Alok Saxena
International Matters

The 2020 ICCF Congress will be hosted by the Scottish Correspondence Chess Association (Scottish CCA) at the Golden Jubilee Conference Hotel in Clydebank, Glasgow from 23rd to 27th August 2020. Congress participants may now register for Congress and accommodations at the Congress hotel (Golden Jubilee Conference Hotel) or at a nearby alternative (West Park Hotel). On behalf of the Scottish Correspondence Chess Federation (Scottish CCA) and Eric Ruch, our ICCF President, it is announced that the website for Congress is now open:
https://congress.scottishcca.co.uk

The timeline for the Congress is given below as per the website:

Deadlines to Congress

TasksDeadlineDescription
Congress Documents 1 Mar 2020 Congress invitations and programme are distributed
Proposal Submission Window Opens 1 Mar 2020 Congress proposal submissions (by ICCF Officials and Delegates) opens
Proposal Submission Window Closes 23 Jun 2020 All proposals to be considered for the 2020 Congress voting must be submitted to the General Secretary (via the online system) by either a National Delegate or ICCF Official
Medals 1 Jul 2020 Deadline for (a) Medal eligibility for the 2020 Congress and (b) officials responsible for collecting medals/certificates of players/teams will be identified
Delegate and delegate designee selections due 1 Jul 2020 All Delegates, Honorary Presidents, and Honorary Members must register as Congress voting members with the ICCF General Secretary. No voting member will be accepted after this deadline
Congress registration closes 1 Jul 2020 Places will be locked in and no further seats in the Congress hall will be allocated after this date. If not registered by this date, attendees will be required to (a) arrange their own accommodations (b) pay separately for attendance at the welcome party, excursion, and closing banquet
Online voting for proposals begins 6 Jul 2020 Delegates may now submit online votes for approved proposals
Voting Member Distribution 20 Jul 2020 The ICCF General Secretary will distribute to the Member Federation delegates the list of voting members attending Congress
Online voting for Proposals end 28 Jul 2020 Note, according to ICCF Statutes, Article 16, Each member has the duty to appoint an Official Delegate and to inform the General Secretary of this, for all ICCF business and especially for representation at the Congress. As such, the General Secretary requires notification of participation in Congress. Participation in the Congress includes the following:
  • submitting proposals
  • commenting on proposals
  • engaging in debate about proposals online or at Congress
  • voting on proposals at Congress
  • Notice of representation to participate in Congress must be made before the deadline (July 6, 2019) by the delegate and failure to do so will be considered in violation of the Article 1.7 of the ICCF Voting Regulations and; therefore, considered as no notification provided and no provisions of participation will be afforded this delegate.
    Officials Reports Due 4 Aug 2020 All EB/MC Reports due to the General Secretary for distribution
    Proxy Nominations Due 9 Aug 2020 Member Federations wishing to assign a Congress 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.
    Voting Member and Proxy Distributions 17 Aug 2020 The list of Congress voting members and proxies will be distributed by the ICCF General Secretary
    EB/MC Meetings 23 Aug 2020 EB/MC Meeting starts the day before Congress
    Congress Starts 24 Aug 2020 Full Congress starts on August 24, 2020
    Congress Ends 27 Aug 2020 Congress Ends

    Programme of Congress

    The programme of the Congress is not yet finalized but it will be on similar lines as that of earlier Congresses. The Congress excursion on 27 August will consist of a series of visits to famous Glasgow Museums. The visit includes Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum, which opened in 1901 as part of the Glasgow International Exhibition. Discover everything from art to animals, Ancient Egypt to Charles Rennie Mackintosh. The collections are extensive and internationally significant, with famous paintings by Renoir, Rembrandt, Salvador Dali and, of course, 'the Glasgow Boys'. The Riverside Museum, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, is Glasgow's multi-award winning transport museum located on the banks of the River Clyde, with over 3,000 objects on display from collections of historic vehicles to skateboards. One can walk through the reconstructed old Glasgow streets and visit the shops, bars and 'Subway'. Climb aboard, a train, tram or bus, help put out a fire with the interactive fire engine or discover Glasgow's rich shipbuilding history.

    As an alternative to the visit to the Riverside Museum, a tour and whisky tasting, lasting approximately 1 hour has been arranged at the adjoining Clydeside Distillery, which is housed in the Pumphouse building. It should be noted that numbers are limited for this tour. It will be a case of "first come first served" and Delegates and Officials who wish to participate must book as soon as possible and pay for their visit by 8th May 2020. Cost per person is £15.

    Blitz Tournament
    An important aspect of the Annual Congress is the traditional Blitz tournament which is open to Congress participants and players from the local chess community. The 2020 edition will take place in the Arcoona Suite on Tuesday, 25th August, commencing at 20.00.

    Chess Match
    It is a tradition of the Annual Congress that a match takes place between ICCF and the local chess community. In 2020 the chess match will be held in the Arcoona Suite on Monday, 24th August commencing at 20.00. It is anticipated that there will be between 12 and 15 boards. Attendees who wish to participate should advise the Congress organisers, preferably by 1st July 2020.

    New Titles

    Anil Anand and Gautam De have achieved Correspondence Chess Expert (CCE) titles.

    AA/C16/Final, 22nd ICCF Chess Olympiad

    We have entered a team to play in 22nd ICCF Chess Olympiad preliminaries with the following players:

  • K. Sasikiran
  • P. Kanappan
  • Om Prakash Mohanty (Captain)
  • Lalit Kapoor
  • Mohan Turaga
  • Rakesh Kumar
  • 16thAfrica Asia Zonal Championship Final

    Mr Om Prakash has scored 5 out of 8 and is leading the group. One of his wins from this event is given below:

    AA/C18/SF/C, 18th Africa Asia Zonal Championship S-Final C

    Mr Om Prakash has scored 7.5 out of 12 and is placed 2nd in the group. One of his wins from this event is given below:

    3rd IZIT Pr C, 3rd Inter-Zonal Individual Tournament Pairing C

    Mr. Rakesh Kumar Chauhan has scored 4.5 out of 8 and is placed 4th . One of his games is given below:

    Interzonal TT10 Board 2, 10th Inter-Zonal Team Championship Board 2

    Mr Lalit Kapoor has scored 9 out of 18 and is placed second and has achieved CCE and CCM norms in this event. One of his winning games is given below:

    Interzonal TT10 Board 5, 10th Inter-Zonal Team Championship Board 5

    Mr. Gautam De has scored 8 out of 15 and is placed 6th and got CCE norm and title. His winning game is given below:

    Interzonal TT10 Board 8, 10th Inter-Zonal Team Championship Board 8

    ICCF Ratings

    ICCF IDTitleNameGamesRating
    280319 Agrawal, Rakesh1531665
    280187CCMAkkaraju, Sailesh Chandra3112296
    280172CCEAnand, Anil Kumar2402186
    280782LIMBisht, Mamta962132
    280086 Chandran, T.1331857
    280068 Chatterjee, Ambar2642227
    280087CCEChauhan, Rakesh Kumar3632353
    280664CCMDas, Arghyadip782357
    280577 Das, Satyajit972271
    280273CCEDas, Saurabh812150
    280130CCMDatta, Devangshu1152336
    280088CCEDe, Gautam2192296
    280176GM Dhanish, P. B.1442595
    280209 Dutt, Bulusu Someswara1491525
    280465 Dutta, Amit422394
    280089 Ganapathi, Cdr R.462225
    280179 Gupta, Aniruddha Dutta1992168
    280276 Gupta, Vibhor1441794
    280953 Hegde, Ganesh792274
    280895 Hegde, Ranjeet502409
    280169 Jayaraman, Mohan1862308
    280113CCEKapoor, Lalit942383
    280593 Krishna, Pandava371628
    280138CCMKumar, Pavan Tumuluri2292398
    280208 Malvankar, Vikrant501732
    280104CCEMandviwala, Pervez Godrez2842259
    280219 Mohanakrishnan, B.1602080
    280205 Nagaraj, A.921843
    280171 Nair, Umesh932057
    280197 Naniwadekar, Mihir321749
    280243CCMPrakash, Om3002427
    280726CCERamesh, R. B.1142257
    281147 Roy, Rabirashmi402020
    280118IM Santhosh, Matthew Paul1912269
    280330SIMSasikiran, Krishnan1352553
    280168CCESaxena, Alok3862201
    280484 Sethuraman, S. P.472304
    280966 Sharma, Amit (* 1976)411919
    280225 Somani, Shalaka412352
    280107 Somani, Sunil K.1962220
    280701 Thakur, Ankur Singh892148
    280174 Trivedi, Kalapi B.1872182
    280224CCMTuraga, Mohan1802353
    280095 Valsan, K.902129