Bulgarian Correspondence Chess Federation

Resignation of ICCF President

February 21st, 2009

Author: admin

Resignation of ICCF President
Contributed by Pedro F. Hegoburu
Feb 20, 2009 at 04:59 PM
Text of Med Samraoui’s resignation as ICCF President.
Dear friends,
With a deep sadness I must inform you that I have taken the decision to
resign from my function of ICCF President with immediate effect.
It was not easy to take such a decision, particularly after having served
ICCF in various positions for 30 years. ICCF was my second family and I
devoted the most part of my free time to Correspondence Chess.
Thanks to ICCF I have had many friends all around the world, and ICCF
Congresses were for me unforgettable moments where I could meet some of
them and to share with them agreeable times.
As you may remember, since ICCF Congress in Benalmadena 2007, my life was
affected by this tragedy and if I continued, it is only because several
friends, the delegates and the members of ICCF Executive Board have
brought me a strong support.
Last year I was unable to attend ICCF Congress in Pleven and at the
current date, I am not even sure if I could attend ICCF Congress in Leeds.
During Congresses the President should conduct the debates, explain his
plans and develop his strategy to Congress. Being absent is a handicap
which I cannot tolerate.
Furthermore, health problems and frequent visits to hospitals have also
reduced my free time.
So in these conditions, I must be honest and must give a chance to another
friend to continue to lead ICCF to the prosperity.
During the three last years, many realizations have been achieved.
- ICCF server is permanently improved.
- Finances are in the growth phase and totally under control, thanks to
the great work made by Carlos Flores, Soeren Peschardt and Michael
Millstone.
- Several sponsors have been approached and are supporting ICCF
activities, besides ChessBase and New in Chess, we have now signed
agreements in 2008 and 2009 with Chesspublishing, Opening Master and Chess
Informant; that means that our players will receive prizes in all major
ICCF tournaments. Further contacts with other sponsors are still in
discussion. A big thank to Eric Ruch and Gino Figlio for their efforts.
- New events introduced since 2007, like Money Prize Tournaments, Rapid
CC, Blitz CC, School events, Junior World Cup and Veteran World Cup
attracted many new players and have been very successful.
- Young and competent officials are very well integrated and I am very
proud to have “talents” like Valer Demian as NTTC, Marco Caressa who are
doing a magnificent work to help the World Tournament Director.
Unfortunately I have had no time to implement all my promises, but I do
hope that my successor will continue in the way already traced.
I have also decided to stop my CC career and I am very fortunate that my
last tournament was the Memorial Henk Mostert, a true friend of mine, who
was an example for me because he was a person who believed strongly in ICCF
motto “Amici sumus”.
Thanks to all the friends who supported me and my actions to develop ICCF
and very sorry if my decision seems brutal or shocking.
Best regards,
Amici sumus,
Med Samraoui

http://www.iccf.com/content/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=464&Itemid=83

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ICCF Congress 2008

February 20th, 2009

Author: admin

ICCF Congress 2008
Pleven, Bulgaria
20-26 September 2008
under patronage of Sport`s Minister Mrs. Vessela Lecheva and the Governor of Pleven Mr. Tzvetko Tzvetkov
Chairman of Organization Comitee - Mr. Rumen Petkov

Day 4 24 September 2008

The Final of Olympiad 16 (Post) and 17 (Webserver) will be announced as soon as all the finalists are known (Olympiad 15 is still ongoing). The next cycle of preliminaries will commence on Webserver only at the same time as Final 17 starts.

The Veterans World Cup has proved to be very popular so it was agreed that subsequent tournaments will be started on an annual basis and will possibly be in three stages dependent upon demand.

Champions League: In future seasons, registration of teams will be by Direct Entry only, and players will only be allowed to play for one team in any one season.

Rapid Tournaments: A discussion was held concerning possible Rapid CC (10/20) and Blitz CC (10/10), with the idea that such tournaments will possibly be attractive to some player’s especially younger players. In order to test the demand for these products, trial tournaments will be started next year and these will be unrated. If the tournaments prove successful, the next Congress can re-visit the Ratings issue.

Money Prize Tournaments: Five of the six finished tournaments have been won by players new to ICCF so these tournaments are a success. Some difficulties were found in paying prizes to some players in some Countries that cannot accept incoming payments by paypal . Resolutions will be found to solve this and the DE entry Commissioner is working with the prize winners to enable payments.

Playing Rules Review: A long and fruitful discussion was held with regard to the perennial problem of excessive retained reflection time, resulting in the over-prolonging of games by a minority of players. It was felt that the ICCF simply cannot allow this problem to go on for another year and has to do something positive in this regard. An initial proposal by the Norwegian Federation to double the reflection time after 14 days of reflection, was passed by a very narrow majority. However, because the vote was so close, further discussion took place and it was agreed that reflection time would be doubled after 20 days of reflection – this was passed by a substantial majority and will take effect from 1/1/09. This mirrors the Rule that we used to have in Postal events where reflection time was doubled after 12 days – this postal rule was reinstated.

Playing Rule 2c will be slightly amended to reflect the fact that it is the player’s responsibility to monitor his time on the Webserver, and it is not acceptable for a player to use, as an excuse, that he didn’t receive an e-mail from the Webserver.

Team Tournament Rules: Once the team has been announced and is on the Webserver, changes to team members before the start of play will count against the number of changes allowed.

Webserver Fees: With effect from 2009, Zone 2 (CADAP) will have to pay fees for Webserver tournaments exactly the same as Zones 1 and 3. Zone 4 (Africa/Asia) will continue to be free.

The next ICCF Congress will be held in Leeds, England between September 12 & 18th, 2009.

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This material is taken from: The ICCF Website