Programme Tuesday, 16th August and Wednesday, 17th August 2016Congress Day 2 and 3Accompanying persons programmeThursday, 18th August 2016ExcursionFriday, 19th August 2016 Short excursionClosing Banquet [Optional reservation: Bremer Ratskeller. www.ratskeller.de]The Bremer Ratskeller is a very traditional place: it was built in the 14th century (first mentioned in 1342). German wine is offered exclusively and the wine cellar probably offers the largest variety and best quality of German wine. The Bremer Ratskeller was honoured with many wine prices, among others in 2001, the “Best German Wine List”. The Ratskeller is part of the Town Hall and therefore also on the World Heritage List

Saturday, 20th August 2016Departure of delegates

By a unanimous show of hands, Congress has approved the Germany proposal to host the 2016 Congress.

http://www.ratskeller.de/

http://www.bdf-fernschachbund.de/bremen

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Appendix 1 - Tournament Rules - Input

File below with track changes in comparison to current TR2015. Key: insertion - red on yellow, deletion - black (strikethrough) on blue, input for 2017 rules - red on green.

Appendix 1


Tournament Rules (effective from 1.1.2016)

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Table of Contents

OverviewTitle Championship TournamentsPromotion TournamentsWorld Cup TournamentsNorm TournamentsChampions’ LeagueSpecial TournamentsTie BreakingWithdrawal & SubstitutionsRating numbersTitlesRules for International Team TournamentsRules for Invitational TournamentsPlayers‘ EligibilityLive Display of GamesAppeals

Appendix I: The working Rules of the Rating SystemAppendix II: International Chess Title Regulations

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Overview

0.1 The correspondence chess tournaments of the ICCF are divided into:(a) Title Championship Tournaments, (b) Promotion Tournaments,(c) Cup Tournaments,(d) Norm Tournaments(e) ICCF League(f) Special Tournaments.

0.2 Normally, the entry fee for each tournament will be decided by Congress. Entry to a tournament will be accepted only if it is accompanied by payment of the entry fee to the collection agency designated by the ICCF.

0.3 Unless explicitly stated otherwise each player plays one game simultaneously againsteach of the other players in the tournament or section; the colour will be decided by lot.

Title Championship Tournaments

1.0.1 The ICCF Title Championship Tournaments comprise:(a) World Correspondence Chess Championships (Individual)(b) Ladies World Correspondence Chess Championships (Individual)(c) Correspondence Chess Olympiads (World Championships for National Teams)(d) Ladies Correspondence Chess Olympiads (World Championships for Ladies National Teams)(e) Grandmaster Norm and Master Norm Tournaments.

1.0.2 The World Championships organised by the ICCF comprise Preliminaries, Semi-Finals, Candidates' Tournament and Final.

1.0.3 The Preliminaries, Semi-Finals and Candidates' Tournaments comprise separate sections played normally by post and by webserver. The qualifications reached in postal tournaments can be used in webserver tournaments. Participation of players in webserver tournaments using ‘nodes’ is allowed in the Candidates’ Tournaments and Final only.

1.0.4 The scheduling of World Championships Finals is the responsibility of the ICCF Title Championship Tournaments Commissioner, in consultation with Executive Board / Congress. Announcements of the Finals will be published at the latest 4 months before they start.

1.0.5 The Preliminaries, Semi-Finals and Candidates' Tournaments are each started annually on a fixed date. Entries must be sent to the ICCF Title Championship Tournaments Commissioner at the latest at the date shown in the announcement of the Tournament. In cases of emergency, the ICCF Title Championship Tournaments Commissioner is entitled to extend the deadline for entries or to shift forward the start of the Tournament. The division into groups in the Preliminaries, Semi-Finals and Candidates' Tournaments will be done by the ICCF Title Championship Tournaments Commissioner with the aim of producing groups of equal strength. All necessary information with regard to the category of the tournament, title norms and promotional provisions will be given prior to the start of the tournament.

1.0.6 For information purposes only, the ICCF Title Championship Tournaments Commissioner will publish on the ICCF website a regularly updated overview of all players who have achieved the various qualifications ("Table of Qualifiers").

1.0.7 The qualifications for the Preliminaries, Semi-Finals and Candidates' Tournaments reached in accordance with this part of Tournament Rules (paragraphs 1.1 to 1.3)can be used only once, except for the special qualification provisions based on the World Champion titles, ICCF titles or rating points achieved: these can be used only once each calendar year and only at the appropriate level or stage. From one Preliminary, Semi-Final, Candidates' Tournament or Final, it is only possible to reach one qualification for a further World Championship stage. Qualifications based on results in tournaments are valid for 3 years from the end of the tournament in which the qualification was obtained. Each additional qualification achieved by a player at the same level will be valid for one additional year (for example, a second qualification will be valid for 4 years from the end of the tournament in which the qualification was

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obtained). The Ladies Grandmaster and Ladies International Master titles do not entitle their holders to participate in the World Championship Semi-Finals or Candidates' Tournament.

1.0.8 ELO ratings used in these Rules refer to any of those rating lists published in the preceding 12-months.

1.0.9 Ties are broken when considering qualifications for the Preliminaries, Semi-Finals, Candidates' Tournaments and Finals.

1.0.10 In each calendar year, each member Federation will be allowed to nominate two players for the WCCC Preliminaries or Semi-Finals. Additionally, for Federations declaring 200+ members (according to the membership fee statistics) for the previous year, 1 extra Member Federation Nomination (MFN) will be allowed, for Federations declaring 500+ members 2 extra MFN will be allowed, for 1000+ members 3 extraMFN, for 2000+ members 4 extra MFN and for 5000+ members 5 extra MFN. MFN’s shall be allocated to either Preliminaries or Semi-Finals according to their ratings – those with ratings (fixed or unfixed) less than 2400 shall be allocated to Preliminaries whilst those with ratings of 2400 and above shall be allocated to Semi-Finals.

1.0.11 On special and exceptional occasions, the ICCF Executive Board is entitled to announce special tournaments which provide qualifications for the Preliminaries, Semi-Finals, Candidates' Tournaments or Finals. The exact conditions of promotions must be fixed in the announcement of the particular Tournament. Furthermore, the ICCF Executive Board will decide on any application not covered by this regulation.

Preliminaries of the World Correspondence Chess Championship

1.1.1 The following will reach a full qualification to enter a Preliminary section:(a) the participants in one of the previous or running Candidates' Tournaments who have scored at least 40% of the possible points if they have not earned a higher qualification(b) the participants in one of the previous or running Semi-Finals who scored at least 50% of the possible points, if they have not earned a higher qualification(c) participants in one of the previous or running Preliminary sections who finished in place 3 or 4 or scored at least 60% of possible points but did not qualify for a Semi-Final(d) winners of ICCF World Tournaments – Master class(e) the participants in one of the previous or running ICCF World Cup Finals who scored at least 50% of the possible points(f) the participants in one of the previous or running acknowledged Zonal Championships of Category IX or higher who scored at least 50% of the possible points(g) participants in acknowledged Zonal Championships of Category VIII or below who finished in place 3 or 4 or scored at least 60% of possible points(h) those players, who are entered through their own national organisation and at the time of nomination have ratings less than 2400 (fixed or unfixed).(i) The holders of the International Master Title with a rating above 2300(j) the holders of the Senior International Master Title with a rating above 2250(k) the holders of the Grandmaster Title(l) Any player with a rating of 2500 and above.1.1.2 The following will reach a half qualification to enter a Preliminary section.(a) those players who achieve 2nd place in a Master Class group.

1.1.3 Normally a Preliminary section will consist of 13 participants. The Title Championship Tournaments Commissioner shall have the power to increase the number of players to 15 or 17. Normally a maximum of 30 Preliminary sections will be started each year.

Semi-Finals of the World Correspondence Chess Championship

1.2.1 The following will be entitled to enter a Semi-Final:(a) the participants in one of the previous or running Finals if they have not earned a higher qualification(b) the participants in one of the previous or running Candidates' Tournaments whohave scored at least 50% of the possible points if they have not earned a higher qualification(c) the participants in one of the previous or running Semi-Finals who finished in place 3 or 4 or scored at least 60% of the possible points but did not qualify for the Candidates' Tournament(d) the first and second placed players from a Preliminary section(e) the participants in a Final of the ICCF World Cup Tournament who finished in place 3 or 4 or scored at least 60% of the possible points

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(f) the participants in one of the previous or running acknowledged Zonal Championships of Category IX or higher who finished in place 3 or 4 or scored at least 60% of the possible points(g) the two top finishers from the acknowledged Zonal Championships of the tournament Category VIII or below(h) those players, who, at the time of nomination have ratings of 2400 and higher, are entered through their own national organisation(i) the holders of the Correspondence Chess International Master title with fixed ratings above 2500(j) the holders of the Correspondence Chess Senior International Master title with fixed ratings above 2450(k) the holders of the Grandmaster Title with ratings above 2400(l) those players who have a fixed rating above 2550.

1.2.2 Normally, a Semi-Final section will consist of 13 participants. The Title Championship Tournament Commissioner shall have the power to increase the number of players to 15 or 17. Normally a maximum of 18 Semi-Final sections will be started each year.

Candidates' Tournament

1.3.1 The following will be entitled to enter the Candidates' Tournament:(a) the participants of one of the previous or running Finals who scored at least 50% of the possible points,(b) the participants in one of the previous or running Candidates' Tournaments who finished in place 2 (in the exceptional event of only one qualifying place for the Final being available), 3 or 4 or scored at least 60% of the possible points but did not qualify for the Final,(c) the first and second placed players in every Semi-Final group(d) the first and second placed players in a Final of the ICCF World Cup Tournament(e) the first and second placed players from the acknowledged Zonal Championships of Category IX or higher(f) all previous World Correspondence Chess Champions(g) the holders of the Grandmaster Title with at least 5 Grandmaster norms(h) those players who have a fixed rating of 2600 and above.

1.3.2 Normally, the Candidates' Tournament sections will consist of 13 participants. The Title Championship Tournaments Commissioner shall have the power to increase the number of players to 15 or 17. Normally a maximum of 4 Candidates’ Tournament sections will be started each year.

Final of the World Correspondence Chess Championship

1.4.1 The following will be entitled to enter the Final:(a) the first, second and third placed players from one of the previous or running Finals(b) the first and second placed players from the Candidates' Tournaments. The Title Championship Tournaments Commissioner shall have the power to vary this rule if, exceptionally, more than 4 Candidates Tournament sections are started in a year. Any such variation shall be included in the tournament announcement.

1.4.2 The Final should normally consist of 17 participants.

1.4.3 The Final qualifications can be deferred only once, except for the former World Champions, who are entitled to enter once in any of the following Finals if they express their interest to participate and request their inclusion one month before the deadline at the latest.

1.4.4 Where vacancies exist for a Final, after all qualifiers wishing to play have been included, then the Executive Board may admit the next qualified players from the previous Final or Candidates, namely those who failed to qualify on the basis of a tie-break. The Executive Board also has the right to grant up to two free places on the basis of extraordinary international performance.

Semi - Finals of the Ladies World Correspondence Chess World Championship

1.5.1 The following will be entitled to enter a Semi-Final:(a) the participants of one of the two previous or running Finals who have scored at least 30% of the possible points,(b) the participants of one of the two previous or running Semi-Finals who finished in place 3 or 4 or scored at least 60% of the possible points,(c) holders of the title International CC Ladies' Master and lady players who are entered through the individual national CC federations according to a quota set by the ICCF Title Championship Tournaments

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Commissioner and approved by the ICCF Executive Board,(d) those lady players whose most recent published rating prior to the tournament start date, corresponds to a minimum established by the ICCF Title Championship Tournaments Commissioner and approved by the ICCF Executive Board.

1.5.2 The assignment to the sections will be decided by the ICCF Title Championship Tournament Commissioner.

1.5.3 Normally, Semi-Final sections will comprise at least 9 players.

Final of the Ladies World Correspondence Chess World Championship

1.6.1 The Final will have at least 11 players.

1.6.2 The following will be entitled to enter the Final:(a) the top three finishers from the previous Final,(b) the winners and runners-up in each Semi-Final section

1.6.3 If several players with the right to take part drop out, the ICCF Title Championship Tournaments Commissioner may admit the next qualified players from the previous Final or Semi-Final. The Executive Board also has the right to grant up two free places on the basis of extraordinary international performance.

Correspondence Chess Olympiad (World Championship For National Teams)

1.7.1 The Correspondence Chess Olympiads will be played separately as team tournaments and may be played by post or webserver. Normally, the Correspondence Chess Olympiads played by post will be played in a three year cycle, and the Correspondence Chess Olympiads played by webserver will be played in a two year cycle.

1.7.2 The number of players in a team will be set out in the announcement.

1.7.3 The tournaments will consist of a preliminary round and a final round.

1.7.4 Normally, the final round will not consist of more than 13 teams.

1.7.5 Those ICCF member countries which have met their financial commitments are entitled to take part with one team each. At the discretion of the ICCF Executive Board, combined teams consisting of players from those countries with low levels of correspondence chess activity may be entered.

1.7.6 The first three teams of a final will qualify for the next final round.

1.7.7 The right to be promoted from the preliminaries as well as other details shall be determined by the ICCF Title Championship Tournaments Commissioner and approved by the Executive Board at the start of the tournament.

Ladies' Correspondence Chess Olympiad (World Championship For Ladies' NationalTeams)

1.8.1 The Ladies' Correspondence Chess Olympiads shall be played as team tournaments normally played by post or by webserver. The way of transmission of moves will be decided in the announcement.

1.8.2 The number of players in a team will be set out in the announcement.

1.8.3 The tournaments will consist of a preliminary round and a final round.

1.8.4 Normally, the final round will consist of not more than 11 teams.

1.8.5 Those ICCF member countries which have met their financial commitments are entitled to take part with one team each. At the discretion of the ICCF Executive Board, combined teams consisting of players from those countries with low levels of correspondence chess activity may be entered.

1.8.6 The first four teams of the each final will qualify for the next final round.

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1.8.7 The right to be promoted from the preliminaries as well as other details will be determined by the ICCF Title Championship Tournaments Commissioner and approved by the Executive Board at the start of the tournament.

Promotion Tournaments

2.1 The promotion tournaments will be played in 3 classes:(a) Open class,(b) Higher class,(c) Master class.

2.2 Master class tournaments will consist of 11 player sections. Higher and Open class shall have 7 players per section. All correspondence chess players are eligible to participate unless they are under suspension from ICCF play. Correspondence chess players from non-ICCF member countries will have to enter via the Direct Entry programme and they are eligible to take part in the World Championship cycle.

2.3 Tie-breaking will be used to determine the winners of promotion tournaments.

2.4 The following players have the right to participate in Open class tournaments:(a) a player new to ICCF or without an ICCF rating.(b) a player rated below 1900 at the time of application.

2.5 The following players have the right to participate in a Higher-class tournament:(a) a player rated 1900 to 2099 at the time of application.(b) a player who has won an Open class tournament is entitled to one start in the Higher class, regardless of rating.(c) a player without an ICCF rating who is nominated by the National Federation and accompanied by a statement of qualification.

2.6 The following players have the right to participate in a Master class tournament:(a) a player rated 2100 or above at the time of application.(b) a player who has won a Higher-class tournament is entitled to one start in the Master class, regardless of rating.(c) a player without an ICCF rating who is nominated by the National Federation and accompanied by a statement of qualification.Note: A FIDE rating will be considered as an unfixed ICCF rating, where applicable

World Cup Tournaments

3.1 A World Cup tournament will normally be started every second year.

3.2 Each round will be completed in two years.

3.3 Each group will consist of 7-11 players in the preliminary round; 9-13 in the intermediate and 9-15 in the final round. Each player plays one game with every player of his group simultaneously.

3.4 All groups of the preliminary and of the intermediate rounds start on the same day.

3.5 Only the group winner (ties to be decided by points evaluation) will be promoted to the next round. The group winners of the preliminary round and of the intermediate round win a prize. Prizes will be awarded to half the participants in the final round.

3.6 The winner of the final round has the right to take part in the final round of the next correspondence chess World Cup tournament without paying any entry fee. Participants in the final round have the right to take part in the intermediate round of the next correspondence chess World Cup tournament.

3.7 Additionally, participants in a World Cup Final can achieve rights to participate in World Correspondence Chess Championship Semifinals and/or Candidate sections.

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Norm Tournaments

4.1 ICCF norm tournaments comprise Master Norm tournaments and Grandmaster Norm tournaments. Organisation of these tournaments is the responsibility of the Title Championship Tournament Commissioner. Tournaments may be played by webserver or by post.

4.2 All sections of this tournament type offer title norms, which are specifically stated in the start list of the respective tournament section. Each section consists of 13 players (12 games for each player, 6 white and 6 black).

4.3 Only those players who meet one of the following qualifications have the right to participate in a Master Norm tournament:Fixed (based on more than 29 games) rating of at least 2300 on the latest ICCF rating list, orUnfixed (based on 12-29 games) rating of at least 2350 on the latest ICCF rating list, orFIDE rating of at least 2350 on the latest FIDE rating list, orPlayers who achieved places 1-3 in a National CC championship.

4.4 Only those players who meet one of the following qualifications have the right to participate in a Grandmaster Norm tournament:Fixed (based on more than 29 games) rating of at least 2450 on the latest ICCF rating list, or Unfixed (based on 12-29 games) rating of at least 2500 on the latest ICCF rating list, or FIDE rating of at least 2500 on the latest FIDE rating list.

4.5 Holders of the ICCF Grandmaster title or players with a fixed rating of 2600 or above on the latest ICCF rating list may participate in Grandmaster Norm Tournaments free of charge. Such entries coming from a player whose country is a member of ICCF shall be confirmed by the Member Federation Delegate. If the player comes from a country, which is not a member of ICCF, he must prove his identity to the satisfaction of the Title Championship Tournament Commissioner

4.6 Players without the qualifications listed in rules 4.3 and 4.4 may be allowed to participate in norm tournaments at the discretion of the Title Championship Tournament Commissioner if their participation does not lower the tournament category.

4.7 A player may only start one webserver norm tournament in each 6-month cycle (January to June and July to December). A player may only start one postal norm tournament in each calendar year.

Champions’ ICCF League

5.1 The Champions’ ICCF League is a tournament for teams of four players. Players within a team may be of any nationality or mixture of nationalities. Mixed teams of men and women are allowed. Each team must have a designated Team Captain and a name, preferably related to correspondence chess or chess in general.

5.2 Organisation of the Champions’ ICCF League is the responsibility of the Non-Title Other Tournaments Commissioner. All sections of the Champions’ ICCF League are played by webserver. The playing rules in effect are the ICCF Playing Rules for Webserver Team Tournaments except where modified by these Rules.

5.3 The League is played in seasons lasting approximately 2 years, with promotion and relegation at the end of each season. There are three divisions, A Champions, B Challenger and C Promotional. Division A Champions comprises one group, while divisions B Challenger and C Promotional have multiple groups. Each player plays one game against each of the other players on the same board in the same group.

5.4 Groups will normally comprise 11 or 13 teams but these numbers may be varied as necessary to accommodate all entered teams. The composition of each division and the numbers of teams to be promoted and relegated will be determined for each season based on the number of entered teams and will be announced as soon as possible after the closing date for entries.

5.5 No player may play for more than one team in a season. Players can transfer from one team to another only at the beginning of each new season.

5.6 New teams can enter the Champions’ ICCF League at the beginning of any new season. Changes of team name between seasons are allowed.

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5.7 A team is allowed to replace players during and between the seasons. The number of replaced players is limited only to the following rule: If all the four players in a team are changed within two seasons, then the team will normally be relegated to a lower division. Exceptions of this rule are possible at the discretion of the Non-Title Other Tournaments Commissioner.

Special Tournaments

6.1 Special tournaments e.g. Invitational or Memorial tournaments, Thematic tournaments, etc., will be announced separately by the ICCF Executive Board.

6.2 Organisation of international correspondence chess tournaments by national correspondence chess organisations require the approval of the ICCF World Tournament Director before their announcement. Invitations to individual players for such authorised tournaments should be made with the permission of the national correspondence chess organisation of which the player in question is a member.

Tie Breaking

7.1 Tie-breaking is used in all tournaments organised by ICCF, unless the tournament announcement specifically states that ties will not be broken. The following will apply for two or more players, or two or more teams, with the same number of points:

7.2 Individual tournaments:(a) number of wins by each tied player in the tournament,(b) points evaluation by the Sonneborn-Berger-System,(c) results of the tied players against each other.

7.3 Team Tournaments:(a) tie breaking on the basis of team results (2 additional points for a won match, 1additional point for a drawn match),(b) the results of the tied teams against each other.(c) better individual result on bd.1 (following bd.2, 3 etc.)

7.4 If necessary, the organiser of the tournament is entitled to set up further tie-breaking procedures. These procedures must be indicated in the start list at the latest.

7.5 If players or teams are still tied after all relevant tie-breaking procedures have been used, the players or teams will be considered equal.

Withdrawal & Substitutions

8.1 Players who need to withdraw must forward an application to the Tournament Directorgiving adequate reasons for the withdrawal. All opponents must be informed of the withdrawal and that the Tournament Director has been notified. A player who withdraws after receiving the start list and before the start date will:(a) forfeit any entry fee paid, and(b) forfeit qualification rights, if applicable.However, in team events such changes do count against the number of changes per team which are allowed in 8d of the playing rules concerning teams

8.2 The Tournament Director will accept the following reasons for the withdrawal as adequate:(a) Death(b) Serious and debilitating illness which make it impossible for the player to continue play for a period of at least 3 months.(c) Circumstances outside the control of the player which make it impossible for him to continue play for a period of at least 3 months (Wars, civil unrest, natural disasters and other similar circumstances)(d) Personal circumstances of the player which make it impossible for him to continue play for a period of at least 3 months. These circumstances may be varied but must be detailed in full at the time of application.

8.3 Approved applications result in the withdrawal of that player from all ICCF-approved events in which they are participating. TD's/TO’s will advise the ICCF World Tournament Director, who will maintain a record of all such applications and notify the player's federation and the Ratings Commissioner must also be informed.

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Players who are subsequently found to have abused the privileges afforded by this Rule will automatically receive a suspension from all ICCF events for a period of 5 years.Players who are granted an "Accepted Withdrawal" may not enter any ICCF event for at least 6 months afterwards. When submitting applications under paragraph. d) players must provide full details of their games to that point. Whenever possible, such details should also be provided for applications under paragraphs. a) - c).

8.4 If the reason for the withdrawal is considered inadequate and not accepted by the Tournament Director, or a second withdrawal according to paragraph 8.3 occurs within a short time, the case will be forwarded to the respective Tournament Office for review, and consultation with the appropriate national federation. If the withdrawal application is confirmed to be inadequate and not accepted, the player will be given the option to continue the games. A player who nevertheless withdraws is considered as a "Not Accepted Withdrawal" in all ICCF-approved events in which he is participating and may not enter any ICCF events for at least 12 months. Additionally, a bond will be paid on entry to the next tournament to be held by the federation initially collecting the entry. This will be at least double the entry fee and will be refunded if the conduct has been regular at the conclusion of the tournament; otherwise, it will be forfeited and the ICCF will receive an amount equal to its portion of the entry fee. The federation will inform the Tournament Office that the player is playing under a performance bond.

8.5 If a player withdraws "silently", i.e. without informing either his opponents or the Tournament Director, will not earn any title norm or qualification and he may be penalised by being suspended from tournament entry for two years. When he is readmitted to the tournaments, he will pay a bond according to paragraph 6.4. A second silent withdrawal will result in a minimum five year suspension.

8.6 A player who pays the bond and concludes a tournament in accordance with the rules, will be exempt from paying further bonds as long as his tournaments are completed normally.

8.7 The games will be conducted according to the Tournament and Playing Rules of the ICCF plus the following additional rules:(a) Exceeding the time limit is valid only if it is confirmed by the Tournament Director (if a player agrees that he has exceeded the first time limit, this takes effect only after confirmation by the Tournament Director),Server:(a) Exceeding the time limit is valid only if it is confirmed by the ICCF Server.(b) In team tournaments if a player stops play, or if the Tournament Director has awarded the first exceeding of time in postal events and considers that an orderly continuation of play is threatened (e.g. sickness, special leave beyond the prescribed norm, etc.) the Tournament Director can call upon the Team Captain to replace this player within a prescribed time (at most two months),(c) If a player dies, the Tournament Director will decide whether his games will be adjudicated or whether the Team Captain shall name a substitute player,(d) A month after the start, the Team Captain will ensure that all players have begun play. If a player of a team has not begun play against all opponents within two months after the starting date despite written reminders by his opponents, and his Team Captain has not informed the Tournament Director within this time that a substitute player was placed on the board, then the team will lose the game on that board.(e) In instances where a player is substituted, the replacement player may, if none of the games have been completed and also if the average number of moves played in all the games is less than 10, request to be granted "Replacement" status. This may be granted only with the agreement of the Tournament Director and the consent of the Qualifications Commissioner and will entitle the replacement player to have all his/her results rated and also to become eligible to achieve Title norms. In instances where "Replacement" status is granted, the Tournament Category shall be recalculated and Title Norms shall be revised if necessary. If the recalculated Tournament Category is less than that at the start of the event then the Tournament Category (and Title Norms) shall remain unchanged. However, with regard to qualification for the GM Norm, the number of GM's/SIM's listed at the start of the event shall remain unchanged regardless of any change to the Tournament Category.In instances where a player is substituted and the replacement player chooses not to seek "Replacement" status and also where it is no longer possible for the replacement player to achieve "Replacement" status, the Tournament Category and Title Norms shall remain unchanged and it shall not be possible for the replacement player to achieve any Title Norms. However, in such instances, the replacement player shall be rated only in those games which end in results favourable to his/her rating. Those results which are unfavourable to the replacement player's rating shall be credited to the original player who was replaced.(f) The Team Captain may demand all documents from a substituted player. If this is not possible, he has the right to request them (inter alia, the progress of the game) from the opponent team captains. When making such a request, the reason for it must be given.

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(g) In team tournaments where several teams play over several boards, the allocation of colours will be so arranged that the team which has drawn 1 on board 1 will have white against those teams which have drawn an even number and a change of colour will always alternate in the direction of board and player.

Rating numbers

9.1 It is the sincere wish of the ICCF to award equivalent titles for equivalent achievement. Under the ICCF rating system each player obtains a rating based upon a method of statistical probability, calculated from tournament results over a period of many years.

9.2 The tournaments which are taken into the rating system are:(a) All ICCF tournaments except thematic tournaments,(b) principal zonal tournaments, team championships, master class, higher class and open class promotion tournaments,(c) national tournaments, subject to an agreement with the Ratings Commissioner. At least the final of a national championship, team championship or cup final,(d) other individual and team tournaments including “Scheveningen” type events and Chess 960 events, authorized by the ICCF-Congress or Executive Board,(e) friendly matches between countries.Rated tournaments must have a minimum reflection time of 20 days for 10 moves in postal and 150 days for 50 moves in electronic transmission.Tournaments with postal transmission will be evaluated only if they are administrated on the ICCF-Webserver. Responsible for this task are the tournament directors and the delegates of the national federations, respectively.

9.3 Each player who has completed games in the tournaments referred to in § 9.2 obtains a rating. This rating will be published only if the player has completed at least 12 games. A rating based on at least 30 completed games is a “fixed“ rating.

9.4 At the beginning of a tournament start ratings are assigned for those players with a published rating in the applicable ratings list. For newer players, FIDE ratings may be used if available, failing which a player would be regarded as having a rating equal to the tournament level. For taking start ratings, ICCF considers only those FIDE lists which are valid starting at the same time as ICCF rating lists do, which means 1.1, 1.4, 1.7 and 1.10 of every year. In case of a wrong or obviously inappropriate value the Ratings Commissioner may adjust such a start rating to a more realistic value, even if the tournament is already ongoing.When a game is finished, the rating calculation procedure will use a player’s rating from the newest rating list for those players with a published rating; otherwise, the start rating is used. However, if a player’s current rating is lower than his start rating; the new ratings for his opponents are calculated using the player’s start rating.

9.5 A new rating list will be released four times each year. The ratings are valid from January - March, April - June, July - September and October - December, respectively and are based on the results which where reported at least one month before. The lists will be available on the ICCF webserver two weeks before there validity date.

9.6 The rating list shall contain:(a) the effective date(b) the name and federation of each player with at least 12 rated games,(c) the ICCF title held by each player listed,(d) the current rating and the number of rated games for each player listed,

9.7 Players who do not qualify for a new rating because they have not finished a game during the evaluation period, remain on the active list because(a) they have finished a ratable game during the recent two calendar years, or (b) they are participating in at least one running tournament (rated or unrated). Other players retain their most recent published rating, but are no longer shown in the published list. However, the webserver shows all players with their valid rating.

Titles

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10.0.1 In all ICCF Title tournaments, title norms are established by calculating the average rating of all participants at the start of the event in order to determine category of the event (see ICCF Title Norm Requirements). Title norms may also be available in "Scheveningen" type events where only the average rating of the opposition is used to determine the category of the event. [The average rating of the opposition to be used in all tournaments; round robin event is only a specific case of swiss/ "Scheveningen" type event. Calculating the average rating of all participants at the start of the event in order to determine category of the event will be used for marketing purposes only. -> input to TR valid from 2017]

10.0.2 In all ICCF Title tournaments, each player plays one game simultaneously against each of the other players in the tournament or section. Subject to approval by the ICCF Congress or the WTD, players may be allowed to play two games simultaneously against each of the other players in special promotional events.

10.0.3 The principle of “overscore” (used in the following sub-sections of Rule 10) represents that fact that the player has achieved a higher score than the minimum required for that particular Title Norm and the number of players, in that particular tournament. So he/she could have played extra games, lost them, & would still qualify for a Title based on a higher number of players. For example, a player scores 8 points out of 10 games in a Category 5 tournament for an IM Norm. At Category 5, a score of 8 gives an IM Norm from 12 games. Therefore this Norm would qualify as 12 games towards the IM Title.

10.1 The ICCF awards the following titles:Champion titles:(a) World Correspondence Chess Champion,(b) Ladies World Correspondence Chess Champion,International titles:(c) Correspondence Chess Grandmaster,(d) Senior International Correspondence Chess Master,(e) International Correspondence Chess Master,(f) Correspondence Chess Ladies Grandmaster,(g) International Correspondence Chess Ladies' Master,(h) International Arbiter of the ICCF,

10.2 The title "Correspondence Chess World Champion" is awarded to the winner of the World Championship Final. Each World Champion should be numbered according to the cycle being played and he/she retains with this title forever.

10.3 The title "Correspondence Chess Ladies' World Champion" is awarded to the winner of the World Correspondence Chess Ladies' Championship Final (Individual). Each Ladies’ World Champion should be numbered according to the cycle being played and she retains with this title forever.

10.4 The title "Correspondence Chess Grandmaster" is not limited in time and is awarded to:(a) those players who gain places 1-3 in the WC final,(b) the player who has the best result on board 1 in the final of the CC Olympiad,(c) those players who gain at least two grandmaster results in international title tournaments with a total of at least 24 games. This number of games may be reduced if the player overscores sufficiently to achieve the standard Norm requirements over 24 games. At least five of the 24 games must be against players who already hold the Correspondence Chess Grandmaster title or who have fixed ratings of at least 2600. However, of this five games quota a maximum of two may be replaced by two games each against players who already hold the SIM title.(d) those players for whom the national federation makes an appropriately qualified application. For this a two-third's majority vote of a Congress must be obtained.

10.5 The title "Senior International Correspondence Chess Master" is not limited in time and is awarded to:(a) those players who achieve at least two senior master results in international title tournaments with a total of at least 24 games. This number of games may be reduced if the player overscores sufficiently to achieve the standard Norm requirements over 24 games. However one or more international master result over a total maximum of 14 games in an event or events which started or were approved prior to the Daytona 2000 Congress, will count towards a Senior International Master title.(b) those players for whom the national federation makes an appropriately qualified application. For this, a two-third's majority vote of a Congress must be obtained.

10.6 The title "International Correspondence Chess Master" is not limited in time and is awarded to:

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(a) those players who qualify for the World Championship Final or gain a master result in a ¾-Final (Candidates' tournament)(b) the player who takes first place in the World Correspondence Chess Ladies' Championship,(c) the player who takes first place in the ICCF World Cup Tournament Final,(d) those players who gain two or more master results in international title tournaments with a total of at least 24 games, This number of games may be reduced if the player overscores sufficiently to achieve the standard Norm requirements over 24 games.(e) those players for whom their national federation makes an appropriately qualified application. For this a two-thirds majority vote of the Congress must be obtained.

10.7 The title of "Correspondence Chess Ladies Grandmaster" is not limited in time and is awarded to:(a) those players who gain places 1-3 in the World Ladies' Championship final,(b) the player who has the best result on board 1 in the Final of the Correspondence Chess Ladies' Olympiad,(c) those players who achieve two or more Ladies' Grandmaster Results in international title tournaments with a total of at least 24 games. This number of games may be reduced if the player overscores sufficiently to achieve the standard Norm requirements over 24 games.(d) those players for who their national federation makes an appropriately qualified application. For this a two-thirds majority vote of Congress must be obtained.

10.8 The title "Correspondence Chess Ladies Master" in not limited and is awarded to:(a) those players in the World Correspondence Chess Ladies' Championship Final who score at least 60% of the possible points,(b) those players in the World Correspondence Chess Ladies' Olympiad Final who score at least 60% of the possible points on board 1,(c) those players who achieve two or more ladies' master results in international title tournaments with a total of at least 24 games. This number of games may be reduced if the player overscores sufficiently to achieve the standard Norm requirements over 24 games.(d) those lady players for whom their national federation makes an appropriately qualified application. For this a two-thirds' majority vote of the Congress must be obtained.

10.9 The title "International Arbiter of the ICCF" is not limited in time and will be awarded based on a combination of quantitative and qualitative criteria. All applications must be submitted to the Arbiter Committee (ACO) together with details of all qualifying tournaments and the name and e-mail address of the TD Mentor. The ACO will check:-a) time served and number of games – must be a minimum of 4 years’ successful work as Tournament Director of ICCF qualifying tournaments* without a break, supervising a minimum of 1,000 games OR 6 years’ work as Tournament Director of ICCF qualifying tournaments* with a break, supervising a minimum of 1,000 games.b) quality of TD work (response to problems or queries from players, games archiving, delivery of information for marketing purposes), asking comments of the Mentor TD and other ICCF officers if necessary.The ACO will then confirm any recommendation for the IA Title to the national CC organisation and the Qualifications Commissioner.*ICCF qualifying tournaments are Promotion tournaments (including promotion zonal tournaments), Title Championship & norm tournaments, Thematic tournaments, World Cups, Webserver Opens, Champions ICCF League and Direct Entry Anniversary Open (national tournaments, friendly international matches and unrated events not listed above shall NOT count towards the IA Title).

10.10 The award of titles and application procedure

(a) Every titleholder receives a certificate, which is awarded by Congress.

(b) An international title is officially valid from the date of confirmation and registration by the Qualifications Commissioner.

(c) Use of an ICCF title or rating to subvert the ethical principles of the title or rating system may subject a person to revocation of his title upon recommendation by the QC and the Disciplinary Committee and final action by the Congress.

(d) All applications for a title together with full details must be posted on the ICCF website for a minimum of 60 days prior to confirmation. This is in order for any objections to be lodged.

(e) The title can be used for results of opponents only in tournaments starting after the confirmation.

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(f) Direct titles may be awarded for specific results in specific Championship events as laid down in these regulations (see 10.4.a, b; 10.6.a, b, c; 10.7.a, b; 10.8.a, b). Such titles are confirmed by the QC on advice from the Executive Board. The Federations concerned are informed by the QC. If the Federation agrees to apply for the title, then the title is confirmed by the QC.

(g) Titles are also awarded based on applications with norms with a sufficient number of games. These titles shall be awarded by the QC if the candidate meets the requirements. The application must be sent to QC by the player’s Federation. If the player’s Federation refuses to apply, the player can appeal to Appeals Committee (Other ICCF Rules) and apply for the title himself.

(h) The QC awards titles in clear cases only. In cases when the QC is in doubt, he shall refer the decision to the Congress.

(i) All international titles confirmed and registered by the QC shall appear in the QC report so that Congress is informed of these titles.

10.11 Submissions for the posthumous award of ICCF Titles may only be made not more than 2 years following a nominee’s death.

Rules for International Team Tournaments

11.1 International team tournaments must be conducted by a Tournament Director.

11.2 Each team must have a team captain.

11.3 The tournament notices should contain:(a) the name of the organisation which is promoting the tournament,(b) the teams entitled to take part in the tournament and the condition of selection,(c) the conditions for conducting the tournament: the maximum number of teams in the preliminary round groups, the semi-finals and finals, regulations for admission to the next higher round,(d) the number of boards in each team,(e) the number of games to be played at each board,(f) the rules for the substitution of players,(g) the starting date and the intended concluding date of the tournament,(h) the name of the Tournament Director.

11.4 The Tournament Director will maintain contact with the Team Captains. Direct contact with each player is not desirable except when it is unavoidably necessary.

11.5 In the case of disputes the Team Captains should make every effort to come to agreement with each other and only if this fails, to refer the matter to the Tournament Director. However the Tournament Director remains responsible for the conduct and progress of the tournament and may intervene directly if necessary.

Rules for Invitational Tournaments

12.1 Arrangements for all ICCF approved international invitation and open tournaments organised by ICCF member federations or ICCF Zonal Directors should be in accordance with the principles and aims defined in the ICCF Statutes.

12.2 Applications for ICCF recognition of international tournaments must be submitted to the World Tournament Director (WTD) who has delegated authority to approve such tournaments, or give recommendations to Congress. The WTD should report to the next Congress on all approved applications for formal ratification and inclusion in the Minutes. Where, in the opinion of the WTD, there could be a potential problem (for example, involving a breach of these guidelines or another ICCF member federation) he will have the right to refer the application to the next Congress for debate and possible approval. Approvals of applications for multiple tournaments/groups from any federation may be subject to a referral to the Congress if the WTD considers it appropriate.

12.3 Applications for invitation tournaments should be submitted at least 6 months before the intended start date of the tournament and all approvals granted will lapse if a tournament has not been started within 6 months of the approved start date. In such a situation, a renewed approval application is required and invitations should not be issued until renewed approval has been granted.

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12.4 Applications for open tournaments must be submitted to the ICCF World Tournament Director (WTD) at least four months before it is due to start. It should not be advertised until ICCF approval has been formally confirmed. The WTD will consider the number of similar events which are planned concurrently and any ICCF open tournaments that are due to start, before giving formal ICCF approval.

12.5 Invitations to international invitation tournaments must be made via the member federations from whom players are being invited. No invitations should be made until after formal approval of the tournament has been received. No invitations shall be sent directly to the players.

12.6 All approved tournaments will be played under ICCF Playing Rules, and the ICCF Appeals Commission will act as Appeal Instance. The Tournament Director shall be selected according to the Arbiter Manual regulations.

12.7 Bearing in mind that ICCF approved tournaments enjoy an official international status, with title norms (where eligible), ratings and other services provided, a scale of registration and rating fees will apply. These are payable to ICCF, for the year in which tournaments start. The fees are defined in the “ICCF Financial Regulations” document.

12.8 All approval requests must include details of the prizes offered, and the Source of the prize fund. Where a federation has previously met problems paying prizes promptly, it will be a condition of approval that the entire prize fund be deposited with ICCF prior to the start date. In these circumstances, the deposited monies will be invested securely and any interest accrued will be credited to the national federation, and the ICCF Financial Director will be responsible for the prompt payment of all prizes. All other financial details (appearance fees,…) must be included in the request sent to the WTD.

12.9 Title norms in international invitation and open tournaments need to be formally ratified by the Qualification Commissioner’s report to Congress.

Players‘ Eligibility

13.1 A player’s Member Federation is normally the federation of his / her country of citizenship or residence.

13.2 When players move country of permanent residence and wish to change federation, they may do this with the mutual consent of the respective federations.

13.3 When the transfer is approved, the new Member Federation shall notify the ICCF Ratings Commissioner. The player’s ICCF Identification Number and ratings history stay with the player regardless of the change in Member Federation.

13.4 A player may appeal to the Arbitration Commission (whose decision would be final) if there is an objection to the transfer.

Live display of games

Provided that it is not stated otherwise in the tournament announcement and/or in the start documents, any player is allowed to publish or submit for publishing on the internet or elsewhere any unfinished games or positions played by him/her under the conditions that:- all his/her games in the tournament are already different from each other,- the game (position) is demonstrated with a delay of at least 3 moves,- the URL of the subject website is given,- the date of the last update is mentioned,- his/her opponents involved, officially agree with the live-publishing of their game and declare this to the Tournament Director.

The Tournament Director is not expected to check player's private websites regularly. However, if his/her attention is drawn to a violation of this rule by another person, he shall investigate.When a player violates this guideline for the first time, then the TD shall not apply any sanctions, but simply order the change of the status of the published game according to this rule.When a player violates this rule for a second time in the same tournament, the player shall be penalised by 10 extra days added to his time of reflection in all games of the respective tournament.

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When a player violates this rule for a third time in the same tournament, the player shall be disqualified from this tournament and all his/her remaining unfinished games shall be scored as losses.When a player violates this rule repeatedly in various tournaments, the World Tournament Director is authorised to ban this player from ICCF play for 2 years.

Appeals

The jurisdiction to deal with appeals concerning violations of these rules is designated to the Appeals Commission (Other ICCF Rules).

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Appendix I

The Working Rules of the Ratings SystemGeneral Principles1. The ICCF Rating system is a numerical system in which percentage scores are convertible to rating differences and conversely, rating differences are convertible to scoring probabilities.

2. The basic of the system is the normal probability function of statistical probability theory. For convenience sake this function has been put into tabular form for the conversions indicated in 1.

3. Table of conversions from percentage P into rating difference Dp:

P Dp P Dp P Dp P Dp P Dp P Dp

1.00 677 0.83 273 0.66 117 0.49 - 7 0.32 - 133 0.15 - 296 0.99 677 0.82 262 0.65 110 0.48 - 14 0.31 - 141 0.14 - 309 0.98 589 0.81 251 0.64 102 0.47 - 21 0.30 - 149 0.13 - 322 0.97 538 0.80 240 0.63 95 0.46 - 29 0.29 - 158 0.12 - 336 0.96 501 0.79 230 0.62 87 0.45 - 36 0.28 - 166 0.11 - 351 0.95 470 0.78 220 0.61 80 0.44 - 43 0.27 - 175 0.10 - 366 0.94 444 0.77 211 0.60 72 0.43 - 50 0.26 - 184 0.09 - 383 0.93 422 0.76 202 0.59 65 0.42 - 57 0.25 - 193 0.08 - 401 0.92 401 0.75 193 0.58 57 0.41 - 65 0.24 - 202 0.07 - 422 0.91 383 0.74 184 0.57 50 0.40 - 72 0.23 - 211 0.06 - 444 0.90 366 0.73 175 0.56 43 0.39 - 80 0.22 - 220 0.05 - 470 0.89 351 0.72 166 0.55 36 0.38 - 87 0.21 - 230 0.04 - 501 0.88 336 0.71 158 0.54 29 0.37 - 95 0.20 - 240 0.03 - 538 0.87 322 0.70 149 0.53 21 0.36 - 102 0.19 - 251 0.02 - 589 0.86 309 0.69 141 0.52 14 0.35 - 110 0.18 - 262 0.01 - 677 0.85 296 0.68 133 0.51 7 0.34 - 117 0.17 - 273 0.00 - 677 0.84 284 0.67 125 0.50 0 0.33 - 125 0.16 - 284

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4 Table of conversion from difference in rating D into scoring probability for the higher (PH) and the lower (PL) rated player respectively:

D PH PL D PH PL D PH PL D PH PL

0 - 3 0.50 0.50 92 - 98 0.63 0.37 198 - 206 0.76 0.24 345 - 357 0.89 0.11 4 - 10 0.51 0.49 99 - 106 0.64 0.36 207 - 215 0.77 0.23 358 - 374 0.90 0.1011 - 17 0.52 0.48 107 - 113 0.65 0.35 216 - 225 0.78 0.22 375 - 391 0.91 0.0918 - 25 0.53 0.47 114 - 121 0.66 0.34 226 - 235 0.79 0.21 392 - 411 0.92 0.0826 - 32 0.54 0.46 122 - 129 0.67 0.33 236 - 245 0.80 0.20 412 - 432 0.93 0.0733 - 39 0.55 0.45 130 - 137 0.68 0.32 246 - 256 0.81 0.19 433 - 456 0.94 0.0640 - 46 0.56 0.44 138 - 145 0.69 0.31 257 - 267 0.82 0.18 457 - 484 0.95 0.0547 - 53 0.57 0.43 146 - 153 0.70 0.30 268 - 278 0.83 0.17 485 - 517 0.96 0.0454 - 61 0.58 0.42 154 - 162 0.71 0.29 279 - 290 0.84 0.16 518 - 559 0.97 0.0362 - 68 0.59 0.41 163 - 170 0.72 0.28 291 - 302 0.85 0.15 560 - 619 0.98 0.0269 - 76 0.60 0.40 171 - 179 0.73 0.27 303 - 315 0.86 0.14 620 - >> 0.99 0.0177 - 83 0.61 0.39 180 - 188 0.74 0.26 316 - 328 0.87 0.1384 - 91 0.62 0.38 189 - 197 0.75 0.25 329 - 344 0.88 0.12

The WorkingFormulae5 For the calculation of a rating of a player who has not yet played 30 games:

Rp = Rc + D (p) * FRp the rating of the playerRc the average rating of all his opponents, limited to a maximum difference of 350 D(p) the difference in rating based on the percentage score p, obtained from item 3F the correction factor depending on the percentage score p in the following way:F = - 2 * p² + 2 * p + 0.5

6 The new rating of a player with a fixed rating from the previous period is calculated by:Rn = R0 + RRn the new rating of the playerR0 the old rating of the player

R the summation of the rating changes in all his games during the rating period

7 Calculation of a change in rating after a game is made by:R = k *W = k * ( W - We ) R the change of the rating for a finished gameW the actual game result (1, ½, 0) We the expected result of the gamek the rating point value for a game point (or: the development coefficient)

8 The expected game result We is the percentage expectancy, obtained from item 4, based on the difference between the player’s rating and the opponent’s rating as defined in Tournament Rule 9.4. If this difference is > 350, it is snipped to this value for the evaluation.

A player without a published ICCF rating at that time will be regarded as having a rating equal to the tournament level (see item 11).

9 The development coefficient k is used as a stabilising factor in the system:k = r * g

10 if R0 2400r = 70 - R0 / 40 if 2000 < R0< 2400

20 if R0 2000

1 ifgn 80g = 1.4 - gn / 200 if 30<gn< 80

1.25 ifgn 30

R0 the old (that is: the most recently calculated) rating of the player

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gn the total number of rated games played by this player

10 From 2009 onwards the former used significance factor f is no longer valid.

11 Assumed rating for a player without a published rating at the beginning of a tournament:1800 Open class, cup preliminary rounds, international open preliminary rounds1900 Ladies’ WC semifinals, ladies’ olympiads2000 Higher class, cup semifinals, international open semifinals 2100 Ladies’ WC finals2200 Master class, cup finals, zonal championship preliminary roundsInvitation (team) tournaments, international open finals2300 Master norm tournaments2400 WC semifinals, zonal championship semifinals, Olympiad preliminaries 2450 Grandmaster norm tournaments2500 WC candidates, zonal championship finals, Olympiad finalsFor national tournaments the average of the already rated participants is assumed, max. 2400.

For friendly matches, normally a value of 1800 applies. In special cases Team Captains are allowed to propose other values than 1800 where appropriate. These values have to be confirmed and may be changed by the Ratings Commissioner before a tournament starts.

For new kinds of tournaments a value shall be fixed with the announcement of the tournament.Calculation procedure12 From 2009 onwards at the beginning of each quarter a new ratinglist is published. All results which were reported at least one month before will be eligible for inclusion on the next list.13 Valid results from postal tournaments must be registered by the tournament directors on the ICCF-Webserver no later than two weeks before the list has to be published.14 Players without a rating from previous periods get their first rating based on the games finished during the current period, using the formula of item 5. 15 Each player who has a rating based on less than 30 games at the beginning of the rating period, receives a new rating based on all his games. This is done with the formula of item 5.16 For each player whose rating was based on at least 30 games at the beginning of the period the new rating is calculated using the formula of item 6, except for those players who finished more than 800/k games in the current period. For those players a new rating is calculated, based on the formula 5 only for their games in that period. 17 The new rating for the next ICCF rating list is rounded to the nearest integer.18 Rules for the rating of games in team tournaments in which a substitute player takes part:

a) A game of a substitute player is only counted for his new rating if W is positive for him. Otherwise the game is counted for the player who has been substituted.

b) For the opponent the game is counted as being played against the player (the original or the substitute) with the highest rating.

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Appendix II

International Correspondence Chess Title Regulations1. An international tournament shall have the following requirements: a) it must involve the participation of at least 9 players. However, the Title Championship Tournament Commissioner has authority to arrange double-round robin tournaments with less than 9 players (providing each player has a minimum of 8 games), b) at least 75% of the participating players shall be rated, c) at least 60% of the participating players shall have a fixed rating, d) at least three ICCF affiliated federations shall be represented, e) not more than two thirds of the participating players shall be members of one and the same ICCF affiliated federation, f) play shall conform to ICCF Playing Rules and should, if possible, be conducted by an International Arbiter. No arbiter may play in a title tournament even just as a filler. Promotion tournaments, thematic tournaments, and cup preliminaries shall not be deemed title tournaments.

2. Tournaments shall be classified into categories as resulting from the participants' average rating. The average rating shall be the sum total of the individual players' ratings divided by the number of participating players. a) To determine the average rating in tournaments, players shall be entered at their current rating. Unrated players shall be considered using the nominal figure of 2200. Inactive players are considered to have their latest published rating. b) To determine the average rating in ladies only tournaments, players shall be entered at their current rating. Unrated players shall be considered using the nominal figure of 1900. Inactive players are considered to have their latest published rating. c) Rounding of the average ratings shall be made to the nearest whole number. The value of .5 (exactly) shall be rounded up. d) International title tournament categories shall be defined as follows.

Category Average rating For ladiesI 2251 - 2275 1951 - 1975

II 2276 - 2300 1976 - 2000III 2301 - 2325 2001 - 2025

IV 2326 - 2350 2026 - 2050V 2351 - 2375 2051 - 2075

VI 2376 - 2400 2076 - 2100VII 2401 - 2425 2101 - 2125

VIII 2426 - 2450 2126 - 2150IX 2451 - 2475 2151 - 2175

X 2476 - 2500 2176 - 2200XI 2501 - 2525 2201 - 2225

XII 2526 - 2550 2226 - 2250XIII 2551 - 2575 2251 - 2275

XIV 2576 - 2600 2276 - 2300XV 2601 - 2625 2301 - 2325

XVI 2626 - 2650 2326 - 2350XVII 2651 - 2675 2351 - 2375

XVIII 2676 - 2700 2376 - 2400

3. The minimum game scores for title results shall be by virtue of the following table of points, where A = the number of participants, B = the number of games, C = the maximum number of players being members of one and the same federation, D = the minimum number of rated players,

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E = the minimum number of players having a fixed rating.

[The minimum score is 35 % for all titles. The result shown is the minimum required. -> input to TR valid from 2017]

The following norm table is based on the ICCF rating system, which is governed by following general principles; The ICCF Rating system is a numerical system in which percentage scores are converted to rating differences and conversely, rating differences are convertible to scoring probabilities. The basis of the system is the normal probability function of statistical probability theory.

A B C D E Title I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI XII XIII XIV XV XVI XVII XVIII

9 8 6 7 6 GM 6½ 6 6 5½ 5½ 5 5 4½ 4 4 3½ 3½

SIM 6½ 6 6 5½ 5½ 5 5 4½ 4 4 3½ 3½ 3 3 2½

IM 6½ 6 6 5½ 5½ 5 5 4½ 4 4 3½ 3½ 3 3 2½ 2½ 2 2

10 9 6 8 6 GM 7 7 6½ 6 6 5½ 5½ 5 4½ 4½ 4 4

SIM 7 7 6½ 6 6 5½ 5½ 5 4½ 4½ 4 4 3½ 3 3

IM 7 7 6½ 6 6 5½ 5½ 5 4½ 4½ 4 4 3½ 3 3 2½ 2½ 2

11 10 7 9 7 GM 8 7½ 7 7 6½ 6 6 5½ 5 5 4½ 4

SIM 8 7½ 7 7 6½ 6 6 5½ 5 5 4½ 4 4 3½ 3

IM 8 7½ 7 7 6½ 6 6 5½ 5 5 4½ 4 4 3½ 3 3 2½ 2½

12 11 8 9 8 GM 8½ 8 8 7½ 7 7 6½ 6 5½ 5½ 5 4½

SIM 8½ 8 8 7½ 7 7 6½ 6 5½ 5½ 5 4½ 4 4 3½

IM 8½ 8 8 7½ 7 7 6½ 6 5½ 5½ 5 4½ 4 4 3½ 3 3 2½

13 12 8 10 8 GM 9½ 9 8½ 8 8 7½ 7 6½ 6 6 5½ 5

SIM 9½ 9 8½ 8 8 7½ 7 6½ 6 6 5½ 5 4½ 4 4

IM 9½ 9 8½ 8 8 7½ 7 6½ 6 6 5½ 5 4½ 4 4 3½ 3 3

14 13 9 11 9 GM 10 9½ 9½ 9 8½ 8 7½ 7 6½ 6½ 6 5½

SIM 10 9½ 9½ 9 8½ 8 7½ 7 6½ 6½ 6 5½ 5 4½ 4

IM 10 9½ 9½ 9 8½ 8 7½ 7 6½ 6½ 6 5½ 5 4½ 4 3½ 3½ 3

15 14 10 12 9 GM 11 10½ 10 9½ 9 8½ 8 7½ 7 7 6 6

SIM 11 10½ 10 9½ 9 8½ 8 7½ 7 7 6 6 5 5 4½

IM 11 10½ 10 9½ 9 8½ 8 7½ 7 7 6 6 5 5 4½ 4 3½ 3½

16 15 10 12 10 GM 11½ 11 10½ 10 10 9 8½ 8 7½ 7 6½ 6

SIM 11½ 11 10½ 10 10 9 8½ 8 7½ 7 6½ 6 5½ 5 4½

IM 11½ 11 10½ 10 10 9 8½ 8 7½ 7 6½ 6 5½ 5 4½ 4½ 4 3½

17 16 11 13 11 GM 12½ 12 11½ 11 10½ 10 9½ 8½ 8 7½ 7 6½

SIM 12½ 12 11½ 11 10½ 10 9½ 8½ 8 7½ 7 6½ 6 5½ 5

IM 12½ 12 11½ 11 10½ 10 9½ 8½ 8 7½ 7 6½ 6 5½ 5 4½ 4 3½

18 17 12 14 11 GM 13 12½ 12 11½ 11 10½ 10 9 8½ 8 7½ 7

SIM 13 12½ 12 11½ 11 10½ 10 9 8½ 8 7½ 7 6½ 6 5½

IM 13 12½ 12 11½ 11 10½ 10 9 8½ 8 7½ 7 6½ 6 5½ 5 4½ 4

19 18 12 15 12 GM 14 13½ 13 12½ 11½ 11 10½ 9½ 9 8½ 8 7½

SIM 14 13½ 13 12½ 11½ 11 10½ 9½ 9 8½ 8 7½ 6½ 6 5½

IM 14 13½ 13 12½ 11½ 11 10½ 9½ 9 8½ 8 7½ 6½ 6 5½ 5 4½ 4

20 19 13 15 12 GM 14½ 14 13½ 13 12½ 11½ 11 10½ 9½ 9 8½ 8

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SIM 14½ 14 13½ 13 12½ 11½ 11 10½ 9½ 9 8½ 8 7 6½ 6

IM 14½ 14 13½ 13 12½ 11½ 11 10½ 9½ 9 8½ 8 7 6½ 6 5½ 5 4½

4. In addition, the following provisions shall apply to the computation of title results: a) The Qualifications Commissioner shall prepare a statement of norms at the start of a tournament. In this statement the category and norms are fixed. Category and norms shall be recalculated if a player withdraws and his games are cancelled. However, a title result always remains valid for the number of games and titled players fixed at the start of the tournament. b) FIDE titles and ratings (in accordance with the current FIDE list at the start of the tournament) for players not rated on the ICCF list shall be considered at the time the statement of norms is prepared. It shall be only in this special case that a player's FIDE rating shall be considered equivalent to an unfixed ICCF rating. c) Where a tournament fails to comply with the requirements set out under paragraphs 1 b) or 1 c) or where it cannot be classified into any category, it shall be classified as follows: Category IV: -Candidates' Tournament -Correspondence Chess Olympiad Final, boards 1-3, Category III: -Correspondence Chess Olympiad Final, boards 4-6, -Final of a zonal team championship, first half of the boards, Category II: -World Championship Semi-final, -Zonal Championship, -Preliminary group of the Correspondence Chess Olympiad, boards 1-3, -Final of a zonal team championship, second half of the boards, -Preliminary group of a zonal team championship, first half of the boards, Category I: -Preliminary groups of the Correspondence Chess Olympiad and Zonal team championships, second half of the boards. d) International ladies' master results scored in all tournaments shall be recognised. e) Where one norm is sufficient for more than one title, in can be counted towards each.

5. In exceptional cases the Presidium (Executive Board) shall decide on the basis of a proposal from the Qualifications Commissioner.

6. Definitions -> input to TR valid from 2017

6.1 Rating performance is based on the player’s result and average rating of opponents (see Appx.II 6.6).

6.2 Title performance (for example, GM performance) is a result that gives a performance rating as defined in 6.6 against the minimum average of the opponents. GM performance is ≥ 2600 performance against opponents with average rating ≥ 2380.SIM performance is ≥ 2525 performance against opponents with average rating ≥ 2305.IM performance is ≥ 2450 performance against opponents with average rating ≥ 2230.LGM performance is ≥ 2300 performance against opponents with average rating ≥ 2080.LIM performance is ≥ 2150 performance against opponents with average rating ≥ 1930.

6.3 Title norm is a title performance fulfilling additional requirements concerning the mix of titled players and nationalities as specified in article 10 and in Appx.II 1 to 5 and 6.5.

6.4 Direct title is a title gained by achieving a certain place or result in a (Championship) tournament (see article 10).

6.5 Rating Average of Opponents a) This is the total of the opponents’ ratings divided by the number of opponents.b) Rounding of the Rating Average is made to the nearest whole number. The fraction 0.5 is rounded upward.

6.6 Performance Rating (Rp)In order to achieve a norm, a player must perform at a level of that shown below:

Minimum level prior to rounding Minimum level after rounding

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GM 2599,5 2600SIM 2524,5 2525IM 2449,5 2450LGM 2299,5 2300LIM 2149,5 2150

Calculation of a Performance Rating (Rp):Rp = Ra + dp (see the table below)Where Ra = Average Rating of Opponents + Rating Difference ‘dp’ from Appx.I Table 3 (conversion from percentage score ‘p’ into Rating Difference ‘dp’

6.7 The minimum average ratings Ra of the Opponents are as follows:GM 2380; SIM 2305; IM 2230; LGM 2080; LIM 1930.