End of the Year 2006

Due to the webmaster's recent computer crash, the ICCF-US site hasn't been updated for a little while (since November). Everything is back in order now – thanks for your patience! Please see below for some new updates at the end of 2006!

December 26, 2006

4^th NAPZ Championship Complete

From Franklin Campbell and Ruth Ann:

Dear Participants in the 4th NAPZ Championship,
 
Thank you for your participation in this wonderful championship event.  Only highly qualified players were invited to play, so you are all winners by definition.  There were some great games played in this event and the database contains a complete collection of all 105 games.  Thanks for your cooperation.
 
This event is officially completed with all 105 games finished. Thanks to everyone who competed or participated in the organization of this event. I am proud to announce the final standings:

Co-champions: Takanori Tomizawa (JPN) and Timothy Murray (USA)
3rd place: Jason Bokar (USA)

There are no trophies or prizes, but these three players are now qualified to participate in the Candidates round of an upcoming World Championship, the last stage leading to the final.

The start list indicated that the S-B method of tie-break would be used. The purpose of a tie-break system was to avoid excessive qualifications to the World Championship cycle, which has been a problem in the past. Since there were no ties requiring breaking (all three top places qualify for the Candidates WC event and there is no trophy for 1st place) there was fortunately no need to apply any arbitrary tie-break system.  Note: the original start list specified two players would qualify to the Candidates, but in fact the top three players qualify.

Amici sumus,
Ruth Ann

And many thanks to Franklin Campbell for taking over the TD duties and seeing this match to a finish!

December 26, 2006

Interzonal 2006 Starting!

The 2006 version of the Interzonal Team Event has started: NAPZ has entered a great team! Please see the start information here:

In the 2004 version of this fine event, the NAPZ team is currently in 1^st place:

(November 1, 2006)

The 1st WS USCCC final is scheduled to start 1 November 2006. Below is the list of participants.

1. Herrera, Alex (2191)

2. IM Schakel, Corky (2383)

3. Ledford, Steven O. (2226)

4. Fass, Robert N. (2311)

5. Eilmes, Don P. (2321)

6. Zawadski, Anthony J. (2233)

7. Myers, David R. (2361)

8. Jones, Kenneth E. (2262)

9. Gildred, Terrence L. (2430)

Average rating: 2302
TD: Ralph P. Marconi
Live Display of games, with a 3-move delay

Links:

Qualifying preliminary crosstables at: http://www.iccfus.com/crosstables/usccc_prelims/ws01p.htm

Final crosstable (on ICCF server) at: http://www.iccf-webchess.com/EventCrossTable.aspx?id=9859

(October 2, 2006)

Call for Nominations

Med Samraoui, ICCF President, has called for nominations for the unfilled Executive Board terms of Max Zavanelli, Deputy President, and Michael Millstone, Financial Director. If anyone is interested in either position, please contact Ruth Ann Fay, zprchess. These terms expire at the end of 2007. It is hoped that applicatants would be able to run for reelection in 2007 for a normal 4 year term. Max Zavanelli and Ruth Ann would like to bring USA nominations to Congress in order to maintain a US presence on the ICCF EB.

The primary duty of the Deputy President is "Director of Development" or, oversight of the Marketing Director. It includes anything else that the President assigns to him and Acting President if anything happens to the President. Anyone with management and  marketing skills should consider this.

The Financial Director, formerly known as Treasurer, has responsibility for the ICCF financial planning and for the books. The bookkeeping is currently being done by Ruth Ann Fay using Quick Books. Anyone with financial planning skills, accrual accounting skills, and knowlege of Quick Books or another professional accounting program that can import the QB information is encouraged to contact Ruth Ann.

Applicants should be able to travel to every ICCF Congress. Note that these positions include a small, partial reimbursment of expenses of attending Congress as long as that person is not also the USA delegate.

Amici sumus,

Ruth Ann

(September 20, 2006)

US 15th Championship - Edward Duliba winner!

ICCF-US is pleased to announce that the winner of the 15th USCCC Final is SIM Edward Duliba.
Ed had an undefeated win in his Preliminary section of the 14th USCCC. He was nominated by USCF to play in the 14th Final. He deferred is 14th qualification until the 15th Final. He had only 1 loss in the 14th Final and was undefeated in the 15th Final. Not only was he playing in two Finals at the same time, but he was in several other strong events such as the 4th North American Pacific Zone Championship, three World Championship Semifinal sections, and he is now on the USA 13th Olympiad Final team. Since 1998, when he started the 14th Preliminary section, he has completed more than 200 ICCF rated games.

The crosstable is at:
http://www.iccfus.com/crosstables/usccc_finals/uscccf15.htm

The prize for first place is a trophy and a USA nomination to the ICCF World Championship semifinal. Ed qualifies for a place in a Candidates section based on ICCF Tournament Rule 1.3.1 (g), "the holders of Senior International Title with ratings above 2525"

We also congratulate Kenneth M. Reinhart for finishing in Second Place and IM John Mousessian for finishing in Third Place. We will offer the USA nomination to Ken for his accomplishment in this tournament.

Congratulations to all our winners!
Max Zavanelli and Ruth Ann Fay

(September 20, 2006)

Top 50 Oct 2006  

Congratulations to first-time Top 50 list players Terrence ”Nick” Gildred and Dan Perry!  Also congratulations to our players scheduled to be awarded titles at the Dresden Congress in October; Michael Millstone (Senior International Master) and Stephen Ham (Senior International Master and International Master).

GM Hans Berliner has been removed from the list as he has confirmed his status as inactive; GM John Timm holds the number one spot for the first time.

(September 6, 2006)

Announcement from ICCF Direct Entry Admin - Michael Millstone:

The ICCF US Federation has changed their Direct Entry selection to Enhanced. This will significantly improve ICCF Tournament entries and payments. Please refer to the ICCF web site for further information on the Direct Entry (DE) programme.

The ICCF Direct Entry Administrator will be on travel from 06.09.06 - 14.06.06.  As such, responses to Direct Entry applications might take slightly longer than usual. Thank you for your understanding.

Michael Millstone

ICCF Direct Entry Administrator

(Semptember 5, 2006)

IM James Skeels and Julius Simon - 2nd Email USCCC Champs!

ICCF-US is pleased to announce that the winners of the 2nd Email USCCC Final have been determined. Our hearty congratulations go to IM James B. Skeels and Julius Simon on their equal scores of 6-2 in the 2nd USCCC Email Championship (played on the server) to finish in first place.   They have spend three and a half years working on this great achievement. They will each receive a nomination to the ICCF World Championship Cycle and a trophy.
 
Only one game is remaining which could allow IM Robert Rizzo to take 3rd place with a draw or win. The crosstable is here:
http://www.iccfus.com/crosstables/usccc_finals/uscccf-em02.htm
Congratulations!
Max Zavanelli and Ruth Ann Fay

(August 26, 2006)

Announcement from Ruth Ann Fay!

Search for new ICCF-US Secretary and NAPZ-ICCF Director

Max Zavanelli has been ICCF-US Secretary since 1987, and I have been helping him for the last 9 of those 19 years. Due to business and personal reasons, we are now ready to retire from these duties. Our hope would be that we could provide a seamless transfer of duties to the next ICCF-US Secretary.  Any player interested in this position should send their questions to Ruth Ann Fay and their resume to their domestic chess club with a copy to Ruth Ann Fay at zprchess@aol.com. Read more here!

(June  7, 2006)

ICCF World Cup(s) Announcement!

ICCF is pleased to announce the World Cup XV - preliminaries to be played exclusively by e-mail and/or webserver.

-and-

World Cup XVI - preliminaries to be played exclusively by post.

Please see the ICCF Homepage for more details (or click the links above!)

(April  30, 2006)

2nd WebChess Open Tournament!

ICCF has announced the 2nd WebChess Open Tournament. Note that it is a 3 round tournament with prizes for the 3rd round winners. The fee for USA players is $12. Note that you must enter through ICCF-US unless you are new to ICCF play. New players may play 1 free section. New players may enter 2 other sections on an introductory trial basis; and they may use "Direct Entry" only for those 2 sections.

(April  30, 2006)

Path to the World Championship has been updated!

The path to the World Championship has been updated as of March 2006.

(April  30, 2006)

Help Needed!

Title Tournaments Director, Daniel Finkelstein, is looking for volunteers to help update the Qualifications list for the Preliminary, Semifinal, Candidates, and Finals of the World Championship cycle. Interested volunteers should contact Ruth Ann Fay.

(April  30, 2006)

US Top 50 List

ICCF-US is pleased to release the Top 50 list as of March 31, 2006. We are happy to welcome Mihai Harabor to the list for the first time, and equally so that IM Michael Millstone, who will receive his SIM this year at the Dresden Congress is back on the list. Stephen Ham will receive both his IM and SIM at Congress. Please take a look at the "Player Ranks" or click here.

(March  2, 2006)

US 15th Olympiad Team!

ICCF-US is pleased to announce the USA team for the ICCF Olympiad XV Final. The USA qualified for this event because our team in the XIV Final placed 3rd, which also earned the team bronze medals. We will be facing teams from Germany, Lithuania, Netherlands, Ireland, Norway, Slovenia, Poland, Russia, Latvia, Austria, Kazakhstan, Portugal, and Estonia. Play will start on March 30, 2006.

The team will be lead by SIM Daniel Fleetwood on Board 1, which will be a Category XV event.  We will have SIM Jason Bokar on Board 2, which will be Category XIII. SIM Timothy Murray will be on Board 3, which will be Category XII. GM Joseph DeMauro will be on Board 4; SIM Gary Kubach will be on Board 5, and SIM Stephen Jones is on Board 6. Our Team Captain is Tom Dougherty.  Kenneth Reinhart will be our reserve player.

Please join us in wishing our team good luck and good chess!
 

(February 21, 2006)

FOLGAR Vetrans Tournament!

In memory of an excellent man, Mr. Stanislav Foglar, the Czech CCA organizes the invitational event “FOGLAR veterans” dedicated to all the players at the age of 50 or more years and rated 2300 at least. The tournament has been approved by ICCF and will be played according to ICCF rules of play for email tournaments.

Federation in charge: Czech CCA

TD in charge: Jaromir Canibal, IA; Zdenek Nyvlt, IA

Number of stages: one, started every year on Foglar´s birthday, in the years 2005, 2006 and 2007
Number of players:  4 sections with 15 players each

Restrictions: age 50+, ELO 2300+, max. 2 sections per player

Starting dates: 11.4.2005, 11.4.2006, 11.4.2007

Entry fee: 15 euro per tournament and player

If you are interested, please contact ICCF-US and please take a look at the full announcement!