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Last updated 21 December 2023

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21 Dec 23 | ICCF 48th WCCC Preliminaries Announced: Following the ICCF Congress 2011 decisions, all Preliminary Sections of the World Correspondence Chess Championship shall start on the same day and only once per year.; The start date of the Preliminaries of the 48th WCCC is March 20, 2024.; All entries will be accepted according to ICCF Rules, valid as of January 1, 2024, to be received no later than February 5, 2024.; Member Federations Nominations (MFN) for the Preliminaries should also be submitted before February 5, 2024. MFN for 2023 cannot be used for the 2024 WCCC Cycle.; Preliminary sections usually have 13 players, with the TTC possibly extending them to 15 or 17 players in special situations if appropriate.; Players entering more than one section will be accepted only to fill vacancies.; If the number of the entries isn't a multiple of 13, 15, or 17, sections will be fulfilled with the players who asked to enter the Preliminaries according to Rule 1.2.1.1.4; if it would again be impossible to fulfill a section, the players who have been entered according to point 1.2.1.1.1. (i), (j), and (k), and those who have the lowest ICCF ELO in the rating list 2024/1 won't be admitted to the 2024 Preliminaries.; Entries must be sent through the "New events" page of www.iccf.com. The entry fee can be paid via Direct Entry or the player's National Federation. The qualification right under ICCF Rule 1.2.1.1 must be specified for each entry.; Entries of "reserve players "have to be sent by e-mail to the TTC via the player's National Federation.; Players not currently represented by any National Federation can contact the TTC directly.; The ICCF Executive Board asks that all ICCF Delegates ensure this important information is available in all national CC magazines and websites. Delegates are responsible for ensuring that all players are made aware of these arrangements.; Any questions and requests for clarification should be directed to the ICCF Title Tournament Commissioner, Gian-Maria Tani, Gian-Maria Tani; If you would prefer to check these these arrangements before proceeding, please contact David Kilgour

19 Nov 23 | Pheby Celebration Section Win for Taylor: Chudleigh-based Wilf Taylor has won the Ian M. Pheby Celebration event Section D, with a score of 10/14 (Section D x-table). As we reported last December, Wilf has already obtained a second CCE norm and title, plus his first CCM norm in this event. Congratulations to Wilf!

16 Nov 23 | SCCA 2024 Membership Renewal Documents Published: Membership Secretary Mickey Blake has made the 2024 document set available on the membership page. If you are intending to (re-)join the SCCA, please download the docs, complete your details and revert to Mickey by email or post.

10 Oct 23 | SCCA Annual Accounts 2022-23 Published: Our full annual accounts for 2022-23 are published for the first time on the secure Members' page today. Go to members/downloads for the pdf version. For further information, please contact Ian Whittaker.

10 Oct 23 | ICCF Grading List 2023/4 Published: The fourth quarterly list of 2023 is published on the website today. Look under publications/grading list to see the web page, or go to members/downloads for the pdf version. For further information, please contact Alistair Maxwell.

10 Oct 23 | SCCA Magazine 163 Published: The third e-mag of the 2023 set is being distributed by email and post today. As usual, members will be asked to download their e-mags from the secure Members' page on the website, while complimentary e-mags will be attached to the email. Download times will be a little longer than last quarter. If you have any problems with this edition, please drop me an email at: webmaster and I'll do what I can to help. Enjoy the read!

26 Sep 23 | ICCF Champions League 10 (2024-26): ICCF has announced Champions League 10 and full details are contained in ICCF News 1649.; There are three divisions and the registration period runs from 1 October to 31 December.; If you'd like to organise and/or play in a Scottish-based team, please contact David Kilgour.

04 Sep 23 | ICCF Europe/RoW Championship Semi-Finals: A reminder that entries for this event close on 10th September.; Entries (fee £5.50) may be made via the ICCF Direct Entry system or through David Kilgour.; Semi-Final sections typically consist of 13 players, but the TO may vary this to 11, 15 or 17. Players must be rated 2300 to 2499 at the time of application. A player who finished 1st or 2nd in a European/RoW Championship Preliminary is entitled to one start in a European/RoW Championship Semi-Final.

30 Aug 23 | BCCA Membership Renewals and Events: A reminder that the BCCA playing year starts in August and membership renewal fees (adult £10) are now due.; A wide variety of events is available to paid-up members, including BCCA Medals (Gold, Silver, Bronze); the William Mason Championship (plus Candidates and Reserves) and Trios.; For further details, please reference the BCCA Website

10 Aug 23 | BCCA Handicap Tournament: David Kilgour advises that this event now has free entry and is open to English, Welsh and Scots players.; If you're looking to top up your games during the year, then the SCCA Challengers event remains available via Mickey Blake.; The BCCA Handicap should provide a wider range of opponents and grading bands. Just submit your entry to Phil Beckett as described.

08 Aug 23 | British Correspondence Chess Championship: The British Correspondence Chess Championship (BCCC) is the premier tournament on the British CC calendar. Running continuously since 1921 and open to all British players, the BCCC has carried ICCF title norms since 2016. The BCCC caters for players of all levels and consists of a Championship section, one or more Candidates sections and a number of Reserves sections.; The BCCC is organised jointly by the English Federation for Correspondence Chess (EFCC), the Scottish Correspondence Chess Association (SCCA) and the Welsh Correspondence Chess Federation (WCCF).; Further details of the tournament, including the full rules and a list of previous winners, are available on the EFCC website: BCCC Championship.; Entries close on 31st August 2023 with play due to commence in September 2023. Entries can be made direct to the Tournament Organiser, Keith Kitson (EFCC)) or via SCCA (David Kilgour). Please note that these are the only entry routes for this event.; The BCCC is a highly competitive event and we are unable to confirm a player's final allocation at the time of entry. Entries and the entry fee of £12 should be received by Keith Kitson or by David Kilgour, no later than 30th August 2023. If you have a qualification to a specific division please state this at the time of entry.; If you have any enquiries please direct them to David Kilgour.

04 Aug 23 | ICCF CCE Title for Smith: Edinburgh-based Mark Smith has obtained his second Correspondence Chess Expert (CCE) norm and with it the CCE Title playing in the Candidates B22 Penrose Memorial event. Mark’s first CCE norm was obtained in the Peggy Clark Memorial event in 2021 where he overscored the 6.5 point norm, finishing with 7.5 points. Congratulations to Mark!

06 Jul 23 | ICCF Grading List 2023/3 Published: The third quarterly list of 2023 is published on the website today. Look under publications/grading list to see the web page, or go to members/downloads for the pdf version. For further information, please contact Alistair Maxwell.

06 Jul 23 | SCCA Magazine 162 Published: The second e-mag of the 2023 set is being distributed by email and post today. As usual, members will be asked to download their e-mags from the secure Members' page on the website, while complimentary e-mags will be attached to the email. Download times will be a little longer than last quarter. If you have any problems with this edition, please drop me an email at: webmaster and I'll do what I can to help. Enjoy the read!

23 May 22 | 2023 AGM Highlights: At the AGM via Zoom on 21 May, the following items were noted:; Members can download AGM and Executive Committee minutes from the members download page. Full financial details will follow later once our new auditor examines our 2022-23 accounts.

14 May 23 | SCCA AGM 2023 Notice: This will nominally be held at 11 West Grange Farm Steading, St Andrews KY16 8LJ at 4:00pm on Sunday, 21st May, but will be a Zoom conference to make attendance easier. Please contact the president for Zoom details. The agenda is:

14 May 23 | ICCF CCM Norm and Title for Morrison: Lytham St. Annes-based Graham Morrison has obtained his second Correspondence Chess Master (CCM) norm and the CCM Title playing in the WS/MN/B event where he has met the norm requirement of 6 points with a game to spare. Graham’s first CCM norm was obtained in the VI AEAC Master 18 event. Congratulations to Graham!

17 Apr 23 | ICCF CCM Norm for Morrison: Lytham St. Annes-based Graham Morrison has obtained his first Correspondence Chess Master (CCM) norm playing in the VI AEAC Master 18 event, where he has met the norm requirement of 6 points, having scored 6/11 with 1 game remaining. Congratulations to Graham!

12 Apr 23 | ICCF 14th Veterans World Cup Announced: Michael Millstone, ICCF General Secretary has written to announce the above event. Play will commence on 1st September 2023 with the closing date for entries being 25th July 2023. Entry can be either through the National Federation route or through Direct Entry. The entry fee for those wishing to enter through the NF route is £5.50 per entry.; The formal notice for the event can be found on the following link: ICCF News 1611.; Players must be at least 60 years of age to qualify for entry. Scottish players who have questions on the event or who wish clarification should contact Gordon Anderson.

11 Apr 23 | ICCF Grading List 2023/2 Published: The second quarterly list of 2023 is published on the website today. Look under publications/grading list to see the web page, or go to members/downloads for the pdf version. For further information, please contact Alistair Maxwell.

11 Apr 23 | SCCA Magazine 161 Published: The first e-mag of the 2023 set is being distributed by email today and post later this week. As usual, members will be asked to download their e-mags from the secure Members' page on the website, while complimentary e-mags will be attached to the email. Download times will be about the same as last quarter. If you have any problems with this edition, please drop me an email at: webmaster and I'll do what I can to help. Enjoy the read!

03 Apr 23 | Montgomery and Sneddon Share SCCA Championship 2022-23: After a long and close struggle, the 2022-23 Championship was shared between CCE Robert Montgomery and CCM Iain Sneddon, both scoring 7/12 points, and with identical SB scores. Robert was a previous winner in 2014-15, but this was a first for Iain - many congratulations to both players! Previous winners Allan Buchan and Iain Mackintosh tied for 3rd/4th place with 6/12.

28 Mar 23 | Francois Riva Memorial Team Tournament Reminder: The original announcement below was posted on the SCCA website on 6th March 2023. The response from Scottish players wishing to be considered for selection has been disappointing. This notice is a reminder and I’d encourage suitably rated players to get in touch with Gordon Anderson as soon as possible.

16 Mar 23 | ICCF World Correspondence Chess Championship-Semi-Final: ICCF Title Tournament Commissioner, Gian-Maria Tani, has written to announce entries can now be accepted for the above. The link to the announcement is ICCF News 1608; Scottish Players who are eligible are encouraged to enter the event. Further details can be obtained by contacting Gordon Anderson. Closing date for entries is 10 May 2023, with play starting on 20th June 2023.

09 Mar 23 | ICCF CCE Norm and Title for Morrison: Lytham St. Annes-based Graham Morrison has obtained his second Correspondence Chess Expert (CCE) norm and consequently the CCE title playing in the VI AEAC Master 18 event, where he has met the norm requirement of 4.5 points, Graham having now scored 5/9 with 3 games remaining. Graham’s first norm was in the WS/MN/B/55 event. Congratulations to Graham!

06 Mar 23 | Francois Riva Memorial Team Tournament Announced: ICCF General Secretary, Michael Millstone has released details of this event which is for players rated <2300. Details are as follows:; All ICCF member federations (that are not currently suspended) are invited to enter their teams to this event, which will be played on the ICCF webserver over two rounds: semi-final and final. The first three teams in the final will receive medals.; Each federation may enter two teams. All players on the team must be rated <2300 on the ICCF rating list 2023/2 or on the current FIDE list. In addition, all players must be full members of the federation they represent or be registered on the ICCF server for the country of the federation they represent for the duration of the tournament.; The preliminaries will start on July 1st, 2023. There will be 6 players in each team. A maximum of 3 players may be replaced during the tournament.; The right to be promoted from the preliminaries shall be determined by the ICCF Non-Title Tournaments Commissioner and approved by the Executive Board at the start of the tournament. The intention will be for a 13 Team final.; Time control will be Triple Block (Duration of Tournament: 700 days; Initial Clock: 50 days; Initial Bank: 50 days; Increment: 5 days). Please note - without guaranteed time in the semi-final and in the final with guaranteed time.; Scottish-registered players who wish to be considered for selection should contact Gordon Anderson as soon as possible and no later than 15 May 2023. Scotland has qualified for the Nol van’t Riet Memorial Final which will start around the same time as this latest event and players should bear their game load in mind when deciding whether or not to be available for selection.

26 Feb 23 | SCCA 2023 Domestic Events Started: Many thanks to Mickey Blake who has initiated all our major domestic individual and team events for this year. You can access the x-table links via the following pages: championship; premier; open A; open B; league 1; league 2; and league 3.
Challengers fixtures for 2022-23 and 2023-24 are arranged in mini-tables on the SCO-Challengers page of the webserver.

29 Jan 23 | Nol van't Riet Team Tournament SF 1: The Scottish team in the above Semi-final have finished all of their games resulting in being placed second, behind Ukraine 2 thereby qualifying for the final. Congratulations to those who represented Scotland on this occasion! The completed cross-table can be found at: Nol van't Riet Team Tournament SF 1.

29 Jan 23 | Brian Goodwin RIP: Sad news from Glasgow where the family report the death of Brian Goodwin after kidney failure. A strong player, Brian competed regularly in the Scottish Championship until 2020, and often represented Scotland in International friendly matches. He also played in the British Veterans' Championship. An engaging personality, he'll be much missed within the SSCCA, and we send our condolences to his family and friends.

26 Jan 23 | SCCA Best Game Prize 2022 Reminder: I'm very pleased to announce that IM Austin Lockwood of Wales has kindly agreed to be our judge this year and is looking forward to analysing our entries. There are still a few days left for you to send your submissions, so please direct them to me at my president email address. The main stipulation is that games must have been completed in 2022. Multiple entries are allowed. If you do enter, good luck!

15 Jan 23 | ICCF CCM Norm and Title for Montgomery: Robert Montgomery from Livingston has achieved his third Correspondence Chess Master (CCM) norm whilst playing on Board 7 in the European Team Championship Semi-Final having reached the norm requirement of 4.5/9. His first norm was on Board 2 in the Carlos Flores Gutierrez Team tournament with a score of 5/8, while his second norm was obtained by scoring 7/14 in the Veterans World Cup 11 Semi-final. This third norm earns Robert the CCM title. Congratulations to Robert!

09 Jan 23 | ICCF Grading List 2023/1 Published: The first quarterly list of 2023 is published on the website today. Look under publications/grading list to see the web page, or go to members/downloads for the pdf version. For further information, please contact Alistair Maxwell.

09 Jan 23 | SCCA Magazine 160 Published: The first e-mag of the 2023 set is being distributed by email and post today. As usual, members will be asked to download their e-mags from the secure Members' page on the website, while complimentary e-mags will be attached to the email. Download times will be about the same as last quarter. If you have any problems with this edition, please drop me an email at: webmaster and I'll do what I can to help. Enjoy the read!

01 Jan 23 | ICCF President's New Year Message: To all Correspondence Chess Friends,; As 2021 has ended, I would like to extend my warmest wishes to you and all those dear to you for a very healthy, happy, and prosperous New Year. I also want to extend my sincere thanks to all officials and delegates for their devoted work on behalf of ICCF during the last year.; Like all international organizations, ICCF has been affected by the invasion of Ukraine. The extraordinary Congress held online in May, has voted for the suspension of the Russian and the Belarus federations, but we have also shown our support to our Ukrainian friends. The International Peace Open entry fees from the players and the Federations rebates have been donated to the International Red Cross (5500€ + 2000€ donated by the ICCF).; As far as our correspondence chess activities are concerned, the new rating system adopted by Congress in Glasgow will be in operation in the first months of 2023 and replace our current system, which has remained mostly unchanged during the last 30 years. Another major decision of Congress has been the tremendous simplification of the withdrawal system that has now been implemented in the ICCF rules and on the server since December 2022.; A significant evolution in the structural organisation of correspondence chess has been the dissolution of the Europa and the World Zone and the creation of a new structure within the ICCF (the Super Regional Commission) that will oversee the organization of the former zonal championship.; This year the ICCF Congress will be held in Amsterdam in August, and since 2023 is an election year, I hope many delegates, officials, and chess players will join us.; In closing, let me once again extend to you my best wishes for the New Year. I hope that 2022 will bring satisfaction to all your personal and professional,endeavours.; Amici Sumus,; Eric Ruch; ICCF President

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