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Alok Saxena
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International Matters

ICCF Congress

ICCF Congress this year took place between Aug 15 - 18 at The Hilton Glasgow Hotel, Glasgow, Scotland. The Hilton Glasgow Hotel is located at 1 William Street, Glasgow G3 8HT which is off the M8, with the hotel sitting between Glasgow city centre and the West End, within a mile of both. The hotel has a dedicated taxi rank, providing easy access to Glasgow Airport. The program of the Congress is given below.

The first two attempts to organise the Congress here had to be cancelled due to the Covid crisis in 2020 and 2021, but now this year, it was possible to organise a face-to-face Congress, thanks to the Scottish Correspondence Chess Federation.

Programme of Events

Sunday 14 August 2022

Arrival of Delegates

Monday 15 August 2022

Day One of Congress

Tuesday 16 August 2022

Day Two of Congress

Accompanying Person's Programme (Requires registration) - Coach will depart from Hilton at 10:00 sharp

Wednesday 17 August 2022

Day Three of Congress

Problem with Membership Applications

While preparing the voting summary for Congress, the Executive Board (EB) discovered some odd indications about the proposal voting process:
  1. Evidence is found that most (if not all) player's accounts are fake
  2. It is presumed that even the delegates' accounts in question are fake
  3. The Executive Board is continuing this investigation, and the findings will be reported during Congress
  4. In light of the evidence discovered so far, the EB has decided to temporarily withdraw the three membership applications of Curcao, Haiti and Surinam until the end of the investigation

Problem with Venezuela

In 2020, Venezuela went on a tear, starting numerous tournaments. Income went up but also did the amount owed to ICCF. As the amount owed quickly climbed past 5,000 EUR, ICCF took notice and collaborated with the National Delegate to set up a payment plan. Several payments were made but then stopped, leaving an excessive number of payments in arrears. The Executive Board had several ongoing discussions and decided to temporarily suspend Venezuela (no new tournaments organized, no internal entries, and a proposal to withdraw from the Member Federation if the arrears are not satisfied). Several Venezuelan players have been inquiring why the Federation has been suspended. Still, to preserve the obligation to not interfere in internal matters, the response has been, ‘please check with your National Delegate.’

To address this injustice, the ICCF Executive Board decided to honour our obligations by reaching out to each winner, discussing what prize funds are available, and providing payment options.

Eligible prize payments totalled 3,585.00 USD and 4,664.25 Euros.

  1. All prize amounts were converted to Euros
  2. Of those that responded and wished to be paid, ICCF paid out 2,514.09 Euros
  3. 102 separate payments were made via ICCF Vouchers
  4. 26 players were contacted at least twice to plan payments but never replied
  5. 29 winners did reply and opted not to receive payment

Proposals in extraordinary meeting of ICCF congress

Removal of Russian and Belarusian National Flags from the ICCF Website
1. Effective immediately, the flags of Russian and Belarusian players/teams will be removed and replaced with a generic ICCF logo flag. A majority of the EB members voted FOR this action.

International Tournament Cessation for Russia and Belarus
2. Effective immediately and until the regular scheduled Congress in Glasgow in August, federations from Russia and Belarus are prohibited from organising international tournaments by invitation. However, as allowed under ICCF rules, they will be allowed to organize (a) national, (b) friendly, and (c) unrated tournaments. The EB was unanimous in this decision. The Extraordinary Congress to be conducted in the April/May timeframe will consider proposals from ICCF officials and delegates regarding further actions for ICCF Russian and Belarusian players and federations.

Discontinue Contract with Russian company Convekta for 7-Piece Tablebases
3. Effective immediately, the agreement between ICCF and the owners of the Lomonosov Tablebases has been discontinued. Adopted by a majority of the EB members.

The ICCF Extraordinary Congress (EC) was convened on May 2, 2022, to address many immediate delegates’ concerns.

To view the voting summary and how the delegates voted, please go to: https://www.iccf.com/Congresses.aspx and click on the Minutes link across from the 2022 Extraordinary Congress (EC) – Virtual Congress label.

To view the actual proposals and what impact they may have, you may examine them critically at: https://www.iccf.com/Proposals.aspx?id=76

So the proposals for suspension of Russian and Belarussian federations and players were defeated.

The BdF and ICCF organized this tournament. The aim is friendship and respect of all players of the ICCF who want to stand in solidarity with Ukraine and set an example in this way. Any player, including Russian and Belarussian, can participate in this tournament regardless of their rating.

ICCF received 585 registrations from 55 member federations (MFs).

ICCF will donate the entry fees to a non-profit organisation (International Red Cross) to help the people of Ukraine and/or refugees.

Member federations receive a rebate for each direct entry (DE) received.

ICCF, in addition to the entry fee donation, would like to donate the rebate fees to the non-profit organisation.

IMPORTANT

All players should first check whether they are 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.

AA/C19/Final, 19th Africa Asia Zonal Championship Final

Gautam De and Akkaraju Sailesh Chandra have qualified for this event and are playing in this event.

AA/C18/Final, 18th Africa Asia Zonal Championship Final

Om Prakash Mohanty and Akkaraju Sailesh Chandra have qualified and are playing in this tournament. Om Prakash Mohanty is placed second with 6 out of 11.

AA/C21/SF/C, 21st Africa Asia Zonal Championship S-Final A

Mohan Turaga and Akkaraju Sailaesh Chandra have qualified and are playing in this event. Mohan Turaga has scored 5 out of 9 and is placed at the top of table at present. One of the winning games of Mr. Turaga is given below:

AA/C21/SF/B, 21st Africa Asia Zonal Championship S-Final B

Alok Saxena, Lalit Kapoor and Ganesh Hedge have qualified and are playing in this tournament. Alok Saxena has scored 6.5 out of 10 and is placed 1st in this event and has acquired IM norm from this event. One of his winning game is given below:

21st Africa Asia Zonal Championship S-Final C

Gautam De, Tanmay Srinath and Rabirashmi Roy have qualified and are playing in this event. Gautam De and Tanmay Srinath both have scored 4.5 out of 8 and are placed joint 2nd. Their games are given below:

AA/TC04, 4th Africa Asia Team Championship

India has fielded three teams in this tournament. India A is captained by A. Dutagupta, India B is captained by Alok Saxena and India C is captained Ambar Chatterjee. India B is maintaining a clear lead at present with 19 points and 73% score while second placed team is Indonesia A with 15 points with 51% score.

Champions League 2021 C7

Indian Stalwarts consisting of Lalit Kapoor, Gautam De, Mohan Turaga and Tanmay Srinath are playing in this event. The team has 24.5 points with 59% score and is placed 4th. Places 1-2 and the best four third places (After Tie Breaks resolved) are promoted to B division in CL10. Tanmay Shrinath on Board 4 has scored 8 out of 11 and is placed 1st on this board. One of his game is given below:

MT-VV Demian D, Valer Vasile Demian Memorial D

The Romanian Correspondence Chess Central Commission and ICCF IM Valer Eugen Demian organized the Valer Vasile Demian Memorial (ROU) tornament. This tournament enabled to put together 6 groups of 15 players each from a total of 34 countries. Gautam De represented India in this prestigious tournament and finished second with the score of 7.5 out of 14.

70th ICCF Jubilee event for officials C

Santhosh M Paul and Alok Saxena are playing in this event and have finished with 3rd and 6th places with scores of 6 and 5.5 out of 10 respectively.

Mem/YuriYar/B, Memorial Yuri Yaroshenko B (UKR)

The Correspondence Chess Federation of Ukraine devotes this tournament to the memory of our dear chessfriend ICCF IM Yuri Yaroshenko (1950-2018). He had habilitation degree in medicine and worked as leading scientific researcher at the Institute of Gerontology in Kyiv (http://geront.kiev.ua/en.htm). Our player S.P. Sethuraman represented India in this event with score of 6 out of 12 and is placed 5th in this event and secured CCE norm. His adjudicated winning game is given below:

INDIA MEXICO and INDIA CUBA

INDIA MEXICO match started on 30th June 2021. India has won by a narrow margin of 24.5-22.5 with just one game of Amit Sharma on Board 16 remaining. One of the winning games of Sethuraman on board 3 is given below:

India-Cuba match started on 28th Nov 2021. India is trailing by a big 24-36 margin. One of the game from this match is given below:

ICCF RATINGS 2022/3

SNoIdTitleNameRatingGames
14280176GMDhanish, P. B.2595144
523280330SIMSasikiran, Krishnan2540237
416280286Sastry, KVS244342
350280138IMKumar, Pavan Tumuluri2433308
508280243IMPrakash, Om2415440
562280895Hegde, Ranjeet241352
69280088CCMDe, Gautam2405370
530280465Dutta, Amit239442
541280687CCMGupta, Abhijeet238034
264280113CCMKapoor, Lalit2372185
585281147CCMRoy, Rabirashmi2369301
535280664CCMDas, Arghyadip2361126
100280087CCMChauhan, Rakesh Kumar2354430
422280225Somani, Shalaka S.235241
499280224CCMTuraga, Mohan2352267
583281107CCMJose, Ajith2352121
159280093Saxena, Rakesh G. D.235128
6280097Lakshminarayana, K. V.234215
603280824CCESrinath, Tanmay2342111
532280484Sethuraman, S. P.231973
572280953CCEHegde, Ganesh2317113
405280169Jayaraman, Mohan2308186
49280179CCEGupta, Aniruddha Dutta2306312
455280187CCMAkkaraju, Sailesh Chandra2302410
257280114Saxena, Vaibhav229746
561280130CCMDatta, Devangshu2297171
615281414Patel, Krunal Kishor229221
421280697Somani, Rashmi S.229020
354280168CCMSaxena, Alok2284533
198280104CCEMandviwala, Pervez Godrez2276334
330280118IMSanthosh, Matthew Paul2273236
12280068CCEChatterjee, Ambar2248305
546280726CCERamesh, R. B.2244120
246280107Somani, Sunil K.2239209
517280696Somani, Ayush221718
619280192Sengupta, Arnab2216116
204280143Krishnamurthy, Prabhanandan2215173
613281405Narasimha P, Navaneetha221012
433280172CCEAnand, Anil Kumar2205324
374280991CCEChavan, Hrishikesh Pravin219064
399280174Trivedi, Kalapi B.2182187
510280273CCEDas, Saurabh217890
534280577Das, Satyajit2172111
598281248Panwar, Ramesh215832
94280133Shivdasani, Vijay A.2140157
26280095Valsan, K.212990
552280782LIMBisht, Mamta212898
544280701Thakur, Ankur Singh2107117
115280082Gupta, Anuj210268
521280319Agrawal, Rakesh2080237
179280072Trehan, Anirudh207939
21280079Gala, Khusal Laxmichand2069175
58280089Ganapathi, Cdr R.206479
256281165Maurya, Sushil Kumar206268
425280171Nair, Umesh205793
569280933Saravanan, Venkatachalam205615
48280070Prabhakar, Dr. Krishna2051146
616281440Kapila, Himanshu203779
612281348Bhaskar, Adithya199322
502280404Porwal, Lakshya197714
9280096Jadhav, Dinesh V.194915
280280966Sharma, Amit192588
223280135Nagesh, J.190634
206280123Juneja, Madan Lal189434
565280277Pereira, Asim188212
110280086Chandran, T.1853146
228280205Nagaraj, Dr. A.184392
596280197Naniwadekar , Mihir1840159
617281516Jadhav, Tejas Vikas181414
614281390Sai Dinesh, Garikipati180016
516280276Gupta, Vibhor1794144
506280234Aleemuddin, Mohammed178733
484280204Linga, VenuGopal176218
8280127Chandran, M. C.174412
609281300Suresh, Ramalingam Adikesavan174228
587281131Ray, Biswa Preet174138
567280909Goswami, Dwarikesh173419
482280208Malvankar, Vikrant173250
509280256Vijayan, Dhanesh170537
108280593Krishna, Pandava156644
497280222Sharma, Hemant154420
192281097Somasundaram, Anpazhakan151137
563280889Desai, Atul149522
57280209Dutt, Bulusu Someswara1476189
579281032Peedikakkandy, Sameer137643
560280859Dodeja, Pawan136614
597281215Raj, Amrit134136
592281191Singh, Aaradhya101612
157280202Nambiar, AVS02
245280075Raman, R.00
385281175Kumar, K. Shiva011
481280203Vasishta, Sadashiva02
496280220Singh, Tervinder09
498280221Deo, Subash G.02
519280240Naik, Uday04
529281251Nanda, Durga Madhab09
549281471Kausar, Dilshad02
568281565Koneru, Humpy00
586281088Dave, Purnish06
589281160Sujas, Abdul Samad06
591281189Chaudhary, Satyam06
593281190Singh, Saksham06
594281192Singh, Gurcharan 06
595281057Kannappan, Priyadharshan09
606281283Nayak, Tapash04
607281362Roy Chowdhury, Saptarshi06
618281470Chandrani, Shlok02
620281490Kannan, Vasanth Kumar08
621281502Khan, Anjum05
622281504Roy, Sourav Kumar00
624281517Kandipalli, Govindaraju04
626281560Bhattacharjee, Sumeet00
627281494Santhosh, Abhyuday00
628281587Nair, Aryan00