23 September 2008
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The morning was spent on an excursion to Pleven organised by the hosts. The delegates were taken to the Panorama Museum, the Church of St.Nicholas and the memorial Mausoleum. The trip was rounded off with a superb half-hour operatic concert. Our guests have been entertained by a variety of singers and dancers; tour guides have been there to help and translators have been on hand at all times.
After that the Title Awards ceremony took place.

World Tournament Directors Report (Frank Geider):
  • World Cup 17 will be organised by Spain. It will commence in March 2009 and be played on the Webserver only.
  • World Championship: Players with an historic half-qualification for a Semi-Final (as a result of a second place in a Master Class) will now be allowed to enter a World Championship Preliminary, given that a second half-qualification is no longer possible.
  • Sadly, there is not enough support to continue to provide new e-mail tournaments given the lengthy time players now have to wait for a tourney to start (over two years in some cases). E-mail was great when it came along but it has been superseded by the Webserver, and it can provide problems for both players and Tournament Directors. It was therefore unanimously agreed to discontinue with offering any further new e-mail tournaments.
  • Team Captains and other teammates will be allowed live display of their teammate’s ongoing games. The necessary implementation to be progressed by the Webserver in due course.
  • The Webserver to be adapted to intimate TD’s leave and cover during their absence.
  • All member federations are reminded that World Tournament Director approval is required to set up new tournaments (such as Invitational’s and Opens). The Webserver is to be enhanced to allow this and to keep WTD and FD fully informed.

Sincere thanks expressed to Frank Geider and his supporting team for their continuing work with World tournaments.
Thematics: National Federations are reminded and requested to publish details of the ICCF Postal and Webserver thematic tournaments in their magazines and on their websites.
The Postal Tournaments Office reported that postal tournaments are decreasing by about 10% per year but still remain viable.
The day concluded with the traditional Blitz tournament thoroughly enjoyed by everybody.

This material was taken from: The ICCF Website
22 September 2008
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The second day of the ICCF Congress in Pleven has begun. The delegates are going to discuss other financial matters including financial plan, direct entries, etc. The ICCF Archives, including game score databases and downloading policy are part of the work meeting. A report of the Webserver Development Steering Group and Phase 5 Plan will be shown. Webmaster, internet, marketing and publications matters will be taken in to consideration as well as qualifications, including rules proposals.
A very harsh battle began a few minutes ago - the ICCF dream team versus the team of Bulgaria. The captain of the Bulgarian team is SIM Prof. George Sapundjiev. His colleague from ICCF is Soren Peschardt from Denmark. The match is being played on 20 boards. Bulgaria`s first board is presented by IM Dimitar Karapchansky. His opponent is Petr Buchnicek from Czech Republic.
The final result is: ICCF vs BCCF 6:14
You can see the table here
21 September 2008
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The 61st ICCF Congress in Pleven has started. The congress was opened by the vice-president of BCCF - Prof. George Sapundjiev. Welcoming speeches were given in front of the delegates by the president of BCCF - Mr. Petyo Marinov, the sport`s minister of Bulgaria - Mrs. Vesela Letcheva, the honory president of ICCF - Mr. Alan Borwell and the chairman of organization committee - Mr. Rumen Petkov.
The Congress has begun in 11:00 in hall “Pleven” right after the opening celebrations. The winners of the ICCF tournaments for the last year were awarded with special prizes.A few structure changes were discused. The vice-president of BCCF - Prof. George Sapundjiev - was awarded the highest order of ICCF - gold medal “Bertl von Massow “. Mrs. Margarita Bocheva was awarded the highest sport title - Woman Grandmaster. Tomorrow Spas Spasov - the secretary of BCCF, is expected to be awarded with silver medal “Bertl von Massow”. Two other Bulgarian correspondence chess players - Valentin Yotov and Iskren Dimov - will be awarded with sport titles SIM.