ICCF: Exciting New ICCF & TCEC Collaboration

This message is being sent to all ICCF players to announce an exciting new collaboration between ICCF and TCEC.

We're launching a trial tournament that introduces a fresh and dynamic way to play in ICCF, inspired by an idea discussed online and proposed by Tansel Turgut (Turkey) and Gareth Yeo (Wales). Gareth took the initiative to reach out to TCEC management, and thanks to their support, we now have custom opening books prepared for this event.

The aim of this trial is to make games more engaging and diverse by starting from imbalanced positions—following TCEC's successful format. These positions are designed to challenge players to convert better positions into wins and defend effectively from worse ones.

ICCF has agreed to run this as an unrated trial tournament. Based on its success, we'll evaluate whether to expand this format more broadly. Our hope is that this style could eventually be used for title norms, while still preserving the traditional correspondence chess format for those who prefer it.

You will be able to follow the games here:

https://www.iccf.com/event?id=110926

(with a five move delay).

Enjoy!

Jason Bokar - ICCF Marketing Director.

II CXEB International Open Tournament (BRA)

The Brazilian Epistolary Chess Club - Clube de Xadrez Epistolar Brasileiro (CXEB) - is organizing the "II CXEB International Open Tournament" for the participation of all ICCF players, regardless of their rating. The tournament will be played in a single phase.

 

The tournaments will be organized with the SILLI System (12 games). 

All player entries (max. 2 per player) will be sorted according to the player's ELO on the list 2025/3 as of July 1st, 2025 in these groups:

    • II CXEB International Open 1 and 2 (2 groups): players 2451 - 2750 ELO

    • II CXEB International Open 3 and 4 (2 groups): players 2401 - 2450 ELO

    • II CXEB International Open 5 and 6 (2 groups): players 2326 - 2400 ELO

    • II CXEB International Open 7 and 8 (2 groups): players 2251 - 2325 ELO

    • II CXEB International Open 9 and 10 (2 groups): players 2176 - 2250 ELO

    • II CXEB International Open 11 and 12 (2 groups): players 2101 - 2175 ELO

    • II CXEB International Open 13 and 14 (2 groups): players 2026 - 2100 ELO

    • II CXEB International Open 15 and 16 (2 groups): players 1951 - 2025 ELO

    • II CXEB International Open 17 and 18 (2 groups): players 1176 - 1950 ELO

    • II CXEB International Open 19 and 20 (2 groups): players 350 - 1175 ELO

In practice, this means that each player can play 2 sections!

Start tournament is September 30th, 2025

The event will be played on the ICCF server using the Triple Block time control with a tournament duration of 350 days, with 75 days initial bank and 1 day increment for the first 50 moves is used. No guaranteed time will be available after move 50.

The event will be rated and if the criteria are met, it will be possible to achieve ICCF title norms.

Organized by: Richard Mitsuo Fuzishawa (BRA)

Directed by: Bianor de Oliveira Neves (BRA)

Registrations

The tournament is open to all players.

Players may enter via the ICCF Direct Entry system on the ICCF server by opening menu "New Events-Brazil". Entries received via email will not be accepted!

Entry fee for Direct Entry system is €9.60 per group. Contact your national federation delegates for the national fee.

The ICCF rating as of July 1st, 2025 (Ranking list 2025/3) is binding.

Closing date for Direct Entry is September 22th 2025.

Closing date for NF entries is September 20th, 2025.

Certificates

Electronic certificates will be awarded for the first 10 places.

For registrations: https://www.iccf.com/EventAnnouncement.aspx?id=110829 .

List of Subscribers: https://www.iccf.com/Registrations.aspx?id=110829 .

 

Amici Sumus,