BRITISH CORRESPONDENCE CHESS ASSOCIATION (BCCA) POSTAL TOURNAMENT RULES
When required the BCCA President is responsible for applying to the ICCF for permission to run the BCCA Postal tournaments.
The BCCA Executive Committee will appoint a tournament organiser who will act as or appoint a tournament director for each tournament. The tournament organiser is authorised by the BCCA Executive Committee to take whatever decisions are required in relation to the running of the BCCA Postal tournaments.
The BCCA Postal tournaments will be held every year and will be open to all paid-up BCCA members.
The tournament organiser will receive entries with the entry fee as decided by the BCCA by 31st August of each year the tournament is held.
Play will commence in September of that year, and the end date will be 31st July of the following year.
ICCF playing and tournament rules for postal play will apply except that games shall not be ICCF rated and ICCF norms cannot be obtained. Players must maintain their BCCA membership throughout the tournament.
The ICCF standard time control of 10 moves in 30 days with duplication after 12 days will be used. 14 days of leave per year are available to each player. A penalty of five days shall be added to the time of a player who sends an illegible, illegal or ambiguous move, or incorrectly repeats the opponent's latest move. There will be no special leave in these tournaments.
There will be tournaments of up to two levels. These will be designated as:
(i) Postal Championship Final tournament
(ii) Postal Candidates tournaments
Allocation of entries to these tournaments will be at the sole discretion of the tournament organiser but will usually be in groups of five or six players. Qualification for next season’s Postal Championship are as follows:
(i) The 1st and 2nd placed players in the Postal Championship Final tournament will qualify for the Postal Championship Final in the following season subject to re-entry. The winner of a Postal Championship Candidates tournament will also qualify for the Postal Championship Final in the following season subject to re-entry.
(ii) All other entries will be allocated in descending order of ICCF rating.
Tournaments listed under 8 a) or 8 b) will not be held should there be insufficient entries.
If the total number of entries received is too many, the tournament organiser may decide to run more than one Postal Candidates tournament described under 8 b).
The tournament organiser has sole discretion as to whether the tournaments will be played on an ‘all-play-all’ or ‘double round’ basis.
For each tournament the following BCCA Master points and BCCA Candidate Master points will be allocated at the end of the tournament:
(i) Postal Championship Final tournament: 1st placed player will earn 4 points towards the BCCA Master Title; 2nd placed player will earn 2 points towards the BCCA Master Title.
(ii) Postal Candidates tournament: 1st placed player will earn 2 points towards the BCCA Candidate Master Title.
Where players are declared equal after the application of ICCF rule 1.3.4.2, these points will be shared between those players who are declared equal. Any conversion between BCCA Master points and BCCA Candidate Master points will be at the discretion of the BCCA Executive Committee should an application be received by the tournament organiser.
Ties are broken by ICCF rule 1.3.4.2. If needed, adjudicators will be selected by the ICCF server.
The winner of the Postal Championship Final tournament will receive £40, and the 2nd placed player in that tournament will receive £20. These prizes will be provided by the BCCA.
Any matters concerning the organisation and running of the tournament not covered in these rules and any appeals against the decisions of the tournament organiser will be determined by the BCCA Executive Committee whose decision shall be final.
Any matters concerning the ICCF rules for postal play will be decided by the ICCF whose decision shall be final.
CCM Stan J. Grayland
