ICCF AMICI No. 02, 2004 (correspondence chess).pdf

PRESIDENT‘S COLUMN

by Josef Mrkvička, ICCF President

Dear readers, dear ICCF friends,

Welcome to my column in ICCF AMICI!

In this column, I will inform you regularly about the work which was done in the ICCF

Executive Board in the period since the last ICCF AMICI issue.

1. News from the ICCF Webserver Steering Group

a) The ChessMail ICCF-Webchess Inauguration Tournament started!

The ChessMail ICCF-Webchess Inauguration tournament started on 15 th July, 2004, in 13

sections with 7 players each. At the date of this report, some games have already been

finished.

The participation in this tournament is free; however, the participants committed themselves

to give the Steering Group their feedback, which will be very useful for the further

improvement of the system and its administration and playing facilities.

Feedback from players and officials has generally been very positive so far, but the Steering

Group is still collecting contributions from players / Officials. Therefore, we encourage all of

you to visit the ICCF Webserver on

www.iccf-webchess.com

To see most of the system facilities working, you need not to be logged to the system.

Moreover, you can see all games played in the ChessMail ICCF-Webchess Inauguration

tournament on-line, with a 3-moves delay.

A direct link to be found on the ICCF website www.iccf.com , as the top item in the left

column menu, including a detailed instruction how to view the games on-line.

b) Additional volunteers wanted to help the Webserver team

When visiting www.iccf-webchess.com , please note and read the Announcement by the

Steering Group dated on 28 th July, 2004.

You will learn that shortly after the ICCF Congress in Mumbai, we want to start the phase 2

of the ICCF Webserver project, containing further functional and design improvements of the

existing system. The final outcome of these envisaged improvements would enable ICCF to

move much of the manual administrative work to the Webserver system and to spare much

time for the responsible ICCF Officials, particularly for both the Rating and Qualification

Commissioners, for Tournament Offices and Tournament Directors.

We have been successful recruiting several volunteers to help with the development and

testing work, which has enabled us to save ICCF funds, budgeted for this project. However,

some of these volunteers will not be able to continue for the duration of the project.

Therefore, the Steering Group is looking for additional volunteers to join our project, test and

administration teams. The work is challenging, interesting and you will be on the cutting edge

of the ICCF’s future!

The initial response from our recruitment announcement on the ICCF website has been very

good. However, we encourage each national federation to actively promote the idea of

volunteering to work on the Webserver teams to their members and current volunteers.

c) New composition of the ICCF Webserver Steering Group

After some withdrawals and new appointments, the ICCF Webserver Steering Group has

worked in the following composition, since May 2004:

Chairman: Grayling V. Hill (USA)

Members: Raymond Boger (NOR), Pedro F. Hegoburu (ARG), Chris Lüers (GER), Iain

Mackintosh (SCO), Nol van’t Riet (NED).

The ICCF President Josef Mrkvička (CZE) has participated in the work of the Steering Group

as an ex-officio member who is consulted in all of the important Webserver issues.

d) Meeting of the Steering Group in Dortmund, Germany, 24-25 th July, 2004-08-02

On 24-25 th July, 2004 the Steering Group held a two-day meeting in Dortmund, Germany.

The meeting took place in the Römischer Kaiser Hotel and was chaired by the Project

Manager Iain Mackintosh (SCO). Furthermore, the ICCF President Josef Mrkvička (CZE),

World Tournament Director Chris Lüers (GER), Ratings Commissioner Gerhard Binder

(GER), Webserver Developer Martin Bennedik (GER) and Test Team Manager Jens

Lieberum (GER) were invited and participated in this meeting.

The comprehensive agenda of the meeting comprised i. a. the following items:

• review of phase 1 of the Webserver Project and early feedback from the ChessMail

ICCF-Webchess Inauguration Tournament players,

• new event types for phase 2, particularly zonal and national,

• direct entry of players via the Webserver, particularly where no national federation is

involved,

• automation of rating system features and integration with the Webserver,

• switching games between postal, email and Webserver modes,

• administration of “non-Webserver” events on the Webserver,

• integration of games archive with the Webserver,

• language support for German, Spanish and other languages,

and many other items.

The Minutes from this meeting will serve the Steering Group as a background for the

preparation for the phase 2 of the Webserver Project.

e) Interesting interviews about the ICCF Webserver Project

Herewith I call your attention to the interview made by the Editor of the AICCF Bulletin, Dr.

Ambar Chatterjee (IND) with the Webserver Project Manager, Iain Mackintosh (SCO) and the

Webserver Developer Martin Bennedik (GER).

To be viewed on http://www.geocities.com/aiccf/misc/interview_iain.htm and

http://www.iccf.com/interview_martin.shtml .

2. World Championship Finals

a) The Final of the 19 th World Championship started

(1 st Email Chess World

Championship, sponsored by New In Chess) was started on 20 April 2004, with 13 players

who qualified from the Candidates Tournament.

Category 15, 8 GMs and 5 SIMs participating. Tournament Director is IA Dr. Iain Brooks

(ENG).

b) The Final of the 20 th World Championship planned for 15 th October, 2004

The start of the Final of the 20 th Correspondence Chess World Championship is planned for

15 th October, 2004. In line with the decision of the ICCF Congress 2003 in Ostrava, this Final

should be started as a postal tournament, with optional Email play. The Tournament Director

will be IA Witold Bielecki (POL).

All qualified players were invited directly by the ICCF Title Tournaments Commissioner, Jose

Daniel Finkelstein (ARG), with a questionnaire re further Finals included. The deadline for

entries is 10 th September, 2004.

All Delegates are kindly asked to remind their qualified players that they should keep to this

deadline.

The Final of the 19 Correspondence Chess World Championship

3. CC Olympiads

a) The Final of the 13 th Correspondence Chess Olympiad (Postal) announced

The following teams qualified for this Final:

Austria, Brazil, Czech Republic, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Slovakia,

Russia, USA.

The Final will start on November 1 st , 2004. Unfortunately, the originally planned start in June

2004 had to be postponed, as the decisive games in the preliminary section 4 (despite of

being speeded up by email play) finished much later than expected.

This Final will be played normally by post, with an optional Email play. The Tournament

Director will be IA Roald Berthelsen (NOR).

b) The preliminaries of the16 th Correspondence Chess Olympiad (Postal) postponed to

2005

The start of the preliminaries of the 16 th CC Olympiad has been postponed to May, 2005.

The postponement is a result of the delayed start of the Final of the 13 th CC Olympiad (see

above) and the Ostrava Congress decision which required that the time between the start of

the Final of the 13 th CC Olympiad and the preliminaries of the 16 th CC Olympiad should be at

least 6 months,

The postal Olympiad 16 would be started on the condition that a minimum participation of 27

teams was secured. The ICCF Congress in Ostrava approved to reduce from 6 to 4 the

number of boards in all future postal Olympiad cycles, including this Olympiad. TD still to be

decided.

4. The start of the first regular Champions League season announced

The first Regular Season of the ICCF Champions League will start on 1st November, 2004.

As most of you know, the ICCF Champions League is a continuous Email Team

Tournament. It is played in seasons and comprises several divisions with promotion and

relegation. All games are ICCF rated. Depending on the final number of teams in each

League, each player would normally play 10 games.

A Qualification season started in 2002. Teams in that season have been divided into 4

Leagues with "A" being the highest. Top scoring teams will move up a league in the following

season and the lowest scoring teams will move down.

This season only, there will be a "Fast Track" open to any returning team or new team (see

also FAQ 31) who wishes to enter here. The maximum number of Fast Track teams

accepted for the 2004-2006 season is 44. If there are more than 44 team requests, only the

teams with the highest average ratings will be included in the Fast Track. The rest of the

teams will be included as follows:

- returning teams will play in the leagues they qualified for,

- new teams will play in League D.

Every 4 player team may consist of players from 1 or more countries. A player can play only

for one team in a season. Players should be members of an ICCF

national federation member. The team must choose a name and a Captain, preferably one

familiar with ICCF email rules.

Entries are due by 15 September 2004. Fee for teams entering via National Federations is

CHF 40 or equivalent in the national currency, for those entering via the Direct Entry facility

(see FAQ) is USD 50 per team. You must include Team name, Captain’s name, players'

names, their countries and their email address with the entry fee. The Team Captain is

responsible for collecting the money and sending in the entry form.

A Prize Fund of approximately USD 5000 will be divided among the top teams in each

league, the best new players, and for the best game.

Details in FAQ at: http://tables.iccf.com/email/ChLeague/2004/season1faq.htm

Entry from at: http://tables.iccf.com/email/ChLeague/season1form.htm

Rules and information about ICCF at http://www.iccf.com

J. Franklin Campbell (USA) has created a very nice new Champions League website which

promises to be a model website for team events.

For any questions, please contact Eugen Demian (CAN) at vdemian@shaw.ca who will

kindly answer them.

5. ICCF World Cups

a) The ICCF World Cup 14 announced

According to the decision of the ICCF Congress in Ostrava, 2003, the Australian

Correspondence Chess Federation (CCLA) will be the main organiser of the ICCF World Cup

14. The Central Tournament Leader is George Stibal (AUS).

This tournament will be played in three stages, with separate postal, Email and Webserver

sections in the preliminary stage, which will start in December 2004 at the latest.

Preliminary groups will all have 9-11 players, with the winners of each group qualifying for

the Semifinal stage. Other qualifications will depend on the number of entries for the

preliminary stage.

b) The ICCF World Cup 15 assigned to the Slovak CC Federation

The Executive Board considered the application of the Slovak CC Federation and decided to

assign the World Cup 15 (to be started in 2006) to this Federation. This decision will have to

be formally approved by the ICCF Congress in Mumbai, 2004.

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