Welsh Correspondence Chess Federation

Tournament Results from ICCF Congress 2018 - LLandudno

Russell Sherwood Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Simul results (IGM Nigel Davies)

Photos to follow

ICCF Conquers Snowdon

Austin Lockwood Monday, August 27, 2018

Pictured are Uwe Staroske (Germany, ICCF Qualifications Commissioner), Austin Lockwood (Wales, ICCF Services Director and WCCF Secretary), Andrey Pavlikov (Russia, ICCF Zone One Director) and Eric Ruch (France, ICCF President) following their successful hike to the summit of Snowdon during the 2018 ICCF Congress in Llandudno.

Unfortunately the Welsh weather intervened and visibility was very poor!

ICCF Congress Report - Day 3

Russell Sherwood Wednesday, August 22, 2018

On the final day of the ICCF meetings, the review of proposals continued with Rules, Tournament Directors Committee, Appeals Committees, Arbitration Committee, Zonal Reports, Internal matters, Committee Membership and Future Congress venue

An interesting debate ensued over the next set proposals based on the strength of the event compared with the nature of a closed age based event generating qualification to an open event.

2018-025A Award the Winner of a Veterans World Cup a Place in World Championship Candidates

Rejected 17-20 with 20 abstentions

2018-025B Award the Runner-Up of a Veterans World Cup a Place in World Championship Candidates

Rejected 16-22 with 19 abstentions

2018-025C The 3rd-Placed Player in a Veterans World Cup Final be Awarded a Place in a World Championship Semi-Final

Rejected 17-21 with 19 abstentions

2018-025D Award the SIM Title to the Winner of a Veterans World Cup

Rejected 17-22 with 18 abstentions

2018-032 Rescind Candidates Qualification to Chess 960 World Cup Winner

Passed 29-5 with 23 abstentions, based on the idea 960 is not comparable with classical chess,

2018-031 Update Appendix 2.1 of the ICCF Rules "International Correspondence Chess Title Regulations"

Passed 29-4 with 24 abstentions. This proposal is related to the allowing of Title Norm events in the Finals of certain events where normal criteria are not met,

2018-035 Change to Reflection Time for Postal Chess

Passed 28-5 with 24 abstentions. This debate was about the poor postal service in some countries and its effects on postal play

2018-038 Modify ICCF Rules Document

Passed 34-3 with 20 abstentions. A typo correction.

2018-042 Allow Some Events on the AA-Server to be ICCF Rated

Rejected 8-24 with 25 abstentions.

2018-043 Reduce Rate of Play in ICCF Veterans’ World Cup

Rejected 12-23 with 22 abstentions.

2018-044 ICCF Laws of Correspondence Chess

Passed 38-1 with 19 abstentions.

2018-004 ICCF Membership - Statute Update [2/3 Vote]

Passed 36-3 with 18 abstentions

2018-009 Clarifying Article 3 - Time Control [2/3 Vote]

Passed 37-2 with 18 abstentions

2018-011 ICCF Member Federation and National Delegate Responsibilities [2/3 Vote]

Rejected 7-28 with 22 abstentions

2018-012 Add Esperanto to the List of ICCF Official Languages [2/3 Vote]

Rejected 3-33 with 21 abstentions

2018-013 Eliminate ICCF Statute - Article 18(4) [2/3 Vote]

Withdrawn

2018-014 Combine Appeals Committee Change [2/3 Vote]

Passed 36-5 with 16 abstentions

2018-005 Change to the ICCF Voting Regulations and Electoral Procedures

Passed 20-19 with 18 abstentions

2018-007 Clarification to Electoral Procedures

Rejected 18-21 with 18 abstentions

2018-037A ICCF Statutes - Incorporate the Voting Regulations [2/3 Vote]

Passed 30-9 with 18 abstentions

2018-037B Allow a Delegate to Change an Already Recorded Vote

Passed 37-2 with 18 abstentions

2018-037C Improve Delegate Engagement

Passed 34-4 with 19 abstentions

2018-037D Protect the Vote of Federation Delegates

Passed 37-3 with 17 abstentions

2018-039 Flexibilisation for online voting

Withdrawn

2018-040 Install a Voting Committee at Each ICCF Congress

Withdrawn

2018-046 ICCF Congress in Vilnius, Lithuania

Passed Unanimously!

ICCF Congress Report - Day 2

Russell Sherwood Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Another interesting day with Services, Qualifications, Ratings, Marketing, Tournament, Rules reports discussed.

Proposals

2018-041 A Problem with MFNs Player Registration via Direct Entry

Rejected 13-20-with 24 abstentions. An interesting discussion but the prevailing view was that current methods suffice.

2018-015 Approve Services Committee Budget for 2019

Passed 37-2-with 18 abstentions. The general move will be towards player-related features in 2019.

2018-024 Updated ICCF Privacy Notice to Meet GDPR Requirements

Passed 40-0-with 17 abstentions. Legal Update

2018-020 Medals for CCE and CCM titles

Passed 29-7-with 21 abstentions. As in says on the tin

2018-047 Improve Functions for Tournament Organizers (Server)

Passed 40-0-with 17 abstentions. This will allow TO's to check the Norm Category before launching the event

2018-045 Regulate the Start of Open Tournaments

Passed 23-16 with 18 abstentions. Make World Cup and Vets World Cup run in alt. years. Some concerns versed on the financial impact

2018-001 ETL Procedures in Team Events

Passed 39-1 with 17 abstentions.

2018-002 Restriction on who may be Team Captain

Passed 39-2 with 16 abstentions. This is a rule tidy up so that a Team Captain cannot oversee two teams who will be playing each other.

2018-003 Recording Leave for a Player by the TD

Passed 37-2 with 18 abstentions.

2018-008A Refinements to 3-Person Panel Review Procedures - Part A

Passed 38-1 with 18 abstentions

2018-008B Refinements to 3-Person Panel Review Procedures - Part B

Passed 32-4 with 19 abstentions

2018-010 Setting a Limit to ETL Frequency by a Player

Passed 33-7 with 17 abstentions This will mean that a player who has more than 9 ETL in 90 rolling days will not be able to enter any new events until 90 days are elapsed

2018-021 Option to Choose all ICCF Rules for National Events

Passed 34-5 with 18 abstentions

2018-022 Replace the ICCF Ladies Olympiad and Ladies World Championship Tournaments with a Ladies World Cup

Rejected 12-24 with 21 abstentions. This was a very contentious discussion which in the end maintains the status Quo. This will probably lead to more developments in Ladies (and probably Veterans events) at the next Congress

2018-023 Standardizing Viewing Rules

Rejected 13-25 with 18 abstentions. Rejected as it was felt this would negatively effect stronger players.

2018-026 Allow Team Mates to see all ongoing games in a team

Passed 38-3 with 16 abstentions. This is what the server currently does!

ICCF Congress Report - Day 1

Russell Sherwood Tuesday, August 21, 2018

The day started with the Opening Ceremony. A fantastic singing display was provided by Côr Meibion Maelgwn (Maelgwn Male Voice Choir).

Following this, the Medal's Presentation ceremony took place, including the Welsh medals for victory in the 7th North Atlantic Team Tournament. I have a number of medals and certificates for players who I will contact later this week to arrange the handover.

I also have a large number of photos from this will be uploaded at a later date.

We then moved onto the main business of Congress.

Disclaimer: Any comments below are made as an individual, not as a WCCF or ICCF official.......

During the afternoon the previous years minutes, Finance Director and Auditors report were robustly discussed, leading to the votes below.

Proposals

2018-018 Approve 2017 Congress Minutes

Passed 25-4 with 27 abstentions.

Quite a divided discussed over a few specific points, lasting for an extended period.

2018-019 New ICCF Member Federation

Passed 40-0 with 16 abstentions

Mexico accepted as a new member federation.

Financial Report

Passed 13-2 with 42 abstentions.

Another long discussion about the ongoing planned deficit and the specific methods utilised to generate the accounts (which led to a large number of abstentions as the debate became quite technical!)

2018-029 Rescind ICCF Proposal 2016-011 -- GDP Based Fee Structure for Developing Nations

Rejected 17-22 with 18 abstentions

A long debate on how membership can be promoted in developing nations, with very different opinions on how this should be done, which is shown in the voting.

2018-030 Update Article 33 of the ICCF Statutes [2/3 Vote]

Passed with 37-1 with 19 abstentions

A technical proposal clearing up an issue where the Auditor could audit materials he/she prepared!

2018-027 Global Tenders for ICCF Webserver

6-30-21 Defeated

A long discussion on this event led to a strong consensus that this approach was not correct for ICCF

ICCF Congress Report - Day 0!

Russell Sherwood Tuesday, August 21, 2018

The week started with the Executive Board Meeting (with Wales having two members in Austin Lockwood as Services Director and Russell Sherwood as Marketing Director). The continued with the Management Committee Meeting in the afternoon and the Welcome party (All held in the Imperial Hotel, LLandudno)