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Last updated 25 June 2022

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25 Jun 22 | ICCF CCE Norm and Title for Whittaker
Lauder based Ian Whittaker has obtained his third and fourth Correspondence Chess Expert (CCE) norms playing in the British Candidates A 2021/23 and the WCCF 13th invitational. Ian has reached the qualifying standard of 6 points with two games still to be completed in the BCCC event and exceeded the qualifying standard of 6.5 points in the WCCF event. Despite these new norms the confirmation of the CCE title is awaited from the Qualifications Commissioner. There is always a slight delay in this occurring and hopefully confirmation will come shortly. Ian’s first norm was achieved whilst playing on Board 4 in the Carlos Flores Gutierrez Team event and his second playing on Board 4 in the North Sea Team event. Congratulations to Ian on his norms and the Title when it is confirmed!
19 Jun 22 | ICCF World Correspondence Chess Championship-Candidates Announced
The Title Tournament Commissioner, Gian-Maria Tani, has written to announce entries can now be accepted for the above.
For details of the event, SCCA members should use the following link to the ICCF announcement of the 42nd WCCC.
Scottish Players who are eligible are encouraged to enter the event. Further details can be obtained by contacting Gordon Anderson.
Closing date for entries is 10 August 2022, with play starting on 20th September 2022.
06 Jun 22 | ICCF 8th WebChess Open Announced
ICCF is delighted to announce the start of the 8th WebChess Open tournament on the server. This announcement is posted on the ICCF website and distributed to all national federations. Working in collaboration with ICCF, the Non-Title Tournament Commissioner, IM Jörg Kracht, IA (GER), will organise the tournament.
For details of the event, SCCA members should use the following link to the ICCF announcement of this new event.
Entry can be through either the National Federation or by Direct Entry. The fee for those using the National Federation route is £4.50 per entry. Multiple entries are permitted. Closing date for entries is 31 August 2022.
28 May 22 | SCCA Horst Rittner Memorial Team Announced
Team Captain Gordon Anderson has finalised the Scotland team for the upcoming Horst Rittner Memorial Tournament (<2300).
  1. CCE Robert Montgomery (2288)
  2. CCM Geoff Lloyd (2276)
  3. CCM Colin Beveridge (2255)
  4. GM David Kilgour (2241)
  5. Ian Whittaker (2237)
  6. Alistair Maxwell (2191)
Good luck to all the players!
23 May 22 | 2022 AGM Highlights
At the AGM via Zoom on 22 May, the following items were noted:
  1. Full audited accounts showing a surplus of £342 and net assets of £8,268 were produced by Gordon Anderson.
  2. Alan Hind was reappointed as auditor.
  3. Other committee posts remain unchanged.
  4. SCCA membership subscriptions remain unchanged.
  5. Preparations continue to welcome the ICCF Annual Congress to Glasgow in August.
Members can download AGM and Executive Committee minutes from the members download page. Full financial details may be accessed from the accounts page and its attached analysis sheets.
29 Apr 21 | SCCA AGM 2022 Notice
This will nominally be held at 11 West Grange Farm Steading, St Andrews KY16 8LJ at 4:00pm on Sunday, 22nd May, but will be a Zoom conference to make attendance easier. Please contact the president for Zoom details. The agenda is:
  1. Apologies
  2. Minutes of Previous AGM and Matters Arising
  3. President's Remarks
  4. Secretary's Report
  5. Treasurer's Report
  6. International Secretary's Report
  7. Election of Office Bearers
  8. Appointment of Auditor
  9. Proposed Subscriptions and Fees
  10. AOCB
25 Apr 22 | ICCF CCM Norm for Whittaker
Lauder based Ian Whittaker has obtained his first Correspondence Chess Master (CCM) norm playing on Board 4 in the North Sea Team Tournament V event. Ian has reached the qualifying standard of 5 points with one game still to be completed. Congratulations to Ian!
13 Apr 22 | ICCF Horst Rittner Team Tournament Announced
The Non-Title Tournament Commissioner, Jörg Kracht has written to announce the Horst Rittner Team Tournament for players rated <2300.
All ICCF Member Federations (that are not currently suspended) and Zone (only for isolated players) are invited to enter their teams to this event, which will be played on the ICCF web-server over two rounds: semi-final and final.
Each federation and zone may enter two teams. All players on the team must be rated at <2300 on the ICCF rating list 2022/2 or on the current FIDE list. In addition, all players must be members of the Federation (or zone) they represent or be registered on the ICCF server for the county of the Federation they represent for the duration of the tournament.
The semi-final will start on July 1st, 2022.
There will be 6 players in each team. A maximum of 3 players may be replaced during the tournament.
The right to be promoted from the semi-final shall be determined by the ICCF Non-Title Tournament Commissioner and approved by the Executive Board at the start of the tournament. The intention will be for a 13 Team final.
Time control will be Triple Block (Duration of Tournament: 700 days; Initial Clock: 50 days; Initial Bank: 50 days; Increment: 5 days).
Team entries have to be sent by the National Federations or Zonal Directors to the Non-Title Tournament Commissioner Jörg Kracht ([email protected]) not later than June 12th, 2022. No replacement or board change will be allowed after that date, unless exceptional circumstances occur.
Scottish players who meet the rating requirements and who are interested in being selected to represent Scotland should contact Gordon Anderson as soon as possible, and certainly no later than 31st May 2022.
06 Apr 22 | ICCF Grading List 2022/2 Published
The second quarterly list of 2022 is published on the website today. Look under publications/grading list to see the web page, or go to members/downloads for the pdf version. For further information, please contact Alistair Maxwell.
06 Apr 22 | SCCA Magazine 157 Published
The first e-mag of the 2022 set is being distributed by email and post today. As usual, members will be asked to download their e-mags from the secure Members' page on the website, while complimentary e-mags will be attached to the email. Download times will be about the same as last quarter. If you have any problems with this edition, please drop me an email at: webmaster and I'll do what I can to help. Enjoy the read!
13 Mar 22 | ICCF Extraordinary Congress (Virtual)
As everyone is aware Russia has invaded Ukraine which has resulted in a variety of sanctions. ICCF has now called an Extraordinary Congress (Virtual) for early May 2022. Access to the Congress Website can be obtained by logging into ICCF and by clicking on ICCF Congresses on the site menu (left column). Once there, members can access the Proposals as they are submitted by Member Federations. At the time of writing this article, there are 6 Proposals submitted to the Congress by the ICCF Executive Board. Members of SCCA will have views and it would be extremely helpful if you would convey these to our National Delegate Gordon Anderson or any Member of the SCCA Committee, by 30th April 2022.
13 Mar 22 | ICCF Peace Open Amici Sumus
ICCF and BdF have jointly organised this event to stand in solidarity with Ukraine. Full details can be found on the ICCF website at: Peace Open Amici Sumus.
07 Mar 22 | ICCF Emergency Congress
In view of the aggression by Russia against Ukraine, some member Federations have called for an Emergency Congress. The Executive Board of ICCF met on Saturday 5 March and the outcome is that there will be an Emergency Congress (virtual) in early May. Please see the ICCF Notices posted on 6/7 March on the ICCF website.
The Executive Committee of SCCA will direct our National Delegate once Proposals have been submitted for consideration at Congress. Scottish members/players who wish to contribute to the debate should communicate with Gordon Anderson or any Member of the SCCA Committee.
30 Jan 22 | SCCA 2022 Domestic Events Started
Many thanks to Mickey Blake who has initiated all our major domestic individual and team events for this year. You can access the x-table links via the following pages: championship; premier; open A; open B; league 1; league 2; and league 3.
Challengers fixtures for 2021-22 and 2022-23 are arranged in mini-tables on the SCO-Challengers page of the webserver.
28 Jan 22 | SCCA Best Game Prize 2021 Reminder
I'm very pleased to announce that IM Maxim Konstantinov of Russia has kindly agreed to be our judge this year and is looking forward to analysing our entries. There are still a few days left for you to send your submissions, so please direct them to me at my president email address. The main stipulation is that games must have been completed in 2021. Multiple entries are allowed. If you do enter, good luck!
25 Jan 22 | ICCF Swiss System KO Tournament Announced
Jorg Kracht, the Non-Title Tournament Commissioner, writes to announce the launch of a new tournament, the ICCF Swiss System KO Tournament, sponsored by Opening Master. Details of the event can be found on Swiss System KO Tournament. The event can be entered through the ICCF Server Entry system.
19 Jan 22 | ICCF Events Start Date Changes
Players should note that the majority of events on the ICCF webserver now require that no move may be made prior to the official event start date. Players should receive a minimum of one week's notice prior to an event starting. This rule applies to all International tournaments, which include SCCA Webserver Team Leagues. Other SCCA Domestic tournaments are largely unaffected at present.
19 Jan 22 | ICCF Congress 2022 Website Launched
ICCF General Secretary Michael Millstone has now circulated all ICCF member nation delegates to announce that the website specially built for the upcoming Congress in Glasgow is now available for use. You can access it at: 2022 congress website.
Registration facilities are available for those wishing to attend, and there is plenty of information about hotels, local attractions and the planned programme of events. Further updates will be made between now and August. Our event organiser is Gordon Anderson, who can provide any further information you may need.
17 Jan 22 | ICCF European Championship 2022 Candidates Tournament
The European Zone Director, Andrey Pavlikov has written to announce that the Candidates’ Tournament of the European Championship 2022 will start on 15th March 2022 and be played on the ICCF Server.
The top two players from each Candidates section (tiebreaks will be used if required) will qualify for the Final.
All sections will normally consist of 13 players but, conditional upon the number of entries received, the Tournament Organiser shall have the authority to change the number of players in all sections to 11, 15 or 17.
If the number of the entries does not permit the formation of all sections of 13 (or 11, 15, 17) players, the entries of those players who have submitted entries under condition (d) below will, in ascending order from the lowest, be deferred to the next Candidates event.
The following players have the right to participate in the European Championship Candidates:
  1. players rated 2500 or over at the time of entry
  2. holders of the Grandmaster Title
  3. holders of the Senior International Master Title with a rating over 2400 at the time of entry
  4. holders of the International Master Title with a rating over 2450 at the time of entry
  5. those players who finished 1st or 2nd in a European Championship Semi-Final
  6. participants of previous or running Finals who have scored at least 45% of the possible points, if they have not earned a higher qualification and have not already used this qualification right
  7. the participants of previous or running Candidates who have scored at least 55% of the possible points, if they have not earned a higher qualification and have not already used this qualification right
The ICCF European Championship is reserved only to those players from European countries.
Players may enter in the usual way through their National Federations or, where eligible, via the ICCF Direct Entry system. Players from those countries not members of ICCF may submit entries only via the ICCF Direct Entry system. It is mandatory that the qualification right to participate in the event should be specified for each entry.
Eligible Scottish players who wish to participate should contact Gordon Anderson no later than 20th February 2022.
Entry fee will be £13.
16 Jan 22 | ICCF CCM Norm and Title for Beveridge
Cheltenham-based Colin Beveridge has achieved his 3rd Correspondence Chess Master (CCM) norm and the CCM Title whilst playing in the DE 15th Webserver Anniversary event scoring the required 6 points. Colin obtained his first CCM norm in the 5th Aniversario Fedapven IM Celso Sanchez Group 4 and his second on Board 1 in the Carlos Flores Gutierrez Team Tournament. Congratulations to Colin!
11 Jan 22 | ICCF Grading List 2022/1 Published
The first quarterly list of 2022 is published on the website today. Look under publications/grading list to see the web page, or go to members/downloads for the pdf version. For further information, please contact Alistair Maxwell.
11 Jan 22 | SCCA Magazine 156 Published
The fourth e-mag of the 2021 set is being distributed by email and post today. As usual, members will be asked to download their e-mags from the secure Members' page on the website, while complimentary e-mags will be attached to the email. Download times will be about the same as last quarter. If you have any problems with this edition, please drop me an email at: webmaster and I'll do what I can to help. Enjoy the read!
03 Jan 20 | ICCF President's New Year Message
To all Correspondence Chess Friends,
As 2021 has ended, I would like to extend my warmest wishes to you and all those dear to you for a very healthy, happy, and prosperous New Year. I also want to extend my sincere thanks to all officials and delegates for their devoted work on behalf of ICCF during the last year.
This last year has indeed been demanding for all ICCF officials and volunteers but has proved successful for ICCF even though we had to cancel the Congress once again.
Hopefully, this year the ICCF Congress will be held in Glasgow in August, and I hope that many delegates, officials, and correspondence chess players will join us.
In closing, let me once again extend to you my best wishes for the New Year. I hope that 2022 will bring satisfaction to all your endeavours, personal, professional, and chess!
Amici Sumus,
Eric Ruch
ICCF President