The International Correspondence Chess Federation is delighted to announce the Correspondence Chess Association of the Slovak Republic (CCA-SR) as the main organiser of the ICCF World Cup XV Tournament.
The tournament will be played in three stages, with separate email and webserver sections in the Preliminary stage, which will start November 15, 2006. Registration will begin 05.06.2006 and will close on 30.09.2006 to allow for pairings. All chess players are heartily invited to enter; multiple entries will be possible for the Preliminary stage.
We would like to stress that there won’t be any postal sections in this tournament. Those who prefer postal play are invited to participate in the World Cup XVI played exclusively by post.
Preliminary groups will all have 7-11 players, each with one game against each other player in the group (round robin tournament), with the winners of each group qualifying for the Semi-final stage. Other qualifications will depend on the number of entries for the Preliminary stage. Any tie breaking, necessary to decide qualification to the next phase, will be done in accordance with ICCF rules, principally by use of the Sonneborn-Berger method.
Arrangements for the Semi-final/Final stages will be announced later, depending on the total number of entries and the preferred playing method of those entering the Preliminaries.
Allocation of players to the Preliminary and Semi-final groups will be made as random as possible; however, geographical distribution as well as an achievement of reasonable equality of the average rating, will be taken into account. In addition, those players who qualified for World Cup XIII and XIV Finals will also be entitled to play in the Semi-final stage of World Cup XV and the winner of WC XIV Final will be eligible to participate in World Cup Final XV.
Although the number of Preliminary groups for each player is unlimited, no player will be able to qualify for more than two Semi-final groups or for more than one place in the Final.
Winners of Preliminary and Semi-final groups will receive book prizes. It is intended that a cash prize of 1000 Swiss Francs will be awarded to the winner of World Cup XV, with a trophy and gold medal. Also, there will be prizes of 600 Swiss Francs to the silver medallist and 400 Swiss Francs to the bronze medallist. The above prize money is subject to the formal approval of the ICCF Congress 2006 in Dresden.
The following qualifications can be achieved in the Final:
- the winner of the World Cup Final XV will qualify for the Final of the next World Cup Tournament (ICCF Tournament Rules, Article 3.6) and will gain the IM title (ICCF Tournament Rules, Article 8.6.c)
- all participants in the Final will qualify for the Semi-final of the next World Cup Tournament (ICCF Tournament Rules, Article 3.6)
- the top two finishers in the Final will qualify for the Candidates’ Tournament of the World CC Championship i the category of the Final is 7 or above (ICCF Tournament Rules, Article 1.3.1.e).
- all participants in the Final who score at least 60% of the possible points and/or the top two finishers (if the category of the Final is 6 or below) will qualify for the Semi-final of the World CC Championship (ICCF Tournament Rules, Article 1.2.2.e).
The Correspondence Chess Association of the Slovak Republic has appointed:
Dr. Jan Helbich
Sv. Cyrila 40/15
971 01 Prievidza
Email: helbich@develop.sk
Phone: +421-46-5433075
Fax: +421-46-5430715
as the Central Tournament Leader (CTL) of this tournament. He will be assisted by a team of Tournament Directors. The appeal instances are the ICCF Appeals Commission (Playing Rules) for cases concerning the application of ICCF Playing Rules, and ICCF Appeals Commission (Other ICCF Rules) for cases concerning the application of Tournament Rules, Code of Conduct and any other rules matters, not covered elsewhere.
Entries (to include the ID-number from the ICCF rating system, name, email address and the preferred way of transmission) should be submitted via national CC Federations.
Direct Entries via http://www.iccf-webchess.com will be accepted from qualified players.
Entry fee for National Federations is 20 CHF per player with the total fee to be settled by national correspondence chess federations with ICCF in the framework of their year 2006 Statement of Account on the 31st December 2006. The Direct Entry fee is calculated based on method of payment and currency used. The actual DE total will be presented to the DE player during the DE registration process.
Applications via national correspondence chess federations must reach the CTL no later than 30th September 2006, preferably by email. We ask that first applications be sent as soon as possible and thereafter on a weekly basis.
We wish all participants many interesting games and new connections with CC friends in other countries, based on the spirit of friendship and the ICCF motto:
AMICI SUMUS
Frank Geider
World Tournament Director
Valer-Eugen Demian
Non-Title Tournaments Commissioner
Dr. Jan Helbich
Central Tournament Leader