ICCF Congress

This year ICCF congress was organised by The Nederlandse Bond van Correspondentieschakers (NBC) as per details below:

Date: 20 - 24 August 2023 Location: Double Tree by Hilton Amsterdam Centraal Station, Oosterdokstraat 4, 1011 DK Amsterdam, The Netherlands

After 1955 Amsterdam presidium, 1956 Amsterdam congress, 1959 Amsterdam congress, 1972 Arnhem presidium, 1987 Bloemendaal congress, it has now again come back in Amsterdam.

Programme of Events

Sunday 20 August 2023

Arrival of Delegates

• 08.30 – 09.00 Refreshments in Coffee Station
• 09:30 - 12:00 Meeting of the ICCF Executive Board in the Manchester 2 Room
• 10.00 – 10.30 Refreshments in Coffee Station
• 14:00 - 17:00 Meeting of the ICCF Management Committee in Manchester 2
• 15.00 – 15.30 Refreshments in Coffee Station
• 20:00 - 23:00 Welcome Party in Manchester 1 + 2 +Birmingham 2

Monday 21 August 2023

Day One of Congress

09:30 - 11:00 Opening Ceremony and Civic Reception in Glasgow 1 with speeches of Drs. Femke Halsema mayoress of Amsterdam, Wim van Vugt president NBC, Bianca de Jong - Muhren president KNSB, Eric Ruch president of ICCF

11:00 - 11:30 Refreshments in Coffee Station

11:30 - 12:30 Title Awards and Presentations in Glasgow 1

14:00 - 18:00 Day One of Congress in Glasgow 1+2

16.00 – 16.30 Refreshments in Coffee Station

20:00 - 23:00 Chess-Science-Communication in Leeds 2

20.00 Welcome by the ComputerSchaak Vereniging Nederland (CSVN) by Ruud Martin (Chair)
Nederlandse Bond voor Correspondentieschaak (NBC) Henk van den Bos (Congress committee)
Max Euwe Centre (MEC) by Paul van der Sterren (Chair)

20:15 Lecture by Prof. Dr. Jaap van den Herik Computers: From Beginners to Over Champions

20:45 Playing Strength at the WCCC 2023 in Spain by Chief Arbiter Richard Pijl

21:05 Break

21:15 Lecture by Dr. Dap Hartmann Hans Berliner's Life, hobby and profession

21.45 Break

21.50 Lecture by Jon Edwards, our recent ICCF World Champion The Marshall talk provides a sense of what he is going to talk about. It is assumed that attendees might enjoy seeing the thinking during one key game of the recent WF32... specifically a 35-move long sequence, aimed at inducing an opponent to advance a pawn one square. Jon succeeded, but then he had to do it again... to get the opponent to advance the pawn one more square forward. In this he failed, because he could not force the advance within the 50 move rule! He is not advocating rule changes 😀 but he agrees that it is becoming quite a challenge to eke out small advantages, let alone to win. There are, of course, also the slides that he used in the Marshall talk. He will not walk through them all, but perhaps one area or more will be of interest to the group.

22.50 Questions on the future of Correspondence Chess for Jon and other correspondence chess players.

23.00 End of Session

Tuesday 22 August 2023

Day Two of Congress

• 09:30 - 12:30 Day Two of Congress in Glasgow 1+2
• 11:00 - 11:30 Refreshments in Coffee Station
• 14:00 - 18:00 Day Two of Congress in Glasgow 1+2
• 16:30 - 17:00 Refreshments in Coffee Station
• 20.00 - 23:00 Blitz Tournament in Leeds 2

Accompanying Person's Programme (Requires registration)- Day two starts with a city walk in the morning for a visit at the Begijnhof, one of many famous 14th century “hofjes” (courtyards) The Netherlands and Belgium have. The delegates will leave the congress hotel at 10:00 sharp to catch Tram2 which brings them at Spui . From there the walk starts. After this visit of Begijnhof delegates can walk to the nearby Flower Market at the Singel (canal) full of flowers, plants, seeds and tulip bulbs.

Around 12 o'clock we meet at the end of the market and walk (5 min) to the Rembrandtplein (Rembrandt Square) where there is a statue of the Nachtwacht (Nightwatch) and a lot of restaurants on the square or in the streets nearby where everyone can find a place for a lunch. In the afternoon at 13:15 delegates again make a short walk of about 10 minutes into the old Portuguese Synagogue, built in the 17^th century (1675) followed by a visit to the Jewish Historic Museum. After that delegates return to the congress hotel by metro or tram, or by a short city walk (20 minutes) on their own.

Wednesday 23 August 2023

Day Three of Congress

• 09:30 - 12:30 Day Three of Congress in Glasgow 1+2
• 11:00 - 11:30 Refreshments in Coffee Station
• 14:00 - 18:00 Day Three of Congress in Glasgow 1+2
• 15:30 - 16:00 Refreshments in Coffee Station
• 14:00 - 18:00 Day Three of Congress in Glasgow 1+2

It is expected the Congress meetings of Wednesday aren't needed anymore, since there are only 21 proposals to discuss and voted on. In that case an alternative excursion to the Max Euwe Centre is possible for anyone who likes to visit, by using tram to the Leidseplein.

Thursday 24 August 2023

09:00 Excursion per coach to Delft from Congress hotel

Election Results

Eric Ruch (FRA) and Michael Millstone (USA) have been re-elected as President and General Secretary of ICCF respectively with comfortable margins.
Russel Sherwood (WLS) has been elected as Finance Director of ICCF.
Uwe Staroske (GER) has been elected as World Tournament Director of ICCF
Jason Bokar (USA) has been elected as Marketing Director of ICCF.

ICCF Hall of Fame (2021)

1. SIM Gerhard Binder: Gerhard Binder was the ICCF Ratings Commissioner for a quarter of a century, from 1994 to 2019; he earned the IM title in 1991 and the SIM title in 1999 and he played in the 38^th European Championship final starting in 1996. Gerhard's service honours include the Bertl von Massow medal in silver (2003), the Bertl von Massow medal in gold (2003), and honorary membership of ICCF (2016).
2. GM Dronov, Aleksandr Surenovich: Russia is not a member of ICCF any more; so Dronov is a designated isolated player. Isolated players are allowed to enter all eligible ICCF tournaments via Direct Entry and to receive all earned titles and awards.
3. Late GM Rittner, Horst Robert: GM Horst Rittner had a passion for correspondence chess and for ICCF and it was sad news that shook the chess community far beyond the BdF. GM Horst Rittner finished his last game in the night of June 14, 2021 and will never return to the board. A look into his chess career shows big footprints he leaves behind:
   • 1949 his passion for correspondence chess began.
   • 1960 he became ICCF Grandmaster, altogether he achieved the GM norm a record 10 times!
   • 1966 winner of the strong Ragozin Memorial Tournament.
   • 1971 he became World Champion at the 6^th Correspondence Chess World Championship.
   • 1995 3rd place at the 10^th Correspondence Chess Olympiad (1987-1995), which was still played by mail, in the team of the GDR.

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

Gautam De and Akkaraju Sailesh Chandra are playing in this event started on 30/06/22 and have scored 2.5 and 1.5 points respectively so far. One of the games of Gautam De has resulted in an interesting draw in a Rook with two pawns vs Bishop and two pawns.

21^st Africa Asia Zonal Championship Semi-Final C

Gautam De, Tanmay Srinath and Rabirashmi Roy are playing in this event.

Gautam De has scored 6.5 out of 10 and is topping the table at this moment and has qualified for finals and has also acquired an IM norm. Many congratulations to him. His winning game is given below:

AA/TC05, 5^th Africa Asia Team Championship

India has fielded three teams captained by Om Prakash Mohanty, K. Prabhanandan, and Rakesh Agarwal. Team B is close second with 13 points with 64% score.

One of the winning games from Team B on second board is given below:

AA/TC04, 4th Africa Asia Team Championship

India has fielded three teams in this tournament. India A is captained by A. Duttagupta, India B is captained by Alok Saxena and Africa Asia B is captained Ambar Chatterjee. India B is placed 2^nd at present with 28.0 points and 71% score while Indonesia C with 32 points is topping the table with 69% score.

The winning games of Alok Saxena on Board 1 and K Prabhanandan on Board 3 are given below:

4^th IZIT S-F B, 4th Inter-Zonal Individual Tournament - Semi-Final B

This event started on 28^th Feb, 2023 and is organised by Peter S. Mylot. Om Prakash Mohanty has qualified and is playing in this event and has scored 2.5/5 and is placed 5th at present. One of his games is given below:

4^th IZIT S-F C, 4^th Inter-Zonal Individual Tournament - Semi-Final C

Alok Saxena has qualified and is playing in this event and has scored 3.5/7 and is placed 3^rd at present. One of his games is given below:

5^th IZIT Pr L, 5th Interzonal Individual Tournament Prelim L

Rakesh Chauhan has topped the table with 4.5/8 and has qualified for semi-finals. His win against the second placed CCM Ledford (2340) is highlight of this event and is given below:

INDIA-BULGARIA and INDIA-NETHERLANDS FRIENDLY MATCHES

INDIA-BULGARIA match started on 12^th April 2023 and Bulgaria is at present leading 5.5-3.5 mainly due to default by our player Pawan Dodeja after just seven moves in an otherwise equal position. Abhijeet Gupta and Mohan Turaga have drawn both their games. One of the games is given below:

INDIA-NETHERLANDS match has just started on 20^th July 2023 with 24 boards. Alok Saxena has completed both his games against Arjo Schreuders on Board 2 and both games are drawn. One of the games is given below:

INDIA-USA

AIWCF team for a Friendly International Match INDIA-USA is being formed.

23^rd Olympiad Prelims

K Sasikiran, T Pavan Kumar, R K Chauhan, Gautam De, Lalit Kapoor and Om Prakash are our 6-member team for this event which will start in Jan 2024.