|
||||||
The ICCF Congress 2008, in conjunction with meetings of the Executive Board and Management Committee, took place in the Village Hotel, Headingley, Leeds, England
The
opening banquet, hosted by BFCC, was held in Weetwood Hall and was
most enjoyable. There
was a presentation by Tim Harding (IRL), describing his research
project and forthcoming book on the history of correspondence chess
in Britain and Eric Ruch (FRA) presented an illustrated story about
the first international CC match between London and Paris 175 years
ago. The
ICCF President Eric Ruch (FRA) replied to the warm welcome of GM
Richard Hall and much appreciated the presence of the Lord Mayor of
Leeds, Councillor Judith Elliott and her kind words of welcome. He
expressed pleasure that an ICCF Congress was being held in England,
for the first time since Richmond 1989. England was probably the country with the longest and richest history in CC. The first ever CC match between two chess clubs, had been played between London and Edinburgh Chess Club between 1824 and 1828 and the first ever international CC match between London Chess Club and “Le Cercle de Philidor” of Paris, took place 175 years ago. Not only England but also Leeds had a very long tradition in CC. In 1825 Leeds defeated the Liverpool Chess Club and were again victorious in a 4 game match against the Liverpool Club at the end of the 1830s. One of the first national correspondence chess associations was founded in England in 1906 with the British Correspondence Chess Association and the British Correspondence Chess Championship has been played since 1921 without interruption, In 1952 the first British Correspondence Chess League Championship and, in 1954, the first British Correspondence Chess Team Championship were started and have been held consecutively ever since. In
1962 the BPCF (British Postal Chess Federation) was formed as the
governing body for Great Britain and since 1991 had represented
England internationally. In 1999, BPCF was replaced by the BFCC (British
Federation for Correspondence Chess) acknowledging that post was no
longer the sole way of playing CC. British
and English teams have been very successful in the ICCF Olympiads:
3rd places in Olympiad V (1965-68), Olympiad VII (1972-76) and
Olympiad VIII (1977-82). In 1987, the last British team to play in
an Olympiad event (afterwards separate English, Scottish and Welsh
teams participated in Olympiads) won the 9th Olympiad in 1987. The
ICCF President acknowledged the great work of the late Reg Gillman
who had been delegate for the federation representing Great Britain
and subsequently England and Rules Commissioner of ICCF for many
years before his untimely death in 1997 and also to Alan Rawlings,
who had succeeded Reg as delegate for England and was an excellent
General Secretary of ICCF from 1999-2003. The
ICCF President then referred to all CC friends who had passed away
since the last Congress and mentioned, in particular, Erik
Larsson (SWE) founding member and only recipient of an ICCF
Lifetime Achievement Award for over 60 years service to
international correspondence chess;
Robin
Smith (USA), Tournament Organiser and Arbiter for many events, Alexander
Alpert (RUS) and Carlo Alberto Pagni (ITA) chess
historian and publisher of several books on CC History and a member
of ICCF’s Historical Research Committee. Delegates
then stood in silence to the memory of these and all other departed
CC friends. He
sincerely hoped that the elections and other appointments to be made
during the Congress would be the last until the current Executive
Board’s mandate would expire in 2011. The
2009 congress would be particularly important in setting foundations
of the new CC World Championship cycle. We should never forget the
ICCF motto of: “Amici Sumus” (we are friends), all having a
common passion for CC. We sometimes have diverging views and heated
discussions amongst us, but we all love CC, and that is our only
guide. ICCF
was the worldwide organisation for CC and its major tasks were to
continue to attract more new players and member federations, develop
closer relationships with other clubs and organisations and work
closely with FIDE. The
ICCF President declared the ICCF 2009 Congress, Leeds, England duly
opened and asked all to stand while the ICCF Anthem was played.
There followed some lively traditional entertainment by Leeds Morris
Dance group. |
Membership matters The
ICCF President referred to the General Secretary’s Report and
described the action which had been taken with the suspension from
1/1/2009 of 7 member federations which had not paid long outstanding
fees, namely Colombia, Ecuador, Indonesia, Kenya, Turkmenistan,
Tunisia and Venezuela. Chile
had not paid its old debts by 31/12/2008, but had promised to pay them
in full in early 2009, which they did, and the Executive Board decided
not to activate their suspension.
Ecuador and Tunisia also subsequently paid their old debts and
an application according to ICCF Statutes paragraph 2.2 had been
received from Ecuador and their re-admission was approved by the
Congress. The President would contact Tunisia to determine whether they wished to seek re-admission to ICCF membership. A
formal application had been received from Cape Verde (CPV) but it was
noted that it was not a FIDE member and therefore should not be
granted full membership (Statute 2.1), but could be offered membership
as an affiliated club (Statute 2.9) but without voting, nomination or
team entry rights. The ICCF President reported that a membership form had been designed for new applications World
CC Championship, Olympiad, European Team Championship
The
traditional World Correspondence Chess Champion’s engraved Plate was
presented to the delegate for Norway for Ivar
Bern, winner of World
Correspondence Chess Championship XVII, as had been announced in
Pleven. Medals
and certificates were also presented for the runner up in World Championship Final XIX Frank Gerhardt (GER) and third placed Aleksey Lepikhov (UKR) The ICCF President presented medals and certificates to the Norway team, which had won the Olympiad XV Final. The ICCF President presented medals and
certificates to the delegates of the medalists of the 6th
European Team Championship - 1st The Award of Bertl von Massow Medals The Bertl von Massow medal in Gold was awarded to: Carlos Flores Gutiérrez (ESP) for 15 years meritorious work for ICCF. The Bertl von Massow medal in Silver was awarded to: Carlos Cranbourne (ARG), J. Franklin Campbell (USA), Yoav Dothan (ISR), Artis Gaujens (LAT), Josef Mrkvicka (CZE), Tim Runting (AUS), Guillermo F. Toro Solis de Ovando (CHI), for 10 years meritorious work for ICCF . . |