All members should either have received or will receive shortly a note relating to postal play.

For many years, webserver play has predominated.   This is for good reason as:

1. Webserver is immensely quicker than postal. There is an inherent delay in domestic postal play of around a week for each complete move.   For a 30 move game, that equates to an additional seven months of play simply to transmit moves.

2. This is exacerbated for international play. Depending on the countries involved, postal play can take years longer than playing through the webserver.

3. Further, using the postal system is significantly more expensive than webserver. There are charges imposed by the ICCF for running webserver events, but these are insignificant when compared with the cost of postage, particularly for international games.

4. These problems are magnified by the uncertainty of postal communication and the impact of delays caused by industrial action and other logistical difficulties.

5. In addition to the problems with playing, postal play is increasingly difficult and time consuming to manage and involves substantially more work than a webserver event, in part due to resolving the problems arising from playing through the post rather than online.

6. In turn, this is reflected in there being a diminishing number of members who are qualified to organise or direct postal events.

For these reasons, the Executive Committee has decided that we will cease to sponsor postal play with effect from the beginning of the next membership year, i.e. 1st September 2023.

Further details are contained in the note to members.

The BCCA is seeking to encourage more team play to give members the opportunity to play more events with a greater variety of opponents.

With that in mind, we are entering three teams in the SCCA League for the first time, being:

BCCA Tigers

BCCA Panthers

BCCA Leopards

With the return of ICCF ratings for our Medal Tournaments starting in March 2023, we are pleased to see an encouraging number of entries.

All the entries as at 29th December are shown on the dedicated tournament page and can be seen by clicking here: Medal Entries 2023 .

We are delighted to announce that entries are now being taken for the BCCA Medal Tournaments.

Entrants can register for either the Postal or Webserver competition, or both!

The registration fee is £3.00 for Webserver and £2.00 for Postal and remains very good value with no price increase.

All members should have received an entry form either by email or letter. This can be returned to Keith Kitson either with a cheque for the fee made payable to BCCA or remittance can be made on the website via PayPal.   Alternatively, for those who prefer, we can supply the sort code and account number for an internet transfer. Please contact Keith Kitson in the first instance.

Keith’s postal address is:

39 Carters Close

Stevenage

Herts SG2 9QA

Entries will be accepted up to the closing date of Saturday the 18th February 2023.

We expect the competition to commence on or shortly after the 1st March 2023.

This competition has been very popular amongst the membership and we expect a good entry from members for the 2023 competition.

The ICCF has announced a significant change to the rules relating to players exceeding time limits.   The position is that:

A player who loses any game by exceeding a time limit (ETL) will now be restricted from registering for any new event on the server.  The time period for that restriction is either 30 days or 90 days from the time of that ETL:

(1) If the player is not already under such a restriction, then the time period is 30 days.

(2) If the player was already under such a restriction (involving either a 30- or 90-day restriction) when the player’s most recent ETL occurred, the restriction is for 90 days from the most recent ETL.

Following the recent AGM and Executive Committee Meeting, changes are being implemented for BCCA Tournaments and Matches.

These are summarised in the article set out below.

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BCCA Tournaments, Matches and Ratings

The AGM of the BCCA was held on 1^st October, followed by a meeting of the Executive Committee.   A report on both meetings will be published on the website shortly.

The meetings considered the operation of BCCA Tournaments, matches and ratings.    This note provides a summary of the discussions and decisions taken.

BCCA Tournaments: Evolution

The organisation of correspondence tournaments is at the heart of the activities of the BCCA.   As playing trends develop, the BCCA evolves to meet changing demands of players.   As a result, a number of decisions were taken:

William Mason

The William Mason Championship, Candidates and Reserves constitute a major event on the British CC chess calendar.   This year saw an 18% increase in overall participation.   This is an excellent development but it also highlighted some organisational and structural challenges.

Consequently, the EC has decided to review the operation of the tournament with a view to:

• Enlarging entries further.

• Increasing the strength of participation, particularly in the Championship while continuing to offer opportunities for weaker players.

• Streamlining the administration of the events to make entering and participating as smooth as feasible.

Further details of the reforms will be publicised to members shortly.

Medals

The medal tournaments continue to be successful.   In order to encourage more entrants and simplify entering, the EC decided on a minor change, namely to allow entries at the same time as membership renewals, meaning that the entry and payment of entry fees can occur simultaneously with membership renewal.

Continuous Tournament

It is intended that a new continuous tournament be established.    The EC is working on developing proposals and will be seeking to introduce the new event shortly.

Further details will be provided in due course.

Handicap

The handicap tournament is the longest running continuous CC event that we are aware of, having been playing since 1906.

It continues to be successful, but to facilitate its effective operation, the playing system has been changed to the Silli structure.  It is hoped that this will help to boost entries.

Gambit, Counter Gambit and Endgame Tournaments

We have seen a steady decline in participation in the Gambit, Counter Gambit and Endgame tournaments.   There was insufficient interest for them to be held last season and they have now been discontinued unless and until there is sufficient demand for them to be reinstated.

Matches

In addition to tournaments, the BCCA fields teams in match events.   We participate in the Champions League and the British Webserver Team Tournament, both sets of teams being managed by Stan Grayland, and we intend to join the Scottish Webserver League this season.

We also organise ad hoc friendly matches, although our focus will be on the league competitions which can more easily be organised with opposition of a comparable standard.

Ratings

We seek to have BCCA games rated by the ICCF wherever feasible.   Due to difficulties with a change to ICCF rules applicable to tournaments with players from different Federations, we experienced difficulties having our tournaments rated.

Consequently, through the endeavours of Stan Grayland, we created a system of BCCA ratings, publicised on our website.  In the meantime, we have been working with Federations to allow ICCF ratings to apply more extensively and, with thanks to Phill Beckett, have made substantial progress.

As a result, it has been decided to discontinue establishing BCCA ratings as most tournaments and matches will now be ICCF rated.    Subject to confirmation with the ICCF, we expect the position for the coming season and subsequently to be:

Our AGM is scheduled for next Saturday 1st October at 2.00 p.m. to be held on Zoom.

Please see below the agenda by clicking on this link:   BCCA Agenda

Antony Copsey is the latest BCCA member to be awarded the BCCA  Master Title after accumulating the necessary 20 Master points – well played Antony!

The full list of BCCA Title holders can be found here

The full list of Title points awarded for players who have not yet earned the Title can be found here

This note confirms that the BCCA AGM 2022 will take place this year on 1st October 2022 on Zoom, with all members being welcome to attend.

Matthew W. Bailey is the latest BCCA member to be awarded the BCCA  Master Title after accumulating the necessary 20 Master points – well played Matthew!

The full list of BCCA Title holders can be found here

The full list of Title points awarded for players who have not yet earned the Title can be found here