International Correspondence Chess Federation - Webserver Open Tourn Announce

NORTH AMERICA/PACIFIC ZONE (NAPZ)

ICCF 1st ICCF WEBCHESS OPEN TOURNAMENT

Dear Friends,

ICCF is delighted to announce its first WebChess Open tournament
to be played on the ICCF dedicated Webserver www.iccf-webchess.com.

This tournament is open to all correspondence chess players worldwide,
also for those without any previous ICCF experience. Multiple entries
are allowed.

The tournament will be played in three stages – preliminaries,
semifinal and final.

For this tournament, ICCF Playing Rules for Individual tournament
games played normally by Webserver will apply. The interim version
of these rules is available on www.iccf-webchess.com (click on
“Online Help” “Interim Playing Rules”). The final version of rules
will be approved by the ICCF Congress in Mumbai, November 2004.

The preliminary stage will be started in January-February, 2005 in
sections of 7 (seven) players each. Only the section winner will
qualify for the semifinal stage. Ties to be broken according to
the ICCF Tournament Rules, Article 5.

The sections will be started in batches of approx. 25 sections,
with one-week distance. The exact size of batches will depend on
the total number of entries / sections.

The responsible ICCF Officer for this tournament is Valer-Eugen
Demian (CAN), ICCF Non-Title Tournaments Commissioner (NTTC).
He has appointed Guido Bresadola (ITA) as the Central Tournament
Leader (CTL). The Tournament Directors will be appointed by the
NTTC / CTL to take care of the particular preliminary sections.

This tournament will be sponsored by ICCF by a prize fund, which
will amount to 10 percent of the collected entry fees, however,
not less than CHF 2 000. Cash prizes only to be paid in the
final stage.

The entry fee for entries submitted via National Federations
is CHF 12 per each section. The National Federations may set
fees in local currencies as needed to cover this amount on
entries they receive. The entry fee for Direct Entry via the
facility is USD 15 per one section.

The deadline for entries is 31st December, 2004. Entries to be
sent via National Federations by Email to the Central Tournament
Leader Guido Bresadola (ITA), Email: asigc@galactica.it

Those players who are not yet members of any of our national
CC federations, or who are members of national CC federations
but have not played in ICCF tournaments previously, may enter
this tournament via the Direct Entry facility available on www.correspondencechess.com/de/webform2.html . The participation
of these players is, however, limited to 2 (two) preliminary
sections. For each direct entry subject to an entry fee, the
appropriate ICCF member federation (where any) will receive a
credit of CHF 3, and for all direct entries, it will be provided
with the player's details, for national contact follow up.

Special provisions:

Any prior ICCF player who according to the Eloquery
database has not entered an ICCF tournament (Open Class, Higher
Class, Master Class, Jubilee, World Cup, Semifinal, etc.)
within the last five years (i.e. 2000 till 2004), will be
entitled to enter one preliminary section of this tournament
for free.

We hope that this first big ICCF WebChess event not only will
attract our loyal players who will be eager to test this new
modern way of moves transmission, but also many new players
who still have had no previous ICCF experience.

Play Webserver chess with ICCF, join your local National CC
Federation and the ICCF community!

AMICI SUMUS!

Chris Lüers
World Tournament Director

Valer-Eugen Demian
Non-Title Tournaments Commissioner