2016 02

AICCF Bulletin Aug 2016 Page|1
VOLUME 24, Number 1
Choir at the opening ceremony of the ICCF Congress, Bremen
President & Bulletin Editor: Dr. A.Chatterjee, 401 Rutuvij Complex, N/r
Kabir Complex, Makarpura Road, Vadodra-390009, DrAmbar@gmail.com, +91
8141594459, +91 265 2630392
Vice President: Dr. P.B.Dhanish, Bhaskar Villa, Ramanattukara P.O., Calicut-
673633, pbdhanish@gmail.com, +91 9388689963
Secretary-cum-Treasurer: Dr. Alok Saxena, C-102 Mahavir Sadhana
Plot 18-E,F,G Sector 14, n/r Palm Beach Rd, Sanpada, Navi Mumbai 400705,
aloks279@gmail.com, +91 22 27815447, +91 9819199597
Member: Sailesh Chandra, #003 Block 3. Jain Prakruti, 63 KR Road Jayanagar
7th Block, Bangalore 560081, sca@aol.in, +91 80 26932833, +91 9880612262
Member: Om Prakash, Plot- 212, Lane - 9, Jagannathvihar, Near Fire Station
Square, Baramunda, Bhubaneswar, Odisha 751003,
ommprakasshh@gmail.com, +91 9437943954, +91 6742550273
Member: Gautam De, Flat 2a, 2nd Floor, 17a East End Park 3rd Road,
Kalikapur, Kolkata 700099, gautam.de@sbi.co.in, +91 9474306239, +91
8001194409, +91 7890234735
AICCF Champion: Gautam De
Contents
Management Matters A.Chatterjee and Alok Saxena . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Obituary: Neelakantan Narayanan A.Chatterjee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
AICCF Webserver A.Chattterjee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
AICCF WhatsApp Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Implementation of XFCC in AICCF Server Om Prakash . . . . . . . . 13
Optimally Choosing Tournaments to Play Sailesh Chandra . . . . . 21
Selecting your ICCF Tournaments A.Chatterjee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Modern Correspondence Chess Wolff Morrow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
AICCF Team Tournaments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Umesh Nair creates E-books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
AICCF Championship 1513 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
AICCF Championship 1514 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Games Section Mohan Jayaraman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
P.B.Dhanish and Om Prakash in Italian CC Year Book . . . . . . . . 50
AA Server Started Sailesh Chandra and A.Chatterjee . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
International Section Alok Saxena . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
ICCF Ratings as per list of 01-07-2016 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
ICCF Congress 2016, Bremen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Top 25 active players of AICCF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
AICCF Champions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Management Matters
Dr. Ambar Chatterjee
President, Bulletin Editor
Dr. Alok Saxena
Secretary-cum-Treasurer
th
The next AGM will be held on 13 Nov 2016 at the residence of the
President (Dr A.Chatterjee, 401 Rutuvij Complex, Makarpura Road, Near
Kabir Complex, Vadodra 390009).
We welcome players who have joined in the past year:
Swetha Valety, Mamta Bisht, Shrayan Majumder, M.Prakalya, Jatin
Deshpande, Prateek Basavaraj, Raahul V.S., Murali Ramamurthy, Pankaj
Sindhu, Pawan Dodeja, Devangshu Datta and Ranjeet Hegde. Players
K.S.Saravanan, Nagesh J., Valsan K., Sgt. P.Bhowmick and Hrishikesh
Chavan have become active again after a long gap. AICCF wishes them
all the best in their games.
AICCF Congratulates the Indian contingent for their performance at the
Baku Chess Olympiad.
AICCF members S.P.Sethuraman (Board 4) and R.B.Ramesh (Coach) are

seen at left and 2nd from left respectively
INCOME AND EXPENDITURE A/c FOR THE YEAR ENDED

31st MARCH, 2016
Expenditure Amt. Amt. Income Amt. Amt.
To Bank charges 13,600 By Champ. 12,100
Entry fees
To Prizes 10,000 ICCF 5,230
Membership
To Printing & 8,620 Ordy 1,500
Stationery Membership
To Audit fees 2,875 ICCF 16,850 35,680
tournaments
35,095.00 By bank 6,524

interest
By FD interest 44,314.73
To net profit 51,423.73
86,518.73 86,518.73
BALANCE SHEET AS ON 31st MARCH, 2016

Liabilities Amt. Amt. Assets Amt. Amt.
Capital A/C Investments
Corpus Fund 1,56,780 FD Union Bank 2,00,000 2,00,000
Life mem. fees 23,750 1,80,530 Curent Assets
Current Liabilities TDS AY 15-16 1,257
O/S Audit fees 4,079 Canara Bank 9,466
Last B/L 1,08,635 Union Bank 1,29,345
Profit for year 51,424 1,60,059 Cash in hand 14 1,38,825
Advance repair 4,586
3,44,668 3,44,668
For T.B.Karnik & Co For All India Correspondence Chess

Chartered Federation
Accountants
T.B.Karnik Dr. Alok Saxena Dr. A.Chatterjee
Proprietor Secretary/Treasurer President
Obituary
Neelakantan Narayanan (1953-2016)
By A.Chatterjee
W
e are sad to inform that our member Neelakantan N. is no more.
Neelu, as we affectionately called him, passed away in his sleep
rd
on 23 July 2016. Please see the Chessbase link:
http://chessbase.in/news/neelakantan-narayanan/
Anil Anand writes:

So shocked to learn about Neelakantan's untimely demise.
We played two extremely well-fought games in AICCF 1508
and 1509 championships and had some discussions. I had
annotated some of his games for the bulletins. May his soul
rest in peace!
th
Neelakantan joined AICCF in 1993. He was AICCF’s 13 member. He
was a stalwart among OTB players who joined CC. He played in AICCF’s
first ever 4-player double game tournament 4001 (by post card), His
opponents were N.P.Shukla, Sgt. M.C.Chandran and S.S.Nayak. He
finished in second place with 3.5 points while the winner was Sgt.
M.C.Chandran with 5.5 points. However in 4049 he finished in top place
with 5 points, ahead of R.K.Chauhan (4 points). He had top position again
in several tournaments such as 4164 (in 1996).
Neelakantan also played in the server era. The webserver records 63

games of Neelakantan during the period 2008-2014. Here he was less
successful as compared to postal games. He had 16 wins, 24 draws and
23 losses. This is because of defaulted games when he gave up
correspondence chess (2014) in favour of continuing OTB activities.
He played with risk, which is not always the best for CC. Not surprisingly,
his favourite opening was the Smith-Morra Gambit. His rise was steady
and in July 2012 he achieved his best AICCF rating. He played in all the
AICCF Championships from 1507 to 1511 upto the year 2014, but
thereafter he stopped playing, possibly due to his over-the-board
th
activities. His best performance was 5 position in the AICCF
Championship 1507.
During the years 1993-2010 he regularly attended the AICCF meetings

held at the residences of H.J.Samtani, Dr. A.B.Surveyor, M.B.Mulla,
P.M.Dalvi, V.D.Pandit, E.G.Meherhomji, A.Chatterjee and others. He
contributed to suggestions and ideas for postal correspondence chess.

He used to modestly say that he was really an OTB player and in CC he
was an average player. It is probably true that Neelakantan achieved
greater success in OTB. He was 3 times National A player, 22 times
National B player and achieved his peak FIDE rating of 2295 in 1996. I
had the occasion to meet him many times in OTB during Inter-University
tournaments where he represented Bombay University and I was
representing Delhi and also the
Accumax Engineering Open
Chess Tournament (Mumbai
1976).
About his OTB play, Sagar Shah

of Chessbase-India wrote on the
Chessbase site (see link above):
Trying to emulate the play of

Paul Morphy, Neelakantan
was one of the most fierce
attackers from India in the
90s.
Neelakantan worked in Central

Bank of India from where he
retired in 2013. His Auto-Chess-O-
Graphy appeared in the AICCF Bulletin, February 2000.
Our target audience should not be only the 5000 OTB

chess players but the one million (or is it one crore?)
Indians who know the game and play the game at home!
- Neelakantan in his Auto-Chess-O-Graphy February 2000.
For memorable games of Neelakantan including that against Daniel King

th
in the 4 Goodricke International, Calcutta 1993 see p.27 in the AICCF
Bulletin Feb 2000:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Byqu95xetwlzcXFMN3FTSVp2WHc/view?
usp=sharing
Here we give another game where Neelakantan, playing the Smith-Morra
Gambit, ousted Dr. Saxena after reaching a slightly better endgame from
the opening.
Neelakantan, N. - Saxena, Alok 33.Kf4 Bxa2 34.Kg5 Rh8 35.Rxa6

AICCF Championship 1509 Bc4 36.Bxh5 +/- was even better.
B21 Morra Gambit 33...Bxa2
33...Bc6 34.Bf5 Rf6 35.Kf4 +/-
1.e4 c5 2.d4 cxd4 3.c3 dxc3 34.Kf4 Bc4 35.Kg5 Rh8 36.Bxh5
4.Nxc3 Nc6 5.Nf3 e6 6.Bc4 a6 d5 37.h4 d4 38.Bd1 Rg8+ 39.Rg6
7.O-O Nge7 8.Bg5 f6 9.Be3 b5 Re8 40.h5 d3
10.Bb3 Ng6 11.Nd5 No better was 40...Be2 41.Bxe2
A stock sacrifice from the opening Rxe2 42.Rf6 Re5+ 43.Kg6 Re8
book. 44.Kf7 Kd7 45.Rf2 and White wins.
11…exd5 12.exd5 Nce5 13.d6 41.h6 d2 42.h7 Rh8 43.Kh6 Bd3
Bb7 14.Nxe5 fxe5 15.f4 exf4 44.Rg7+ Kd6 45.g4 Re8 46.Ra7
16.Re1 fxe3 17.Rxe3+ Be7 Bxh7 47.Kxh7 Re1 48.Ra1 Rg1
18.Qd4 Qc8 19.Rae1 Qc6 20.Rf3 48...Ke7 49.g5 Kf8 50.Kh6 Rh1+
Kd8 21.dxe7+ Nxe7 22.Rxe7 51.Kg6 Rf1 52.Ra8+ Ke7 53.Ra7+
Kxe7 23.Qxg7+ Kd8 24.Qxh8+ wins
Kc7 25.Qe5+ Qd6 26.Qxd6+ 49.Kh6 Rh1+ 50.Kg6 Ke5 51.g5
Kxd6 27.Rf6+ Kc7 28.Bc2 Rg8 1-0
Neelakantan was a very

intelligent person. He was
almost a chess maniac in a
good sense. Neelu did
nothing but read books,
newspapers and play
chess, never smoked,
never had alcohol and had
no vices. He led a good life
but his participation in
tournaments reduced
This is all theory so far. After the during his peak period
fireworks, we have reached an due to the sickness of his
endgame where White has a small old parents. He had made
advantage.
29.g3 h5 30.Bg6 Rh8 31.Kf2 Rh6
the decision to not marry
31...Bd5 32.Rxa6 Be6 33.b3 h4 very early in life and he
34.Be4 hxg3+ 35.hxg3 Rf8+ += remained true to his vow.
offered better chances to hold the – Chessbase
game.
32.Ke3 Bd5 33.Rxa6
AICCF WEBSERVER
Ambar Chatterjee
<DrAmbar@gmail.com>
The AICCF server ran smoothly during this period and there were no
glitches. Unattended backups were taken regularly on a dedicated laptop.
AICCF FORUM
There are still some problems in the AICCF Forum posts. The error
message “403 Forbidden” appears sometimes. The changes made
earlier, do not seem to have solved the problem completely. Some people
click the Back button of their browser after encountering “403 Forbidden”
and then send again – but this creates garbled text. Hope to work out a
complete solution soon.
MOBILE PHONE APP: YOUR MOVE BY ASIM PEREIRA
Many of our members want to play from their mobile phone rather than
desktop or laptop PC. The AICCF server works on many mobile browsers
(Chrome is recommended), but problems with the touch-touch method of
making moves are seen in some cases. Upto now there was no sure-shot
solution. I wrote to players who were facing problems to send their moves
using the typing option in case touch-touch did not work. Following
requests from some players, especially Hrishikesh Chavan, I decided that
a mobile app would be useful. At first I was thinking of creating a
dedicated mobile app myself. However a good app, Your Move by Asim
Pereira was already available for ICCF and Scheming Mind servers. It
makes use of XFCC. XFCC (Web Services for Correspondence Chess) is
explained below. So if XFCC was implemented on AICCF server it would
be possible to use Your Move. I wrote to Asim Pereira in Bangalore and
he readily agreed to interface with us. I then began the task of
implementing XFCC on AICCF server. Asim sent me an experimental
version of Your Move which I loaded on my android phone for testing.
There were several technical problems. XFCC (see http://xfcc.org) needs

SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol: see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOAP) and SOAP is not available as
standard software on our server. I tried the NuSOAP toolkit
(https://sourceforge.net/p/nusoap) but it was handling the data exchange
in a different way than required.
XFCC allows players to make their moves directly in a database program

like SCID without having to open their web-browser. In the early years of
AICCF Server software development (around 2009), P.B.Dhanish made a
strong request for XFCC but at time I could not solve the technical
problems involved. I knew that it would take a great deal of effort. Now
there was additional motivation – XFCC was also our link to the mobile
app Your Move.
NuSOAP is quite old. I could not find enough details about it by searching
the web. Eventually the solution emerged. I discovered that NuSOAP has
a manual mode which allows full control. Now there were about 10 days
left before I was scheduled to go to Bangalore where we had decided to
have an AICCF meeting. I quickly completed the software and testing and
I was able to demonstrate it to Asim when we met in Bangalore. I gave
him two dummy AICCF accounts for further testing and development.
Asim Pereira (left) with Ambar Chatterjee in Bangalore

Your Move running on a Samsung mobile phone
After my return to Vadodara, Asim Pereira’s team soon released a new

version of Your Move for
Android devices where a link to
AICCF was provided. AICCF
players were delighted to use
the app. Hrishikesh Chavan was
among the first users.
The app is very easy to install

and use. On your phone, select
Play Store (Google Play) and
search for Your Move. Locate Your Move Correspondence Chess and
install it. Open the app, select Add Account. Then enter your Serial
Number as id/username, password and select AICCF from the drop down
list. When you click Login, you will see a list of your games. The button at
the top right of the screen allows you to refresh the games list. The ones
which have a white background are those where it is your
turn to move. On clicking, you will the see a picture similar
to that shown above. To make your move, touch the piece
and destination squares and click the send button.
Asim Pereira and his team have also created an iPhone version of Your
Move. I helped in testing it. Your move running on an iPad mini is shown
on the next page.
Your Move on an iPad mini
AICCF and ICCF players please take note of Your Move app and install it
on your mobile and tablet devices. I know that there are casual players
who find this easier than sending their moves from a browser. At the
higher level, players analyse their positions for long hours on big
machines. Despatching the move is only a small part of their and they
could as well send the move from a PC.
MORE ABOUT XFCC
There are XFCC aware programs available on PC which can be used to

despatch your move as an alternative to an internet browser. Some
players like to send their moves directly from a database+engine program
like ChessOK or SCID, mainly because they wish to avoid clerical errors
in move transmission.
After deciding on a move, following many hours of analysis and storing it

in a database, they are worried about transmitting a wrong move. The
next article by Om Prakash explains how he twice fell into this type of
error and why is happy with XFCC implementation in AICCF. The initial
implementation of XFCC on AICCF server was suitable only for Your
Move mobile app. Later some modifications were made, making it
compatible also with PC applications like SCID and ChessOK.
Sending moves from a PC browser remains the best option for most of
us. Mobile or tablet could be used while travelling. Regularly sending
moves from a mobile device or XFCC application has some disadvantages
(a) If you are using only a mobile, you may not be using engine assistance
and this means you may not be playing the best moves (b) Presently you
cannot send conditional moves using XFCC. In some situations you can
speed up the game by sending conditional moves, but that is possible
only from a browser (c) If you avoid browser, you miss front page
announcements of new ICCF and AICCF tournaments (d) You miss AICCF
Forum discussions (c) You may miss the announcement of the next AICCF
Bulletin release and the link to reading it online.
I recommend that players using XFCC on PC and those regularly using the
mobile app, to take the time to login to www.aiccf-chess.com/server at
least once a week to catch up on the forum and announcements.
AICCF WhatsApp Group

Member Satyajit Das took the initiative to start
a WhatsApp Group for AICCF in April 2016.
Here members share pleasantries, information,
puzzles etc. To join, send a request to
satyajitdas20@gmail.com or 9690907807
Implementation of XFCC
in AICCF Server
Om Prakash
In this article Om Prakash writes about

why the recent implementation of
XFCC on AICCF server is useful for him.
Details about what is XFCC are given
in the previous article.
I
n the ongoing game with
Gautam De Jee, 1514 I had this
position.
Diagram 2
But Gautam Jee played what was

for me the second best move in the
Diagram 1 position: 14. Rxa4!? Unfortunately,
I as usual being careless enough
At this point I continued my deep replied with the same move:
analysis in Aquarium and found out 14. Bc6?? as though White had
that 14. Nge4 was the best played 14. Nge4. This leads to the
response to my 13…0-0 loss of the a6 pawn and the game
too (in due course).
Then I had a reply ready which
was 14. Bc6.
that, having done this 3 times in a

row – twice with Gautam De Jee in
successive games and once with
Aniruddha Dutta Jee. I later
salvaged the game against
Aniruddha Jee after he made some
inaccurate moves.
This type of problem can be

eradicated by XFCC protocol and
applications using that, like
XECTool, SCID, Chessbase,
Aquarium etc. If a server is XFCC
enabled it is possible to make
Diagram 3 moves directly from XFCC aware
chess applications so that the step
The problem arose because I of transferring a move from the
failed to setup the position application to the server has not to
correctly before searching for my be done manually. XFCC also
move. I had the position of allows the mobile phone/tablet
Diagram 2 on my analysis board apps like Your Move by Asim
but the actual position on AICCF Pereira to connect to servers.
server site was that of Diagram 3.
(Note: The previous article
I missed the difference in the explains the details of XFCC –Ed.).
position and routinely moved 14.
…Bc6?? which was not the correct Since I use XFCCPlay from
reply. Correct reply was 14…Nd5! Aquarium I will be explaining that
+/=. here.
(Mistakes of this type are called As you can see below when
clerical errors and were common in Aquarium XFCC play is loaded, it
the postal era. In server play connects to the specified server.
clerical errors are less likely, but do
Here I am showing an example of
happen. -Ed)
ICCF server. All Id passwords
As can be seen, manually entering and the path to my database
the intended move on the server are linked in XFCC Play. Here
has some human stupidity factor are the screenshots:
added to it. I am good at doing
Now once it is connected, it shows a list of all my games as shown above.

Red is the games I have not yet seen are in red, and bold black the ones I
have checked but not responded to the move.
When “Save Game” is clicked (red arrow in the picture above), it

immediately saves the game in the database previously specified. The
game is saved with a highlight on the last move as the main line even if it
was not made the main line. You can this below. As you can see I have
highlighted with red arrow.
Next, in the analysis window, we can right-click on the analysis tree, right-
click on the move and then select XFCCPlay (see below):
This sends the move to XFCCPlay (a part of Aquarium package) ready to

be played without any manual entry.
In XFCCPlay there is a “Make Move” button at the top (I have marked it

with a red arrow). On clicking this you will see a pop up window:
Clicking “OK” finally transmits the move to the server and the game in the
games list will greyed out (indicating that now it is the opponent’s turn to
move).
Over a year ago I enquired with our revered Dr. Ambar Chatterjee about
the possibility of adding XFCC to AICCF Server. He replied that he would
be looking into it. Recently at the request of some players to have a
mobile app for playing on AICCF server, he implemented XFCC and Asim
Pereira’s mobile app, “Your Move” was made working with AICCF
server. However when I tried Aquarium – XFCCPlay, somehow it was not
working. I was disappointed and informed Dr. Chatterjee. He gave me two
dummy accounts to try a test game, making moves from both sides. I
checked and found that I was unable to transmit any moves from
Aquarium. I then sent Dr. Chatterjee a standalone version of XFCCPlay
for bug testing. This made it easy for him to locate the fault in
communication between the server and the app.
With our Ambar Jee’s software prowess, a few minor additions and
changes and lo, XFCCPlay began working on AICCF server in just the
same way it works on ICCF server.
You can see on the next page how it is working on AICCF server:
I am very grateful and obliged to Dr Ambar Chatterjee Jee for his

generosity to add this feature and save me from so called stupid human
errors. Well Gautam Jee!!! Beware …No more errors this time…. 
Optimally Choosing
Tournaments to Play
Sailesh Chandra
<sailesh111@gmail.com>
Sailesh Chandra is an active player, a member of the AICCF

Management Committee and Zonal Director ICCF Zone 4. In
this article he explains how our players should go about
deciding which CC games to take up in ICCF (and AICCF).
The next article by the Bulletin Editor, on the same topic,
explains in more detail. Members are advised to read both
articles carefully and get back to us if you have any doubts.
T
he decisions to be made in selecting tournaments to take up in
ICCF and AICCF are not new in the chess world. Even in OTB play,
it is recommended that if you are playing more than a certain
number of games or tournaments you can burn out. But less than a
certain amount and you look at the possibility of some rustiness. So how
do you determine what is the ideal number for you especially in
correspondence chess?
There is a way to do that. There are some factors to consider, namely, the
availability of time, the strength of the tournaments and your personal
rating. I have heard this said a few times, "I do not play for ratings, but for
the enjoyment of the game". While it is a laudable objective both are
linked to each other. If a strong player plays in a tournament scoring
100%, he or she is unlikely to get any pleasure from that if the opposition
was weak. The same goes for a player entering a tournament where the
average rating is much above his level, where he or she will end up near
the bottom of the cross table.
In this regard ICCF has provided various options and various goals. To a
person brand new to correspondence chess, a free unrated match is
provided on the ICCF server. This is ideal for someone who has never
played correspondence chess before and will get him or her familiar with
concepts such as waiting for moves for several days or researching
moves in databases and analyzing moves with engines. AA zone 4 server

and AICCF are unique in the world that once you are registered there,
you can play unlimited amount of tournaments for free. That can definitely
be the next step, as people playing rated tournaments usually play much
more seriously, and both these servers have their own rating systems as
well. Finally the big step is to play on ICCF server.
There are many levels of tournaments which are available to play on

ICCF. From aspirer to grandmaster norm. So first thing is when you
register on the ICCF server, you know your own strength level. If you are
a strong FIDE player, your FIDE rating can get you into high level
tournaments. When you go on the ICCF server, just look on the left
margin and click on "New Events" and you can see that you can
participate in (for example) the master norm tournament with the following
qualifications:
1. Fixed (based on more than 29 games) rating of at least 2300 on the

latest ICCF rating list, or
2. Unfixed (based on 12-29 games) rating of at least 2350 on the latest
ICCF rating list, or
3. FIDE rating of at least 2350 on the latest FIDE rating list, or
4. Players who achieved places 1-3 in a National CC championship.
Restriction: Each player may only enter one web-server norm tournament
in each 6-month cycle. Players have to be rated 2300 or above.
This is an important criterion for the player to consider, because after

certain number of games the ICCF rating will be used and not the FIDE
rating, so appropriate strength level should be chosen.
If you already have an ICCF rating, then depending on it, the following
tournaments can be recommended.
Below 1600: Aspirer tournaments.
Below 1900 (but above 1600, though you can be unrated here as well):
WS/O (Open Class tournaments)
Between 1900 and 2100 rated players can play in the higher class
(WS/H) tournaments.
Above a rating of 2100 you are eligible for (WS/M) master class
tournaments which have the added benefit of qualifying you for the world
championship preliminaries (a second place gives you a half qualification,
in other words if you have played two of these and ended up second
twice, you can play in the world championship preliminaries.
There are new titles which are now available on ICCF apart from Grand
Master, Senior International Master, and International Master (along with
Lady International Master and Lady Grand Master). These are
Correspondence Chess Expert and Correspondence Chess Master.
Availability of these norms should also play a role in your selection of
tournaments just as ratings would.
So how many games should one play at a time? It varies from player to
player, but from various observations I have noticed, if the number starts
going much higher than 20, the quality of the game of the player suffers.
What tournaments should a player avoid if possible? A player rated 2300

or over should not play in any tournament unless at-least an IM norm is
possible (This includes the AICCF national championships as well). A
player rated higher than 2250 should not be playing the AA preliminaries
when they can directly be seeded to semi-finals. In fact most players
should check as to what ratings would get them past the preliminaries in
any given tournament and take the appropriate decision.
A decision on the number of games is often based on the research time

available to the players. Here a quick word on databases, engines and
table bases needs to be said. Using these properly definitely helps make
for stronger games and stronger chess players. They are very good tools
and just like any tools they should be used with appropriate discretion.
Every move in the data base not is the ultimate word on the position and
neither is the engine the final judge of a position. Sometimes even engine
moves are not chosen by a good CC player, because he or she thinks
that a different plan would be more appropriate for the position than what
the engine is contemplating. A player knowing the "why" of the engine
move will invariably become a stronger chess player which will reflect in
his or her OTB play as well. Using table bases is actually impacting the
very rules of chess. The fifty move rule may be gone very soon. (In
AICCF it is abolished and in ICCF it does not apply when a tablebase
claim is made -Ed) We are currently seeing "mate in 500 moves". Seeing
the logical progression of the growth of table bases it may be possible in
our lifetime to see positions of "mate in 16,000 moves". Chess is a game
of infinite joy and mystery!
All I want to do, ever, is just play Chess

– Bobby Fischer
Selecting your ICCF

Tournaments
A.Chatteree
<DrAmbar@gmail.com>
The previous article gives you an idea of how you can

organise yourself to play correspondence chess in ICCF. In
this article I provide a few more details, especially the costs
involved.
P
layers who join AICCF are advised to first play on AICCF server,
get used to server CC and make an assessment of their playing
strength. If you have earned a high AICCF rating you can play in
the AICCF Championship. After that you can try your hand on ICCF
server. Stalwarts like GM P.B.Dhanish became AICCF Champion first
before earning their ICCF titles. Another advantage of playing in the
AICCF Championship is that these games are ICCF rated, so you can get
your ICCF rating this way.
If you are already a high rated FIDE player, you should not wait long
before going on to ICCF tournaments. Thus Sasikiran after a brief period
playing on AICCF server moved to playing on ICCF server where he
earned the titles of IM and SIM this year.
When you are ready to play on ICCF server, the first step is usually to
play in some of the free tournaments (ICCF charges for most
tournaments). First you have to become a member of AICCF’s
International Section.
What is AICCF International Section? Why are there extra charges

for this?
When you join AICCF, the fees are Rs. 300/- for 2 years or Rs. 900/- for
Life. In order to keep the fees low, we have a separate International
Section payment. ICCF sends us a bill at the end of the year where
affiliation fees are charged. It would not be fair to charge a uniform

membership fee from all our members as there would be members who
do not want to play on ICCF server.
Membership to the International Section is Rs. 320/- for 2 years or Rs.

1550/- for Life. Payment should be made by bank transfer to AICCF
account.
I can play directly on ICCF by registering on their site, why should I

play through AICCF?
Playing directly on ICCF server is possible. This is called Direct Entry. It is
meant for (a) Isolated countries without a national federation (b) Players
who do not want to join the national federation (c) Players who have
joined the national federation, yet want to play as Direct Entry with higher
fees.
You can play as Direct Entry, but the fees will be 25% higher and will
have to be paid in foreign exchange. Presently Pay Pal is the only way of
sending money directly to ICCF. For all Direct Entries, ICCF sends a
certain amount of money back to the National Federation. This is a
marketing strategy of ICCF. If you play through AICCF, you can send the
money in rupees by bank transfer to AICCF account and the amount
required is 25% less – so this is the preferred method.
Should I register for ICCF tournaments directly from ICCF site?

No. You should instead send an email to Dr. Alok Saxena who will tell you
the amount to be paid. Then you should transfer the payment to AICCF
account and Dr. Saxena will take care of your entry.
What are the free tournaments available on ICCF server? How can I
play in them?
Free ICCF tournaments available to you are (a) Friendly International

Matches against other countries (b) Afro-Asian Championship
Preliminaries.
We announce these tournaments prominently on the front page of the

AICCF server site (www.aiccf-chess.com/server) and also send a general
email to all members. Friendly International against Cuba started on 15
th
Aug 2016 and the 18 AA Prelim started on 22 Feb 2016.
What are Norm Tournaments, Promotion Tournaments and Aspirer

Tournaments mentioned in the previous article and the fees for
them? How can I play in them?
ICCF does not publish tournaments fees on their website. Here are the
amounts you need to transfer to AICCF bank account:
ICCF Rating
Tournament Fees Format
Fixed Unfixed
Aspirers Rs. 540/- 6 games Less than 1600
Open Class (WS/O) Rs. 400/- 6 games <1900 or unrated
Higher Class (WS/H) Rs. 400/- 6 games 1900-2099
Master Class (WS/M) Rs. 650/- 10 games >2100
Master Norm Rs. 1600/- 12 games 2300 2350
GM Norm Rs. 2000/- 12 games 2450 2500
Note: From January 2017 fees will be reduced to

50% since the proposal for fee reduction to
developing countries is passed in the ICCF
Congress, Bremen.
Depending on your rating, you are qualified for one of these. In addition to
qualifying on the basis of rating, you can qualify from performance in a
previous level. E.g. a winner of an Open Class can play in Higher Class.
Players who achieved places 1-3 in an AICCF Championship can directly
play in a Master Norm tournament. If you feel it is justified, you can
request Dr. Saxena to nominate you for one of these tournaments even if
you don’t qualify on the basis of rating.
These tournaments start as soon as there are enough entries. In order to

play, simply send an email to Dr. Saxena and send the fees by electronic
transfer to AICCF bank account.
What is a Fixed or Unfixed ICCF Rating?
Your ICCF rating is considered fixed if you have completed at least 30

games, otherwise it is considered unfixed. A FIDE rating counts as an
unfixed rating.
So get on the way and make your mark in ICCF!

Modern
Correspondence
Chess from the Inside
Out
Wolff Morrow
SIM Wolff Morrow of USA wrote an article that was published on

chess.com. I thank GM P.B.Dhanish for sending me a link to this
interesting article. We made a request to Wolff to reprint the article in the
AICCF Bulletin:
Server CC in India faces the same issues as ICCF on a

smaller scale. On the Indian CC server, engines are allowed,
as in ICCF server (and for the same reasons). After a while, a
few of our members graduate to high level CC, aspiring for
a GM title in ICCF. Till date only 1 player from India (280176
Dhanish, P.B.) could make it to ICCF GM. It is really difficult to
make optimal use of engines and use them to win against
an opponent who too his using his own style of engine play.
And every day we introspect and ask ourselves, am I just a
button-pusher?
Your article is appealing as it explores the real meaning of

engine-allowed server CC. It says what many of us want to
say but don’t have words to express, nor the intent to share
our inner-most secrets in server play. Such an article will go a
long way to promote ICCF and deserves a wider audience. I
would like to publish it in the AICCF Bulletin for August 2016 -
of course under your name and photo.
We also asked Wolff to read Dhanish’s article from the AICCF Bulletin of
Aug 2015:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Byqu95xetwlzVHlGUnFNaUtId0E/view?us
p=sharing
The response:
I read the article by Dhanish, and it was very interesting! I
should note that he was fortunate to get placed in a
national championship for his first rated ICCF tournament
with a 2200p rating. In addition, he was able to parlay the
2504 rating into other prestigious events in order to make the
push for GM title before it became out of reach. Last year,
only 3 people in the entire world made ICCF GM!
In my own case, I had to fight a slow battle from the very

bottom of the ICCF rating ladder at 1800p. It was VERY
difficult to climb out of that hole, with everyone already
using multi-core CPUs and the latest programs like Rybka at
the time. But I kept trying and trying until I eventually made
a name for myself. I climbed from 1800 to over 2500 entirely
on my own without any grace invites or honorary rating. I
remember being upset when they increased the
requirements for SIM norms a couple years ago, because I
was coming up a half-point shy as a result on numerous
occasions. Finally I had break-out performances and earned
the SIM title in spite of the increased difficulty that others did
not have to face for their SIM title. As such, I jokingly put an
asterisk next to my SIM title and refer to it as "Super Senior
IM". 
So now I'm hoping to find opportunity in higher category

events. The highest I've been in currently is category 13,
which in a 14-game tournament requires going +2 for the
norm. That's about the bare limit of reasonably obtainable
norms at such a rating average. I've found great success in
doing country-vs-country matches, where I am going to
sweep the top board against both Lithuania and Slovenia.
This will give me more rating points, with my goal being to
make 2600 so I can get qualified for Candidate tournaments
and invites into 14+ category events.
Really this is how the game is played on ICCF for those that
cannot get an early jump on the ratings: You keep building
your rating, stay away from events below your rating, and
upgrade to new stronger events to maintain the rating
climb. As you do this, the norms get easier and easier to
make. For example, it's far easier to draw out and make an
IM norm in a stronger event than it is to win several games in
a weaker event for the same performance.
In the newest ratings period, I lost several points due to

being obligated to play in an event I signed up for several
years ago. It took so long to arrive that all my opponents
were 200 to 300 points below my rating, and I was forced to
draw them since they did not want to risk playing for a win.
So in spite of several draws and two wins, my rating went
down. This is why it's important to avoid events below your
rating. You end up being a rating point 'spring' for the
players wanting merely to draw you and take those points.
At any rate, my rating will now start climbing again since I

got that old tournament mostly completed, and wins are
coming in from country matches. I hope to of course
someday make it to a WCCC final.
MODERN CORRESPONDENCE CHESS FROM THE INSIDE OUT
What is ICCF?
The International Correspondence Chess Federation is the world

governing body on officially-rated correspondence chess games. There
are delegates from many countries that promote their own national or
international ICCF tournaments and events. In addition to which, the ICCF
itself promotes open tournaments as well as rating-based events in
addition to the world championship cycle that starts every year. Over the
years, the ICCF has modernized the way correspondence chess is
played. The vast majority of events are now played on a web server,
where you can opt to be notified of your opponent's move via email. Then
you would log into the server to play your move reply.
Now the main difference between ICCF and most other correspondence
chess organizations is that the use of computer 'engine' assistance is
allowed. It became apparent that cheating was going to be a major
problem as chess software became more and more powerful. So rather
than spend so much time and energy in a battle that wouldn't conclusively
prevent all cheating, the decision was made to make engine use fully
within the rules. Indeed when you review top-rated correspondence chess
games and players from organizations that prohibit engine use, you will
no doubt find the level of cheating is rampant with everything from deep
engine analysis to the more clever sparse use of an engine only in critical
moments of a game. On ICCF, the playing field becomes much more fair
in this regard, and it's up to you to use whatever means you can to
outsmart your opponent's engine-assisted play. As such, the quality of
most games on ICCF is stronger than engines or humans by themselves.
They represent the closest to perfection that can be currently achieved in
chess moves on the board, but even in this arena, blunders and
fundamental mistakes still happen to this day (albeit much more rarely).
Because of the incredible strength of engine-assisted correspondence

chess, certain endings have become a trivial matter of just "going through
the motions". Specifically 6-piece tablebase positions, where the ending is
played flawlessly. The result of this eventually caused ICCF to adopt a 6-
piece tablebase claim that you can make when you arrive at such an
endgame. This rule was enacted to combat deliberately slow play (an
opponent stalling a loss as long as they can). It became clear that the 50-
move draw rule from human-only chess was obtrusive to the 6-tablebase
endgame, and ICCF adopted the stance that tablebase endings overrule
the 50-move draw rule. So if you reached an ending that was mate in 94,
but contained 57 moves of no pawn push or material captured, you would
still win using the tablebase claim. This is controversial for some in that
this now differs from over-the-board rules, but in the end, it just makes
finishing games more efficient and easier to adjudicate if needed.
"Correspondence chess has become just pushing

buttons on a machine" -GM Nigel Short
Nigel's quote is the typical reaction of those looking from the outside at
modern correspondence chess. Some will even react very negatively to
the accomplishments of earned ICCF title holders and champions of the
ICCF arena, citing a lack of over-the-board mastery of many ICCF players
and believing that the level of human interaction in engine-assisted
correspondence chess must be minimal as a result. The reality is: nothing
could be further from the truth in strongly-rated ICCF games. The skill set
it takes to win against an opponent using an engine does not translate to
the skills used in over-the-board chess mastery. In short, the mistake
laypeople are making is comparing apples to oranges. That's not to say
human chess skill is completely useless when competing on ICCF
however. You in fact need a good understanding of fundamental concepts
like recognizing that you might fall into drawish positions like an opposite-
coloured bishop ending, or spotting dynamic advantages versus being up
worthless material for example. These are issues engines still do not
address, and the cleverer human can use to their advantage. From my
experience, you need about a 1500-1700 level of chess understanding to
have a chance at excelling on ICCF, but the other skills needed only
come from experience on ICCF itself.
So what are these other skills? First and foremost is your ability to be
creative in the opening. Engines are much too weak in the opening even
by today's technological and software advances in the field. As such, the
majority of wins on ICCF come from creating lasting advantages and/or
complex middle-game positions that come about from clever opening
preparation. This means researching hundreds of thousands of games
from various archives (including even human over-the-board games) to
prepare an overall opening game plan against your opponent. For me, the
most valuable tools for this phase of the game are Chessbase and Fritz
software packages. I use Chessbase to collate, filter, and condense my
game collection archives into a single database I do my research from.
Then I use the Fritz user interface to create an opening book comprised
of the first 60 moves from that database. Then it becomes a simple matter
of reviewing the lines of the opening I want to play and spotting potential
weak points or critical positions that might trip my opponent up. I love this
aspect of ICCF play, because it opens my mind to openings I had never
considered in my over-the-board play, and gives me a greater
understanding after so many years of research. For example, ICCF play
gave me a profound appreciation for the Sveshnikov Sicilian. I've played
and researched it so many times from the black side that I can recite all
the major variations and describe the game plan for each side without
needing to consult a book or database. This is an opening I never
entertained the idea of playing, much less understanding the point of
before I joined ICCF.
The next skill comes in how you handle your interaction with engine
analysis. It's been said before about ICCF that you get out of it exactly
what you put into it. So if all you do is just plug the game position into the
engine and then play the top move it picks, you're going to hit a rating wall
and wonder why other people keep climbing the ratings ladder while you
seem to stagnate. There are in fact players that only let the engine do all
the work, and I've played and beaten many of them. This is where the
"apples" ICCF skill comes into play that doesn't translate to over-the-
board's "orange" skill set. I'll describe a few of my own techniques to give
a sample of what I mean:
1. I keep a running diary of every game I play. This includes notes about
the opening, the general impression I get from the current position
(whether or not I agree with the computer's evaluation), and my overall
prospects and goals for the game. This for me is important because I
typically have 30 to 40 games running at the same time, and it helps me
to refresh my memory on my intentions instead of just blindly plugging the
game into an engine.
The opening, impressions, and goals I set come from experience on

ICCF, and those concepts can only be honed from ICCF play. This is why
a 1500-rated player can still have the potential to win against a 2600 GM
when they play on ICCF, because that 1500 might just have several years
of experience on ICCF versus the GM trying it out for the first time. I
myself have defeated FIDE masters on ICCF using this same "apples to
oranges" concept of experience and skill. Often times a FIDE master will
want to play their pet opening from over-the-board play, not realizing it
may contain deadly traps that are 20 moves deep and sacrifice two
pawns for the initiative. This is stuff the engines cannot see coming, and
thus, the FIDE master doesn't see it either. However, more and more
FIDE masters are taking interest in the ICCF, and some of them are very
quick to adapt to the arena and realize that it's never a good idea to base
your opening preparation on what you did over-the-board. You have to
variate and be creative, or your opponent might just have a nasty surprise
waiting for you in the middle-game.
2. Subtractive analysis. This means using the engine to explore either

your own ideas or alternative ideas the engine normally might skip over
due to its selective search pruning function. What you do is forcefully
remove the engine's top choice and have it evaluate from the remaining
set of legal moves. As long as time permits, you can keep doing this and
take notes of the evaluations until you start reaching moves that are
clearly weak. This gives a set of candidate moves to really start your
analysis from. Remember that an engine doesn't do this on its own, so it's
still up to you to create the list of potential moves to consider playing.
3. Backsliding analysis. This allows you to go well above and beyond

the engine's horizon and really find out if the position is going anywhere
meaningful. What you do is move forward several moves in the given line
an engine predicts as best, and then work your way backwards up the line
and check for alternative moves the engine may have missed as being an
improvement. You really have to get in there and move pieces around.
Ask yourself "why doesn't this work?" or "what about this move?". Believe
it or not, you can sometimes come up with a brilliant line that the engine
had no clue was even a viable option. This is an essential technique to

beating opponents that simply let the engine play the top choice move. It
also can save your skin in a game that you are being slowly crushed in. I
had a recent game where my opponent was very creative in the opening,
and I found myself in that horrible situation of getting squeezed off the
board. The computer engine couldn't figure out what move to play that
would save the situation, so I employed my backsliding technique on
several candidate moves, and uncovered a brilliant game-saving draw
that sacrificed a pawn twenty moves deep (40 ply). I input the entire line
as a conditional string, and my opponent followed it all the way out to the
draw because his engine couldn't resist the material evaluation making it
look advantageous for him. These kinds of draws are almost as satisfying
as a win for me. It demonstrates technique the computer engine could not
find on its own, but the human-engine combination did.
The real problems ICCF faces in modern times:
As you climb the ICCF ranks, your opponents become stronger and
stronger. Not because of hardware power, but because they have more
experience on how to specialize in opening preparation. They got to
where they were NOT by blindly letting their engines play, but by
becoming experts in openings/middle-games that give the most chances
for incredibly complex positions that allow for more human guidance of
the engine. Now what happens in these world champion finals is
everyone by that point is extremely well-versed in opening
theory/research, so it becomes extremely difficult to catch them in a new
creative line that offers a complex difficult position to analyse with human-
engine technique. As such, the vast majority of games reach a middle-
game position that black (or even some rare cases white) can hold the
draw with patient and deep analysis on each move.
As I've crossed 2500, I've come to realize that my opponents are so

competent in the opening now that I can no longer play double-edged
openings as black in order to try and win from that side. The opponents
simply have too much experience and knowledge of how to avoid falling
into a trap as white. Instead, I now have to use a new repertoire based on
preventing white from gaining a complex position with any meaningful
advantage. An example of this would be to adopt the Berlin Defence. The
main line of the Berlin exchanges queens, and in the ICCF arena, it
becomes virtually impossible for white to create the kind of tension
needed press a win from a micro-mistake black might happen to make.
The engines are strong enough now that a simple quad core machine can
hold the draw in the Berlin even against a $100,000,000 supercomputer.
There just isn't enough complexity to trip the engine up. As such, your
stronger ICCF players know this, and will avoid the Berlin even if it means
playing something like the Italian game.
This is the real problem right now that we face on ICCF. Once your
opponent becomes skilled enough in opening theory to reach a playable
middle-game, your chances of finding a win become extremely remote. In
fact, ICCF World Champion Leonardo Ljubicic winning 4 games in the
event is actually an incredibly impressive accomplishment. I can tell you
without a doubt he had to work VERY hard in the opening and come up
with some creative lines in order to even reach a potentially winning
position in each of those games. That's how ICCF is played now.
I myself only play on ICCF because I love being able to outsmart my

opponent in the opening in spite of them having likely powerful hardware.
My computer itself is just a standard desktop from 8 years ago, yet I was
able to make USA CC Champion, Senior IM, and 2500+ rating from it,
and that's all because of the hard work approach I take to analysing the
game and opening research. This is why I feel ICCF accomplishments are
unfairly judged when uninformed/inexperienced non-members read press
releases about these events and then make overly negative or ignorant
comments about it "just being a bunch of engine versus engine play". It's
a lot harder than you think, and even the draws that are predominant now
typically had a lot of hard work put into them. Unfortunately an outsider
would never know this, because all they see at a glance is 1/2 - 1/2 on the
cross-table report.
With that all said, the draw issue has made advancing to the upper title
ranks much more difficult than it used to be in the past. In 2015, there
were only 3 people in the world that made the rank of GM on ICCF. The
ICCF staff is looking into this issue to see about changing the
requirements and/or awarding GM titles for winning higher-rated events
instead of the title being based on purely a rating performance. I will point
out that both my Senior IM norms were earned in quite the opposite
situation, where the performance requirement was increased instead of
decreased, making my title more a "Super Senior IM" rank as I jokingly
refer to it. It's quite likely they will lower the requirement back down due to
the GM issue, effectively making the window where I earned my Senior
IM title a uniquely difficult time to have done so on ICCF.
With regard to the number of draws issue, you may recall ICCF GM Arno
Nickel wrote an article on Chessbase detailing his proposal of changing
the draw rules to award the side with more material for example. Most
ICCF members disapproved of the proposed rule changes, though agreed

something should be done eventually to make the game more double-
edged and beyond the scope of traditional chess software. I will say that if
it comes to a point where I cannot progress any further due to the draw
issue, I will retire from ICCF, having already proved with my ancient
computer that it isn't about spending $10,000 on a 32-core CPU beast in
order to win championships and titles. It's all still about what YOU do, not
about what your computer's benchmarks are.
The Editor adds:

Notice that SIM Wolff Morrow has not held back his engine-play secrets.
It will be interesting to see what Om Prakash and P.B.Dhanish have to
say about this article.
AICCF is one among few national federations to allow use of engines
in their domestic games. Many national federations disallow engine use in
their games. However in AICCF we took a stand, quite early, to follow
ICCF and allow use of engines. (Some members are interested in
engineless play and in future we may start some tournaments where
players take a pledge not to use engines).
An Entertainer from
Shams Khan
The first game to conclude on the
new Afro-Asian Server was:
Joubert, Hennie - Khan, Shams
AA Server 4007
1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Nf6 3.Nf3 Nxd5 4.d4
Bf5 5.c4 Nb4 6.Na3 e6 7.Bd2 N8c6
8.Be2 Nxd4 9.Nxd4 Qxd4 10.O-O
Qxb2 11.Bxb4 Bxb4 12.Nb5 Rd8
13.Nxc7+ Ke7 14.Qa4 Rd7 15.Nb5
a5 16.Bf3 Bc2 0-1
AICCF Team Tournaments

Results as on 20-09-2015
Youngsters vs. Seniors 2015 (T001)
Start Date: 28.03.2015
Board Youngsters A vs. B B vs. A Seniors
1 Vibhor Gupta 0-1 ½-½ K.V.S.Sastry
2 Om Prakash ½-½ ½-½ Alok Saxena
3 Vaibhav Saxena 1-0 ½-½ K.Prabhanandan
4 Arghyadip Das ½-½ ½-½ Gautam De
5 Deep Sengupta ½-½ ½-½ Kalapi B. Trivedi
6 Sailesh Chandra ½-½ ½-½ A.Chatterjee
7 Sethuraman 0-1 1-0 Anil Anand
8 Amit Dutta ½-½ ½-½ Mohan Turaga
9 Aayush Somani ½-½ Aniruddha Dutta Gupta
10 Sekhar Atteri ½-½ ½-½ Shams Khan
Total 8.5 10.5 Total
The Seniors Team leads 10.5 – 8.5 and will be the winners as there is
only 1 game remaining
Team Leagues 2016 (T002-T007)

Start Date: 18.03.2016
Rohan Team: Alok Saxena, Rohan Saxena, Shams Khan, Mamta Bisht,
Dr A.Nagaraj
Shyam Team: A.Chatterjee, Shyam Challapally, Rakesh Agrawal,
T.Chandran, B.S.Dutt
Ankur Team: T.Pavan Kumar, Ankur Singh, Satyajit Das, Amit Kumar
Sharma, V.K.Chaurasia
Umesh Team: Aniruddha Dutta Gupta, Anil Anand, Umesh P. Nair, Jatin
Deshpande, Yellapu Pandavakrishna
Rohan T. Shyam T. Ankur T. Umesh T. Total %

Rohan Team 2.5 / 9 3/5 3.5 / 6 9 / 20 45
Shyam Team 6.5 / 9 3/6 2/6 11.5 / 21 54.8
Ankur Team 2/5 3/6 1.5 / 5 6.5 / 16 40.6
Umesh Team 2.5 / 6 4/6 3.5 /5 10 / 17 58.8
Umesh Nair creates E-books

Member Umesh Nair has taken the initiative to create tournament books
with cross tables, games and notes. Anil Anand has been helping with
this. Umesh has done a wonderful job with Latex typesetting.
AICCF Team League Championship 2016
http://www.usvishakh.net/umesh/chess/aiccf/aiccf-team-leagues-2016.pdf
AICCF Youngsters vs Seniors 2015
http://www.usvishakh.net/umesh/chess/aiccf/aiccf-youngsters-vs-seniors.pdf
Friendly ICCF matches played by AICCF teams
http://www.usvishakh.net/umesh/chess/aiccf/iccf-friendly-matches.pdf
Sample page from Umesh’s books

Gautam De is Champion again

AICCF Championship 1513
Cross table as on 20-09-2016:
No Name 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Total
1 Gautam De 1 0 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ 1 1 1 1 1 10.5
2 Om Prakash 0 1 ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 10
3 K.V.S.Sastry 1 0 ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 1 1 1 ½ ½ ½ 9.5
4 R.K. Chauhan 0 ½½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 1 1 8(1)
5 Smt. Rashmi S. Somani ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 1 8(1)
6 Kalapi B. Trivedi ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 1 8.5
7 Sailesh Chandra 0 1 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 ½ 1 1 8.5
8 Mohan Jayaraman ½½½½½½½ ½1 ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 8
9 Aayush Somani ½ 0 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 1 7.5
10 Aniruddha Dutta Gupta ½ 0 0 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ 1 1 1 6.5
11 Vibhor Gupta 0 0 0 ½½½0 ½½½ ½½1 5(1)
12 Anil Anand 0 0 0 ½½0 0 ½0 ½½ 1 ½1 5
13 Saurabh Das 0 0 ½0 0 ½½0 ½0 ½ 0 ½ ½ 3.5
14 Aleemuddin 0 0 ½0 0 0 0 ½0 0 0 ½½ ½ 2.5
15 Rakesh Agrawal 0 0 ½0 0 0 0 ½0 0 0 ½½ 2(1)
(Numbers in brackets indicate pending games)
Gautam De Om Prakash K.V.S.Sastry

st nd rd
1 Prize (Rs. 5,000/-) 2 Prize (Rs. 3,000/-) 3 Prize (Rs. 2,000/-)
There are two pending games R.K.Chauhan – Rashmi Somani (63

moves) and Rakesh Agrawal – Vibhor Gupta (57 moves).
Kalapi Trivedi leads

Cross table as on 20-09-2016:
No Name 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 Total %
1 Kalapi B. Trivedi ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 1 1 8.5 70.8
2 Anil Anand ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1
½ 1 1 7.5 62.5
3 Arghyadip Das ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ ½
½ 1 1 7.5 62.5
4 Sailesh Chandra ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½½ 1 1 5.5 61.1
5 Amit Dutta ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 5.5 61.1
6 Om Prakash ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 5.5 61.1
7 Ramesh ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 1 8 57.1
8 R.K. Chauhan 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 5 55.6
9 Mohan Jayaraman ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 5.5 55.0
10 Rakesh Agrawal 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 3 50.0
11 Gautam De ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 1 4 50.0
12 Aniruddha Dutta Gupta 0 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 1 5 50.0
13 Ankur Singh ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 5 45.5
14 T.Chandran 0 0 0 0 0 0 ½ 0 1 1.5 16.7
15 Vibhor Gupta 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
77 games out of a total of 105 games have been completed as of 20-09-

2016. The best performance so far is that of Kalapi Trivedi with a score of
8.5 with 2 games pending (Om Prakash and Gautam De). Anil Anand and
Arghyadip Das are in the second-third spots with 7.5 from 12 games.
Sailesh Chandra, Amit Dutta and Om Prakash are next with 5.5 from 9
games. Kalapi Trivedi, Anil Anand and Arghyadip Das have the best
chances to be among the prize winners. Vibhor Gupta does not find the
time to play and has forfeited all his games. Among new comers, Ankur
Singh has possibilities to improve his position from his remaining 3
games.

th
The 1515 championship has been announced. Entries close on 24
September 2016. The championship will start in October 2016.
GAMES SECTION
Games Editor, Mohan Jayaraman
mohanjaym@gmail.com
In the following game G.M.

P.B.Dhanish is victorious over the
ICCF World Champion!
(W) Dhanish, P. B.
(B) Ljubicic, Ing. Leonardo
Shabla20 (BUL)
D46: Semi-Slav
Notes by Dhanosh, P.B.
GM Ljubicic, Ing. Leonardo of

Croatia is the winner of the World
Championship 28 Final
www.iccf.com/event?id=37632. He
has spoken in detail about his win
in a series of interviews with Novelty? The ICCF database has
Chessbase: only 13...c5, but I found b4 in some
en.chessbase.com/post/a-30- engine books.
month-tournament and 14.e5 bxc3 15.exf6 Nxf6 16.g3
http://en.chessbase.com/post/bette cxb2 17.Qxb2 Bxg3 18.fxg3
r-than-an-engine-leonardo-ljubicic- Qxg3
1-2. Herein he says "I think we are Black has four pawns for the piece,
indeed getting closer to the point but the queen is exposed and the
when chess is solved (at least in White pieces are pointed at the
today's top correspondence Black king. Of course, the White
chess)" only to lose this game! King is also exposed.
19.Rf3 Qh4+ 20.Kg2 e5 21.dxe5
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 Nh5 22.Qc2 Qg4+ 23.Kf1 g6
e6 5.e3 Nbd7 6.Qc2 Bd6 7.Bd3 24.Qc4 Ng3+ 25.Kf2 Nxe2 26.Ne4
O-O 8.O-O dxc4 9.Bxc4 b5 Qg1+ 27.Kxe2 Qh2+ 28.Ke3
10.Be2 a6 11.Ng5 Qc7 12.e4 Qh6+ 29.Kd4 Qh2 30.Kc3 Qxe5+
Bxh2+ 13.Kh1 b4 31.Qd4 Qxd4+ 32.Kxd4
Alok Saxena - Arghyadip Das

AICCF 4469
B97: Najdorf Poisoned Pawn
Notes by Arghyadip Das
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4
4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 e6
7.f4 Qb6
It was one of my first games in
AICCF and I wanted to try this as I
could not find any advantage with
White.
8.Nb3
Avoiding the sharp battle with
sacrifing the b2 pawn.
8…Be7 9.Qf3 Nbd7 10.O-O-O
With the exchange of queens, the Qc7 11.g4
position has clarified. White's Another important variation is
active pieces will be used to wreak 11.Bd3 b5 12.Rhe1 Bb7 with lots
havoc on the pawns. of games. However Black has no
32…Rd8+ 33.Kc5 Bf5 34.Nf6+ problems. One of the important
Kg7 35.Bg5! games here is Kamsky-Topalov
White does not allow simplification, Sofia 2006 13.Qh3 b4 14.Nb1 e5!
maintaining the stranglehold on 15.N1d2 a5 16.Kb1 a4 17.Nc1 O-O
Black 18.Ne2 Rfc8 19.Ng3 g6! 20.Nc4
35…Be6 36.Rh1 h5 37.Rg1 Bg4 Ba6 21.b3 axb3 22.cxb3 Nc5
38.Rfg3 a5 39.a4 Rab8 40.Bh4 23.Ne2 Nfxe4 24.Bxe7 Qxe7
Be2 41.Re1 Rd2 42.Rg2 Rc2+ 25.Bxe4 Nxe4 26.Nb6 Qa7!
43.Kd6 Rc4 44.Nd7 Rd4+ 45.Kc7 27.Nxa8 Rxa8 28.a4 Bxe2 29.Rc1
Rxh4 46.Kxb8 Rb4+ 47.Ka7 Bc4 Qf2 0-1 Kamsky,G (2671)-
48.Nb6 Bd3 49.Re5 f5 50.Nd7 Topalov,V (2804)/Sofia 2006/CBM
Black resigned. Modern 113/[Ftacnik,L]
Correspondence Chess is like that, 11...b5 12.Bxf6 Nxf6 13.g5 Nd7
you make a seemingly small 14.a3 Rb8 15.h4 b4 16.axb4 Rxb4
mistake in the opening and you are Black is fine here. White did not
lost. You can download the PGN get any advantage from the
of the game from here: opening.
https://www.iccf.com/game?id=644 17.Na2 Ra4
882. That was my only win in this
tournament in which I am currently
in the third place:
1-0
24.fxe6 dxe4 25.exf7+ Rxf7 26.Bh3

with initiative
22.Nb3 O-O 23.h5
23.f5 Ne5 24.Qf4 exf5 25.Qxf5
Rb8 =+
23...Qb4 24.h6?!
24.Bd3 Nc5 25.Nxc5 Qxc5 26.Qg3
Rb8 with attack
24.g6?! Bf6 25.h6 hxg6 26.hxg7
Bxg7 27.Qh3 Rb8 -+
24...g6 25.Qe3 Nc5
25...Qb6 26.Qxb6 Nxb6 27.Na5
Ba8 28.Bxa6 d5 unclear
25...Rb8 26.Bd3 (26.Qa7? Bxe4
27.Nxe4 Qxe4 -/+) 26...Bc8
Untill this moment I was following (26...Bc6 27.Bxa6 (27.Qa7 Qb7
Topalov-Kasparov 1997 however I 28.Qxb7 Bxb7 29.Be2 f6 30.Nd4
thought Ra4 was better than Rb6. fxg5 31.fxg5 Nc5 32.Bc4 Bxg5
[17...Rb6 18.Qc3 Qxc3 19.Nxc3 h6 33.Nxe6 Nxe6 34.Bxe6+ Kh8
20.Be2 Bb7 21.Na5 Ba8 22.Nc4 35.Ka2 Bf6 =+) 27...Nc5 28.Qd4
Rc6 23.Kb1 Nb6 24.b3 Nxc4 Qxd4 29.Nxd4 Ba8 30.Bc4
25.Bxc4 Rc5 26.Kb2 a5 27.Bd3 (30.Bd3) 30...Nxe4 -/+) 27.Rd1
Bc6 28.Na4 Bxa4 29.bxa4 1/2-1/2 Nc5 28.Na2 Qb6 29.Bc4 Bf8
Topalov,V (2725) -Kasparov,G unclear
(2795)/Novgorod 1997/CBM 060] 26.Nxc5 dxc5 27.Rh3 Rd8 28.Be2
18.Kb1 Novelty Kf8
18.Qc3 Qxc3 19.Nxc3 Rb4 20.Bg2
(20.Na5 Nc5 21.Nc6 Rb6 22.Na5
Rb4 =) 20...Bb7 21.Kb1 (21.Na2
Ra4 22.Nc3 Rb4 =) 21...Ba8
22.Rhe1 h6 unclear Primakov, V
(2251)-Bancevich,S ICCF 2008
18...Bb7 19.Nc3 Rb4 20.Rd4
20.f5!? exf5 (20...Ne5 21.Qh3 exf5
22.exf5! Bxh1 23.Qxh1 Qd7 24.f6!
with initiative) 21.Qxf5 Ne5 22.h5
(22.Nd5 Bxd5 23.exd5 Qb7 =+)
22...O-O 23.g6 Kh8! And Black is
more than fine
20...Rxd4 21.Nxd4 Qb6
21...O-O?! 22.f5 Ne5 23.Qe3 d5
(23...exf5 24.Nxf5 Re8 25.Qa7!
Ra8 26.Nxe7+ Qxe7 27.Qb6 +/-)
Prophylactic move...to avoid all 41...Bd7 42.Nb6 Rxc5 43.Nxd7

kind of checks by the white pawn Kxd7 44.Kb3 Ke7 45.Bxa6 Rc3+
f7 46.Kb4 Rxc2
Computer suggests 28...Bc6 29.f5 Black should be better as White's
Qd4 30.fxe6 Qxe3 31.exf7+ Kxf7 pawns are weak and White's King
32.Rxe3 Bxg5 33.Rh3 Ke6 is also not safe.
34.Bxa6 Ke5 =+ 47.Bc4 Bd4 48.Rd1 Rb2+ 49.Ka5
29.f5 Qd4 30.fxg6 Qxe3 31.Rxe3 Bc3+ 50.Ka6 Rb8
fxg6 50...Rd2!? 51.Rb1 Rd6+ 52.Kb5
Rd7 53.Rf1 Bd4 =+
51.Rd3 Bb2 52.Bb5 Ra8+ 53.Kb6
Rd8 54.Rb3 Rd2 55.Kc5 Be5
56.Bc4 Rb2 57.Rf3 Rb7 58.Rf2
58.Bb5 Bd6+ 59.Kc4 Rc7+ 60.Kd4
Rc5 61.Rb3 Rxg5 62.Ba4 Rc5
63.Rb6 Rc7 64.Ra6 Bh2 65.Bb3
Rd7+ 66.Ke3 Bg1+ -/+
58...Rc7+ 59.Kb4 Bd4 60.Ra2
Rb7+ 61.Bb5 Kd6 62.Rg2 Be3
63.Rg4 Ke5 64.Kc4 Bf4 65.Ba4
Rb2 -/+ 66.Kc3
66.Kd3 Rd2+ 67.Kc3 Re2 68.Bc6
Re1 69.Kd3 Rh1 70.Rg2 Rd1+
71.Ke2 Rd2+ 72.Kf3 Rxg2 73.Kxg2
Bxg5 74.Be8 Bxh6 -/+
Endgame should be slightly better 66...Rh2 67.Bb3
for black as white's e4, g5 and h6 67.Bd7 Bd2+ 68.Kd3 Bc1 69.Bc8
pawn will be weak and Black has a Rh5 -/+
pair of Bishops. 67...Bc1
32.Rf3+ 67...Rh3+ 68.Kb2 Be3 69.Rg2 Rh5
32.Rg3 Bd6 33.Rg4 Ke7 =+ 70.Kc2
32...Ke8 33.Bc4 Bc8 68.Kc4 Rh5 69.Rg2
33...Bxg5?! 34.Bxe6 Ke7 35.Bc4 69.Rg1 Be3 70.Ra1 Bxg5 71.Ra6
Rf8 36.Rd3 unclear Bxh6 72.Kd3 Rh3+ 73.Kc2 Bf4
34.Rg3 Rd4 35.b3 Bd6 36.Rg1 74.Rxe6+ Kd4 75.Bd5 -+
Ke7 37.Bd3 Be5 38.Na4 c4! 69...Kxe4 70.Kc5
38...Rd8 39.Nb6 Bb7 40.Nc4 =+ 70.Kc3 Bxg5 71.Bxe6 Bxh6 72.Bg8
Black is better but I did not want to Kf5 73.Bc4 Bg7+ 74.Kd3 Rh3+
give the c4 square to Knight. 75.Ke2 Be5 -/+
39.bxc4 70...Bxg5 71.Kd6 e5 72.Bd1 Rh1
A better option maybe 39.Bxc4 73.Bc2+ Kf4 74.Re2
Rxe4 40.Bd3 Rd4 41.Nc5 Rd5 74.Rf2+ Kg3 (74...Ke3 75.Rf7 Rh2
39...Rd7 40.Ka2 Rc7 41.c5 76.Bb1 e4 -+) 75.Re2 Bf4 76.Be4
41.Kb3 Bd7 42.Rf1 Be8 =+
Ra1 77.Rg2+ Kh4 78.Rb2 Kg5 9.O-O-O Qc7 10.Qg3 Nh5

79.Rb7 Kxh6 80.Rf7 Ra6+ -+ Better is Nbd7
74...Rc1 75.Ke6 11.Qh4 Nf6
75.Re4+ Kf3 -+ The only game in my database is:
75...Bxh6 76.Bd3 Rc3 77.Bb1 11...Bxg5 12.Qxg5 g6 13.f5 Qd8
Rc6+ 78.Kd5 14.Qg4 Re8 15.Bc4 Nf6 16.Qf3 e5
78.Kf7 Rb6 79.Be4 Rb4 won by White.Carvell-Travis(CAN),
78...Rc1 79.Bd3 Troy, 1993(1-0)
79.Re4+ Kg3 80.Rb4 Bd2 81.Rb6 12.Rd3
Bf4 82.Rb3+ Kg4 83.Bd3 Rd1
84.Kc4 Ra1 85.Kc5 Ra7 -+
79...Rd1 80.Kc4 Bg7 81.Re4+
81.Rh2 h5 82.Bxg6 h4
81.Rf2+ Ke3 82.Re2+ Kf3 -+
83.Rh2 h5 84.Bxg6 Rd4+ 85.Kb3
h4 86.Be8 Bf6 87.Rh1 Rd6 88.Kb4
Kg2 89.Rc1 Rd4+ 90.Kc5 Be7+ -+
81...Kf3 82.Rh4 Bf6 83.Rxh7 e4
84.Bc2 (84.Rf7 Rc1+)
84...Rd4+ 85.Kb3
85.Kc5 e3 86.Rh3+ (86.Rf7 Rf4
87.Bxg6 e2 88.Bh5+ Ke4 89.Bxe2
Bd4+ -+) 86...Kf4 87.Bxg6 e2
88.Rh1 Rd1 -+
85...g5 86.Rf7
86.Rh3+ Kf2 87.Rh2+ Kg3 88.Rh1 The idea of Rd3-g3-Bd3 appealed
e3 -+ to me which would give rise to a
86...Rd6 87.Kb4 e3 88.Kc5 Re6 strong attack, but surprisingly it
89.Kd5 e2 was not easily visible to engines
89...Rb6 90.Kc5 e2 91.Kxb6 e1=Q until much later.
92.Rxf6+ Kg2 93.Rf5 g4 94.Ba4 12.Qg3 was an alternative.
Qb4+ 95.Bb5 g3 96.Ka7 Qe7+ 12...Nbd7 13.Rg3 Bd8 14.Bd3
97.Kb6 Kh3 98.Bc6 g2 99.Bxg2+ Re8 15.Re1 Qb8 16.Kb1 Qa7
Kxg2 -+ 17.e5 Qxd4 18.exf6 Nxf6 19.Rd1
90.Kxe6 e1=Q+ 91.Kxf6 g4 0-1 Instead of the text, 19.Bxh7+ Nxh7
20.Bxd8 e5 21.Bf6 Nxf6 22.Qxf6
Anand,Anil Kumar - Chandran,T. g6 23.Ne4 Bf5 24.Qxf5 exf4
AICCF Championship 1514 25.Qxf4 Qe5 26.Qf2 coming a
B98 Najdorf Browne Variation piece ahead was also playable.
Notes by Anand, Anil Kumar 19...Kf8
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 Rest of the game is a nightmare for
4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 e6 the defending side due to
7.f4 Be7 8.Qf3 O-O undeveloped Q-side pieces.
Here Nbd7 or h6 is preferable.
20.Bxh7 Qb6 21.Bd3 Ng8 22.Qh8

Bxg5 23.Rxg5 Ke7 24.Rxg7 Bd7
25.Qh4+ Nf6 26.Bg6 Rf8 27.Ne4
Kd8 28.Nxf6 Kc7 29.Nxd7 Kxd7
30.Bxf7 1-0
(W) Anand, Anil Kumar

(B) Gupta, Vibhor
D17 Slav Smyslov/Czech,
Krause attack
Notes by Anand, Anil Kumar
1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.Nf3 c6 4.a4

Nf6 5.Nc3 Na6 6.e3
MCO gives: 6.e4 Bg4 7.Bxc4 e6 Lesser evil would be 11...Nd7
8.Be3 Be7 9.O-O Nb4 10.Be2 O-O 12.Be3 Bxe5 13.dxe5 Nxe5
11.h3 Bh5 12.Ne5 Bxe2 13.Qxe2 14.Rad1 Qe7 15.Bb3 Nd7 16.f4 O-
Nd7 14.Nc4 Qc7 15.Rac1 Rad8 O-O
16.Rfd1 += Razuvayev-Plachetka, 12.h3 Bxe5 13.dxe5 Qxe5 14.f4
Kaszthely, 1981 Qc7 15.f5 Bh5 16.Qf2!
6...Nb4 7.Bxc4 Bf5 8.O-O e6 Avoids complications though
9.Ne5 16.g4 Bxg4 17.hxg4 Qg3+ 18.Qg2
Instead of the text, 9.Qe2 Be7 Qxg2+ 19.Kxg2 Nc2 20.fxe6 fxe6
10.Rd1 O-O 11.e4 Bg4 12.Bb3 21.Bxe6 Nxa1 22.e5 Nxg4 23.Bxg4
Qa5 13.h3 Bxf3 14.Qxf3 Rad8 also wins
15.Be3 Rd7 16.g4 Rfd8 17.g5 Ne8 16...e5 17.a5 Qd7 18.Be3 Nd3
18.h4 c5 19.d5 e5 20.h5 Bd6 led 19.Qg3 Nxb2 20.Qxe5+ Qe7
to a dangerous attack in Fine- 21.Qxe7+ Kxe7 22.Bc5+ Ke8
Horowitz,New York 1934 23.Ba2 Nd3 24.Bd4 a6 25.Rab1
9...Bd6 Rd8 26.Ba7 Ne5 27.Rxb7 Rd3
9...Bc2 10.Qe2 Nd7 11.Nxd7 Qxd7 28.Rb8+ Rd8 29.Rfb1 Nfd7
12.a5 Be7 13.Na2 Nxa2 14.Rxa2 30.Rxd8+ Kxd8 31.g4 Bxg4
Bg6 15.Rd1 O-O = Carlsen- 32.hxg4 g6 33.Na4 Re8 34.Nc5
Kramnik, Tal Memorial Blitz, Nxc5 35.Bxc5 Nd7 36.Rd1 Rxe4
Moscow 2008, 1/2-1/2. 37.Bxf7 Kc7 38.Bd6+ Kd8 39.Kf2
10.Qe2 Bg6 11.e4 Qc7? Rxg4 40.Re1
Black loses the d7 knight once it
Leads to the Bishop getting moves to 40..Nf6 to
trapped. 41.Be7+.Blackoverstepped the
time limit on 40th move.
1-0
W: Bisht, Mamta 24.Bxg4 hxg4 25.Rxg4 O-O

B: Velde, Meint van der 26.Re1 d5 27.h5 dxe4 28.h6 Rf7
India-Netherlands Match 2016 29.Reg1 Bc5 30.Nxb4 Qb6
B82: Sicilian Scheveningen 31.Qc3 e5 32.Rg6 Qxb4 33.Qxe5
Qd4 34.Rxg7+ Rxg7 35.Rxg7+
Mamta Bisht writes: "My game Rxg7 36.Qe8+ Kh7 37.hxg7 1-0
against Velde in the match against
Netherlands was quite thrilling. I (W) Chauhan, Rakesh Kumar
think his opening was not great, (B) De, Gautam
perhaps he chose this line AICCF Championship 1513
considering me to be a new player. C45: Scotch Game
7...Qb6 was a weak move and
when he played 8...Nbd7 it raised 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4
hopes of my winning the game. As 4.Nxd4 Bb4+ 5.c3 Bc5 6.Nxc6
soon as he played 9...h6 I decided bxc6 7.Bd3 Qh4 8.Qe2
that I would attack on the King side 8.Qf3 Nf6 9.h3 O-O 10.g3 Qh5
creating weaknesses. And it went 11.g4 Qh4 12.Bf4 d5 13.Nd2 Re8
that way in the game. He fell into 14.O-O-O Qxf2 15.Qxf2 Bxf2
my trap and I got an easy win." 16.Bxc7 h5 17.e5 Nd7 18.Nf3 hxg4
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 19.hxg4 Nf8 20.Bf5 g6 21.Bxc8
4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.f4 e6 Raxc8 22.Bd6 Nd7 Romanov,E
7.Qf3 Qb6 8.Nb3 Nbd7 9.g4 h6 (2515)-Kaplan,S (2466)/Yerevan
10.Bd2 Qc7 11.h4 h5 12.g5 Ng4 2007/CBM 120 ext/1/2-1/2 (56)
13.O-O-O Nc5 14.Nxc5 Qxc5 8...Nf6 9.h3 d6 Novelty
15.Bh3 b5 9...O-O 10.g3 Qh5 11.g4 Qe5
12.g5 Nxe4 (12...Ne8 13.f4 Qe7
14.Nd2 d5 15.e5 g6 16.Nf1 Ng7
17.Ng3 Rb8 18.h4 a5 19.h5 Ba7
20.Qh2 Ne6 21.hxg6 fxg6 22.Bxg6
Nxg5 23.fxg5 Qxe5+ 24.Ne4 Qxh2
25.Rxh2 dxe4 26.Bxh7+ Kg7 27.b3
Frisk, E-Breen,V (1998)/Stockholm
2003/CBM 095 ext/0-1 (32))
13.Bxe4 Re8 14.Bf3 Qxe2+
15.Bxe2 Ba6 16.c4 Bxc4 17.Nc3
Rab8 18.Kf1 Be6 19.b3 f6 20.gxf6
Bd4 21.Bb2 Bxf6 22.Na4 Bh4
23.Nc5 Rf8 24.Rh2 Kasparov,G
(2820)-Leko,P (2635)/ Tilburg
1997/CBM 061/1-0 (31)
9...O-O 10.Nd2 d5 +=
16.g6 Ra7 17.a3 a5 18.gxf7+ Rxf7 10.Be3 Better seems: 10.e5 +=2!?
19.Kb1 b4 20.axb4 axb4 21.Na2 Nd5 11.exd6+ Be6 12.dxc7 +=
Ra7 22.Qb3 Qc6 23.Rhg1 Be7
10...Bxe3 = 11.Qxe3 Ng4 12.Qe2 35.Rd7

Ne5 13.Nd2 Rb8 14.b4 Qg5 35.Rc8 seems to give better
15.O-O Nxd3 16.Qxd3 Bxh3 drawing chances
17.Qxh3 Qxd2 35...g5 36.g4 Ra6 37.Kg2 Ra1
Attacks the isolani on a4.
38.Rcc7 Rf6 39.Rc4 Ra2+ 40.Kg3
Rf1 41.Rdd4 Kg6 42.Rd8 Rg1+
43.Kf3 Rag2 44.a5 Rg3+ 45.Kf2
R1g2+ 46.Kf1 Ra2 47.Rd6+ Kg7
48.a6 Rgg2 49.Rd1 Rgc2 50.Re1
Rxa6 51.Re2 Rf6+ 52.Ke1 Rxe2+
53.Kxe2 Kg6 54.Rb4 h5 55.gxh5+
55.Kd2 h4 -+
55...Kxh5
This is a 7 man base win
(Lomonosov) for Black.
56.c4 g4 57.Rb1 Kh4 58.Rc1 g3
With this win Gautam De won the
Black has won a pawn though st
Championship for the 1 time. Anil
winning the game is far from easy. Anand: Perhaps Kalapi Trivedi was
18.Rad1 Qf4 19.Rd4 most unlucky to be not among title
19.Rfe1 O-O = contenders despite having not lost
19...Qe5 20.a4 O-O 21.Rc4 Qe8 a single game in the tournament!
22.Qf5 Rb6 23.Rd1 g6 24.Qf6 a5 0-1
25.bxa5 Ra6 26.e5 Qxe5 27.Qxe5
dxe5 28.Rd7 Prakash, Om - Johansson, Mats
28.Rc5 Rfa8 =+ India-Sweden Match 2015
28...Rfa8 =+ 29.f4 Rxa5 30.fxe5 B90: Sicilian Najdorf: 6 Be3 e5
Rxe5 31.Rxc7 Re1+ 32.Kh2 Rf1
33.R7xc6 Kg7 34.Rc7 h6 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4
4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 e5
7.Nb3 Be6 8.h3 Be7 9.f4 exf4
10.Bxf4 Nc6
10...O-O 11.Qe2 =
11.Qe2 Nd7 12.O-O-O Nce5
12...O-O 13.Bxd6 Bxd6 14.Rxd6 =
13.Kb1 O-O 14.g4
14.Nd4 Re8 =
14...Rc8 15.Qe3 Re8
15...Qc7 16.Nd4 +=
16.Nd4 Qa5
16...h6 17.Nf5 +=
17.a3 += Bf8 18.g5 Nc4? Novelty
24.g5 hxg5 25.hxg5 cxd4

26.Bxd4 Nh7 27.Bxb6 d5 28.Qc1
28.e5 Bxe5 29.fxe5 Nxg5 =
28...Nxg5 29.Bg2 f5 30.exd5 exd5
31.cxd5 Qd6 32.Bd4 Nh7 33.Kg1
Nf6 34.Be5 Qb6+ 35.Bd4 Qd8
36.Bf3?
Appears to be a novelty, but of the

dubious type.
18...b5 19.Nxe6 fxe6 20.h4 +=
19.Bxc4 Rxc4 20.Nxe6 Rxe6
21.Qf3 Nc5
Somewhat better seems to be
21...Rxc3 22.Qxc3 Qxc3 23.bxc3+=
22.Bd2 +/- Nd7 36.Ng3!? =+ is an interesting
Another alternative is (though it alternative
also does not offer better hope) is 36...Ne4 -+ 37.Rb2 Qh4 38.Bxe4
22...Qd8 23.Rhf1 Qe8 24.b3 fxe4 39.Qe3 Nxd5 40.Nxd5 Rxd5
Rcxe4 25.Nxe4 Nxe4 26.h4 +/- 41.Rbd2 Red8 42.Kf1 (42.b4 g5
23.h4 Ne5 24.Qg2 Qc5 25.Rh3 43.Kf1 gxf4 44.Nxf4 Rf5 -+)
Qc6 26.h5 b5 27.Nd5 +- Rxc2 42...Bc8 43.Kg2 Bg4 44.Bxg7
28.Nb4 Rxd2 29.Rxd2 Qb7 Bf3+ 45.Kf1 Qh1+ 46.Ng1 Bxd1
30.Nd5 Nc4 31.Rc2 Qc8 32.g6! 47.Rxd5 Rxd5 48.Bd4 Bc2
fxg6 33.Rf3 Be7 34.Qg4 1-0 49.Qc3 Bd3+ 50.Ke1 Qh4+ 51.Bf2
Qxf4 0-1
(W) Gupta, Aniruddha Dutta
(B) Anand, Anil Kumar (W) Gupta, Aniruddha Dutta
AICCF Championship 1514 (B) De, Gautam
A36: Symmetrical English AICCF Championship 1514
1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 g6 3.g3 Bg7 A40: Owen’s Defence/English
4.Bg2 O-O 5.e4 c5 6.Nge2 Nc6 Notes by Gupta, Aniruddha Dutta
7.d3 d6 8.O-O a6 9.h3 Rb8 10.a4 1.c4 b6 2.d4 e6 3.e4 Bb7 4.Bd3!?
Bd7 11.Be3 Qc8 12.Kh2 b6 +=6 With this move un-defending the
13.f4 e6 14.b3 Rd8 15.Ra2 Nb4 g2 pawn, white invites Black to
16.Rd2 Bc6 17.d4 Qc7 18.Qc1 accompany him on a journey into a
Rd7 19.Rfd1 Rbd8 20.Bf3 Bb7 very sharp theoretical variation
21.Qb1 Qb8 22.g4 h6 23.h4 Re8 regarded as crucial to the
assessment of the whole English troubles. In most of the games in

Defence. As the Welsh sage my database Black players played
Howard Williams once remarked 11....Nc6. However % of White
"The trouble with playing sharp wins is very high in this position.
opening variation is that, you The stem game of this crazy
sometimes cut yourself..." variation is 11...Nc6 12.Nf4!? and
4…f5!? 5.exf5!? I had decided to scored a crushing victory after Kf7
play a rook sacrifice introduced by 13.Bg6+ Ke7 14.Nh5 Qf8 15.Nd2
GM Walter Browne. After a forcing e5 16.O-O-O Nxd4 17.Rxh1 Ne6
sequence, this will result in a 18.f4! d6 19.Ne4 Nxg5 20.Qxg5
position which is presumably either Bh6 21.Qh4 Bg7 22.fxe5 dxe5
lost by Black, or else lost by White, 23.Rf1 Kd7 24.Nexf6+ Bxf6
but nobody can tell which. I knew 25.Nxf6+ Kc8 26.Be4 c6 27.Qh3+
Gautam De may have a Kb7 28.Bxc6+ 1-0 Browne,W-
homemade preparation for this line Miles,A/Tilburg 1978/MCL
but I took up the challenge. (28.Bxc6+ Kxc6 29.Qd7+ Kc5
5…Bxg2 6.Qh5+ g6 7.fxg6 Bg7 30.Qd5+ Kb4 31.Qb5#)
8.gxh7+ Kf8 9.Bg5 12.Nf4 +-
9.hxg8=Q+?! is not good enough After 11.Bf3 12 Nf4 I felt I had a
for White in view of Kxg8 10.Qg4 winning advantage.
Bxh1 11.Bg5 Qe8 12.Bf6 Qf7 12…Nc6 13.Nd2 Bg4 14.Bxf6
13.Be5 Nc6 14.Bg6 Qe7 with Qxf6 15.Qxg4 Nxd4 16.Ne4 Qh6
advantage,so instead of sacrificing 17.Ng6+ Kf7 18.h4 Raf8 19.Ng5+
a measly exchange, I had decided Ke8 20.Qg2 Nc6 21.O-O-O Rf6
to immolate a whole rook. 22.Nxh8 Bxh8 23.Qg3 e5 24.Kb1
9...Nf6 10.Qh4 Bxh1 11.Ne2 Rf8 25.Ne4 Kd8 26.Qg5+ Qxg5
Bf3?? 27.hxg5 Nd4 28.g6 Ne6 29.Rg1
Ke7 30.Kc2 c6 31.Kd1 a5 32.c5!
bxc5
32…bxc5 33.Nxc5 Nxc5 34.g7
32...Nxc5 33.g7
33.Nxc5! Bg7 33...Nxc5 34.g7
34.Nxe6 Kxe6 35.Ke2 d5 36.f3 c5
37.b3 Kf6 38.Rg4 Re8 39.Bc2
Ra8 40.a3 (40.Rh4 +- keeps an
even firmer grip)
40...d4? (40...Bh8 +-)
41.f4
41.Rh4 seems even better Kg5
42.Rh1 Rh8 +-
41...Re8 42.fxe5+ Rxe5+ 43.Kf2
1-0
A new move, may be a Novelty but
I feel this move is the root of all
News
P.B.Dhanish and Om
Prakash in Italian CC
Year Book
The Italian CC Federation, ASIGC
publishes a book every year. The book for
2015-2016 carries two articles featuring
Indian players:
PB Dhanish - the first Indian to get the title of GM ICCF

ASIGC Year Book, page 68
Om Prakash - 11th Indian Champion, ASIGC Year Book, page 105

ICCF Zone 4 News

AA Server Started
Zonal Director, Sailesh Chandra
Deputy Zonal Director, Ambar Chatterjee
A
s promised in the election manifest for Sailesh Chandra as Director
th
ICCF Zone 4, we started the free Afro Asian Zone server from 16
July 2016. Till date we have 73 registered users from Algeria,
Angola, Australia, Bangladesh, China, Cape Verde, Egypt, Gabon,
Indonesia, India, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Libya, Malaysia, Mauritius,
Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestine, Philippines, Republic of South Africa, Sri
Lanka, Tunisia and Turkmenistan.
To register on this server, go to http://www.aa-webchess.com/server

and click Register Now. Players from India are welcome, but you must
already be a member of AICCF and its International Section.
 Players can play free unlimited games to get used to CC before

playing on ICCF server where fees are charged. Some nations
have banking and/or Pay Pal restrictions making it difficult to send
fees to ICCF.
 For countries who would like to start a National Federation, this
site is a starting point to bring together like-minded players.
 Countries without their own server can conduct national events
here.
International Section
Dr. Alok Saxena
<aloks279@gmail.com>
ICCF NEWS 2015

(After Cardiff Congress 2015 and before Bremen Congress 2016)
 For the first time in the ICCF history, a player survey has been
conducted beginning of 2014 and the results have demonstrated
that a large majority of players are satisfied with the services
provided by ICCF.
 The ICCF statutes have been modernized; ICCF has been
officially registered in Switzerland; and has opened a working
office in France to comply with the non-profit status of ICCF.
 The server has been globalized and is now available in many
languages (globalization effort). Games can be played on many
modern devices including tablets and smartphones.
 The games played on the server start to benefit from the modern
technologies that are now available (automation of Tournament
Director Decisions, use of endgame Table Bases…).
 The server continues its development. There are now almost
than 10,000 registered correspondence chess players and the
number of webserver tournaments started every year is steadily
increasing.
 This year a new system for on-line presentation of the congress
proposals has been developed by the General Secretary and the
Services Director. An on-line voting system for the Delegates,
replacing the current proxies, is amongst the ideas for the near
future.
 26th World Champion – Langeveld, Ron A. H. (NED) received
engraved plate at last congress in Cardiff.
Several years ago the Congress approved a scheme whereby each of

the 4 Zone Directors were granted discretion to submit up to 20 entries
annually to ICCF events on behalf of players from their Zones “free of
charge” in order to promote increased activity.
Unfortunately, the response to this scheme has been poor with a total
of 10 such entries during 2013 and only 3 during 2014. In view of this
situation, Congress may now wish to reconsider its continuing support for
this scheme.
New rule: TDs are not allowed to play in tournaments they direct, and
backup TDs are not allowed to play in tournaments they might direct
except for national events, friendly matches, and unrated events.
New requirement: every TD must pass a test to demonstrate familiarity
with the new manual(s), this test to be administered on the server at the
convenience of the TD. Dr. Alok Saxena and Dr. Ambar Chatterjee have
passed this test.
The server now handles flag falls (including forfeits under playing rule
3b) automatically for all ICCF events started after 1.1.2015; additionally
certain ‘dead’ positions now trigger an automatic draw and most
deterministic claims (for example threefold repetition, tablebase claims,
etc.) are handled automatically without the need for TD intervention.
The requirement for claims to be entered by team captains in team
events has been removed from the server; all claims are now made by
players.
Appeals Committee (Other Rules): The Committee ruled on one case

since the last Congress. An application was made for an IM title for a
player who had previously earned the title, but it was not submitted by his
National Delegate (ND). He transferred his National Feeration, and the
application was submitted. The Qualifications Commissioner accepted
the nomination, but decided not to post the title immediately because the
2014 Congress rejected a special application for this title, which was
submitted by the Qualifications Commissioner (QC). The Appeals
Committee (Other ICCF Rules) unanimously voted that the application
was a new application unrelated to the 2014 special application, so
should be treated as all other title applications. The committee gave a
special salute to the QC for noticing that the player had met IM
requirements for submitting the special application.
A few notes sent to ICCF directly from players were referred to either
the proper committee or their National Delegates. Committee members
Artis Gaujens (LAT), Ing. Pablo Salcedo Mederos (CUB), and Alok
Saxena (IND). Corky Schakel, Committee Chair
Zone 4 Report by Everdinand Knol 2015

(for the report of 2016 see the next article)
The Zonal Team: Zonal Director (ZD) and Tournament Organiser (TO):
SIM Everdinand Knol of South Africa. Deputy Zonal Director (DZD) and
webmaster: Sailesh Chandra of India.
Tournament Directors (TD): Dr Ambar Chatterjee of India, Francisco

Carapinha of Cape Verde, Dr. Alok Saxena of India, SIM Dr Michael
Millstone (IA) of USA.
Website: DZD has established a website for our zone. It is small but
promising. For more information, please visit the site at
https://iccfafroasia.wordpress.com (Editor’s note: this site is now longer
being maintained. A new site will soon appear integrated with the AA
Server http://www.aa-webchess.com/server )
Tournaments:
The following tournaments were started during 2014-15. The TO for all
these events is SIM Everdinand Knol:
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16 January 2015: The 13 Africa/Asia Zonal Championship Final – TD
SIM Dr Michael Millstone (IA).
17 February 2015: The 15th Africa/Asia Zonal Championship Semi Final:
TDs: Dr Ambar Chatterjee (Section A), Francisco Carapinha (Section B),
Dr Alok Saxena (Section C)
The following tournaments are still in progress:
 17 Africa/Asia Zonal Championship Preliminary Sections A to D (TD
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Francisco Carapinha)
 The 17 Africa/Asia Zonal Championship Preliminary Sections E to H
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(TD Dr Alok Saxena)

 The 17 Africa/Asia Zonal Championship Preliminary Sections I and J
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(TD Dr Ambar Chatterjee)
The following tournaments have been completed during this year:

 12 Africa/Asia Zonal Championship Final won by GM Mark F Noble
th
from New Zealand.

 The 14 Africa/Asia Zonal Championship Semi Finals.
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 The 16 Africa/Asia Zonal Championship Preliminaries.

th
This zone intends to start the following tournaments during 2015-2016

 The 6 Africa Continental Championship.
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 The 6 Asia Continental Championship.

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The interest in the two above mentioned continental championships is not

very encouraging and the matter will receive attention.
 The 14 Africa/Asia Zonal Championship Final.
th
 The 16 Africa/Asia Zonal Championship Semi Finals.

th
 The 18 Africa/Asia Zonal Championship Preliminaries.

th
The Preliminaries of the 21st Olympiad started. 50 National Federations

entered their team. There are 5 Sections, each with 10 teams. The
Sections have been assembled in a random way, with consideration of
the strength of the teams.
Highlights:
Official start-date: September 1, 2016
TD: Sect. 1 and 2: I.A. Juan Alberto Martello (ARG); Sect. 3 and 4: I.A.
Michael Millstone (USA); Sect. 5: IA Ian A. Pheby (ENG)
6 players in each team (i.e. 300 players for a total of 1350 games)
Average ELO: from a minimum of 2364 (Sect. 1) to a maximum of 2394
(Sect. 3)
Board 1: category from IX to X; board 2: category from VII to IX; board 3:
category from VI to VII; board 4: category from IV to VI; board 5: category
from II to V; board 6: category from K to IV
32 GMs, 76 SIMs, 49 IMs, 1 LIM, 1 FIDE IM
Indian team:
Board 1: FIDE GM K.Sasikiran ICCF rating 2570/FIDE rating 2642
Board 2: FIDE GM R.B.Ramesh ICCF rating 2268/FIDE rating 2464
Board 3: FIDE IM Arghyadip Das ICCF rating - -/FIDE rating 2457
Board 4: Kumar Pavan Tumuluri ICCF rating 2353
Board 5: Om Prakash ICCF rating 2352 (CAPTAIN)
Board 6: Satyajit Das ICCF rating 2196
Krishnan Sasikiran (ICCF ID 280330) has achieved the title of ICCF

Senior International Master with ICCF rating of 2564.
Congratulations Mr. Sasikiran.
India-Scheming Mind Friendly International match

India has won this match with score-line of 32-28. Please refer
https://www.iccf.com/event?id=44900 for details.
India-Finland Friendly International match

India is maintaining the lead 23.5-16.5 in this event. FIDE GM Mr.
Sasikiran (2682) has drawn both his games on top board with GM Mr.
Auovo Kujala (2636). Please refer https://www.iccf.com/event?id=50245
for more details about this event.
One of the games from this event is given below:
(W) Arppi, Heikki (2316) 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4

(B) Chatterjee, Dr. Ambar (2251) Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 e5 7.Nb3 Be6
India – Finland Board 5 8.f3 Be7 9.Qd2 O-O 10.O-O-O
Nbd7 11.g4 b5 12.g5 b4 13.Ne2
Ne8 14.f4 a5 15.f5 Bxb3 16.cxb3
a4 17.bxa4 Rxa4 18.Kb1 Rxa2

19.Nc1 Ra8 20.Nb3 Qc7 21.Bb5
Nc5 22.Nxc5 dxc5 23.f6 gxf6
24.gxf6 Bxf6 25.Rhg1+ Kh8
26.Bh6 Qa7 27.Bc4 Bg7 28.Qd6
Rg8 29.Qc6 b3 30.Bxb3 c4
See diagram
31.Bxg7+??
This innocuous looking move loses
at once! Correct was 31. Bxc4 =
31…Rxg7 0-1
India-Wales Friendly International match

India lost this match 15.5-28.5 mainly due to default by our players
(Anindya Bhattacharya, Karthik Shetty, Saurabh Das and Dhanesh
Vijayan) as mentioned earlier in last report.
Please refer https://www.iccf.com/event?id=52532 for details.
India-Ukraine Friendly International match

th
This event started on 15 July, 2015 with a very strong team from
Ukraine. India is trailing by 12.5-28.5.
One of the games from this event is given below:
(W) Genchev, Maxim (2320)

(B) Saxena, Alok (2254)
Ukraine – India Board 7
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5

exd5 5.Bf4 Bd6 6.Bxd6 Qxd6
7.Qc2 O-O 8.e3 Nc6 9.a3 Re8
10.Be2 a6 11.h3 Ne7 12.Bd3 Ng6
13.Bxg6 hxg6 14.g4 b6 15.Nf3 Ne4
16.O-O Bb7 17.Rfc1 Rac8 18.b4
Qf6 19.Qd1 Nd6 20.Ne5 g5 21.a4
Qh6 22.Qf3 f6 23.Nd3 Qh7 24.Ne1
c5 25.bxc5 bxc5 26.Rcb1 cxd4
27.e4 Ba8 28.a5 f5 29.Rb3 f4
30.Na4 Bc6 31.Nb6 Rcd8 32.Rc1 37…Rxd4 38.Qa8+ Kh7 39.Nf3
Nc4 33.Rbc3 Bb5 34.Qg2 Qh6 Re8 40.Qxe8 Bxe8 41.Nxd4 Bf7
35.Nxc4 dxc4 36.Nf3 Re7 37.Ne5 42.Nf3 Bd5 43.Nd2 Kh8 44.Re1
Qf6 45.Rec1 Qd4 46.Nf3 Qc5
47.Nxg5 Qxa5 48.Nf3 Bb7 49.Kf1 55.Kd1 Qb4 56.Kc1 Bf7 57.f3 Kg7
Qd5 50.Ke2 a5 51.Nd2 a4 52.Ra3 0-1
Qa5 53.Ke1 Bd5 54.Rcc3 g5
Shabla20, 20 Years Harmonia – Shabla

rd
Dr. P.B.Dhanish finished 3 with 7.5/14.
th
WCCC35CT01: Dr. P.B. Dhanish has scored 3/6 and is placed 13 at
this moment. This category 11 event is organized by Tani, Gian-Maria.
USA/2015/A, 2015 USA Invitational - Section A: SIM. K. Sasikiran is

playing in this event where the First prize is US $1000. He has scored
th
6/14 with 12 place. GM David Roubaud of France has won this event.
This was a category 13 event with participation of 8 GMs, 7 SIMs and 5
IMs.
MT-Vinchev/2, Marian Vinchev Memorial 2: This tournament is organized

by BCCF with active partnership of IM Vinchev, Simeon and sponsorship
of "Balkanpharma AD" -Troyan and is category 14 event. Mr. K Sasikiran
th
has scored 5 out of 10 and is placed 8 . The event is won by GM Kamil
Stalmach of Czech Republic.
USA/VVP/A, Palciauskas Invitational Section A: Mr K, Sasikiran has

nd
scored 7.5 out 14 and is placed 2 with a prize of US $ 300. The event is
won by GM Jon Ostriker of USA.
WCCC35CT01: Mr. Om Prakash has scored 9/12 in this event and

finished on the top of the table thereby qualifying for WCCC semi-final.
CT21/pr36, World Cup 21 preliminaries 36: Mr. Om Prakash has scored

nd
7.5/9 and is placed 2 in this event at this moment.
CT21/pr64, World Cup 21 preliminaries 6: Mr. Pervez Mandviwala has

th
scored 4/6 in this event and is currently in 7 place.
th
8 Inter Zonal: Pervez Mandviwala, Om Prakash Mohanty, Mohan
Turaga, Alok Saxena are playing on Board 3, 4, 6, 7 with scores of 3.5/9,
th th th
4.5/8, 3.5/8, 3/8 and are placed 10 , 4 , 7 respectively.
5th Webchess Open Tournament Semi final 08: Mr. Pervez Mandviwala
th
has scored 7/16 and has finished with 13 place.
th
14 Africa Asia Zonal Championship Final: Mr. Mohan Turaga, Mr.
Rakesh Kumar Chauhan and Mr. T. Pavan Kumar have qualified for this
rd th th
event and have scored 3/6, 2/4, ½ and are placed 3 , 8 and 12
respectively at this moment.
India – Cuba Match: This match got underway from 15-08-2016. The
Indian team consists of 1. Sengupta, Deep 2. Das, Arghyadip 3. Prakash,
Om 4. Saxena, Alok 5. Trivedi, Kalapi B. 6. Das, Satyajit 7. Anand, Anil
Kumar 8. Khan, Shams 9. Gupta, Aniruddha Dutta 10. Thakur, Ankur
Singh 11. Bisht, Mamta 12. Shyam, Challapally, 13. Krishna, Pandava
ICCF Ratings as per list of 01-07-2016

ICCF ID Title Name Games Rating
280319 Agrawal, Rakesh 25 1914
280187 Akkaraju, Sailesh Chandra 189 2226
280234 Aleemuddin, Mohammed 24 1833
280172 Anand, Anil Kumar 131 2138
280086 Chandran, T. 75 1943
280068 Chatterjee, Dr. Ambar 236 2256
280087 Chauhan, Rakesh Kumar 261 2203
280577 Das, Satyajit 14 2196
280273 Das, Saurabh 26 2087
280088 De, Gautam 153 2262
280130 Devangshu, Datta 78 2307
280176 GM Dhanish, P. B. 135 2590
280209 Dutt, Bulusu Someswara 103 1525
280179 Gupta, Aniruddha Dutta 80 1998
280082 Gupta, Anuj 57 2159
280276 Gupta, Vibhor 84 1913
280169 Jayaraman, Mohan 123 2272
280180 Khan, Shams 226 2109
280593 Krishna, Pandava 12 1721
280143 Krishnamurthy, Prabhanandan 142 2232
280138 Kumar, Pavan Tumuluri 162 2353
280104 Mandviwala, Pervez Godrez 187 2307

280219 Mohanakrishnan, B. 108 2001
280205 Nagaraj, Dr. A. 76 1913
280171 Nair, Umesh 33 2009
280103 Neelakantan, N. 138 2227
280277 Pereira, Asim 12 1882
280404 Porwal, Lakshya 14 1977
280243 Prakash, Om 87 2351
280726 Ramesh, R. B. 23 2289
280330 SIM Sasikiran, Krishnan 41 2564
280286 Sastry, KVS 22 2342
280168 Saxena, Alok 268 2256
280114 Saxena, Vaibhav 46 2297
280484 Sethuraman, S. P. 40 2307
280269 Shetty, Karthik 16 1607
280133 Shivdasani, Vijay A. 156 2146
280225 Somani, Shalaka S. 20 2268
280107 Somani, Sunil K. 185 2206
280149 Surveyor, Dr. A. B. 16 2239
280174 Trivedi, Kalapi B. 118 2240
280224 Turaga, Mohan 64 2254
280095 Valsan, K. 72 2167
280256 Vijayan, Dhanesh 37 1705
Scene from Bollywood thriller, Wazir

T
he ICCF Congress, 2016 was held in the picturesque north German
city of Bremen. Hosts, BdF (German Correspondence Chess
Fedeation) Germany did a wonderful job of organising the Congress
th th
at the Radisson Blu Hotel from 14 to 20 August 2016.
The Congress was attended by Dr. Ambar Chatterjee (accompanied
by Mrs. Urmila Chatterjee). In fact I had two roles this year. Standing in
for Dr. Alok Saxena as Delegate and standing in for Sailesh Chandra as
Zonal Director, Africa-Asia.
th
On Sunday 14 August there was a Meeting of the Executive Board
(EB) and I was privileged to attend on behalf of Sailesh Chandra. In the
evening, the hosts had arranged a Welcome Party and the main
th
Congress started from Monday 15 August. The Opening ceremony was
interspersed by Choir performances (see picturte p. 1) where a group
sang traditional songs in the style of sea-faring men. Following the
welcome speech, it was time for the title awards. It is not often that India
receives a title award – this year there were two: IM and SIM titles to
Krishnan Sasikiran. I collected the certificates and medals onnbehalf of
Sasikiran.
The meetings of the Congress were organized over 3 days, leaving
Thursday and Friday for Excursions. The Day trip to Hamburg was
memorable for the visit to the Miniature Toy Train Wonderland and the
ship excursion in Hamburg bay.
On the last day of the Congress Meetings there were presentations by
myself and the representative from Bulgaria bidding for the next ICCF
Congress. By a narrow margin, the next Congress was voted to be held at
Sunny Beach, Bulgaria rather than Bangalore. We are now looking to hold
the 2018 Congress in Bangalore.
Zone 4 Meeting
The first ever Zone-4 meeting at Congress was held in the Coffee Shop of
the Radisson Blu Hotel. Before this, there were never enough
representatives from Zone-4 to have such a meeting. Although Sailesh
Chandra could not make it to Congress this year, we still had 4 members
from the zone. The meeting was attended by Dinand Knol and Ballot Marx
from South Africa, Brian Jones from Australia and Ambar Chatterjee from
India. In addition Andrew Dearnley (ICCF Marketing Director) attended
the meeting. Andrew Dearnley offered his assistance to the Zone,
particularly with marketing matters (contact with ChessBase India for
example), new member applications and new events such as AA Zone
and Commonwealth Championships. Ambar Chatterjee confirmed that the
AA Zone webserver at www.aa-webchess.com was now live with 78
members and several open tournaments already started. South Africa
and Australia had agreed for their ICCF members who applied to play to
be accepted after approval of the ICCF National Delegate. The server will
be further developed on an on-going basis. The AA Zone would be
divided into regions with one person in charge of development, local
events and team tournaments: Indian Subcontinent - Sailesh Chandra,
African Continent - Dinand Knol, Oceania - Brian Jones, ASEAN countries
- Brian Jones, Indonesia/Philippines - Yosua Sitorus (INA), China, Middle
East countries and Russian republics – to de decided. Brian Jones
confirmed that a new WordPress-based AA zone website www.iccf-
aa.com would be developed and submitted for approval before 31
December 2016. Brian Jones raised the idea of creating AA zone events
on the ICCF webserver, similar to CADAP with modest entry fees
collected by Direct Entry and/or credit card and other methods. The AA
Promotional events and the 2017 AA Zone Championships were identified
as the type of events which could be selected, with Australia acting as the
AA banker for income and cost allocation (fewer financial controls over
international transactions than the other federations). The excess of
income over expenditure could be used to subsidise countries with no
means of payment.
Proposals
The main purpose of the Congress is to discuss proposals and vote on
them. The process has gradually evolved over the last 3 years whereby
discussion of proposals is much reduced because the proposals were
already made available online with the possibility to comment on them.
This year for the first time, votes were also possible on the ICCF website
in advance of the Congress. Delegates who did not attend had the
possibility to vote on the website. For nations who had a delegate or
representative attending, it was possible to either vote on the website in

advance or in person at Congress.
There were a total of 43 proposals this year. In what follows below, I

describe only a few proposals that may of interest to AICCF members,
2016-011 GDP Based Fee Structure for Developing Nations:

This was proposed by India and it has been voted YES. This means that
from January 2017 onwards all ICCF Tournament fees to Developing
Nations like India will be charged at 50%. Additionally, entries to the Zonal
Championships Prelims will remain free. However please note that for
players qualifying to the Semi-Finals and Final of the Zonal
Championships, fees will now be applicable (upto now it was free).
However these fees too will be charged at 50%. There is also already a
rule that if a player is unable to pay even the reduced fee, a case can be
made for free entry by writing to the Zonal Director. The Zonal Director.
Sailesh Chandra can authorize upto 20 free entries in the Zone every
year.
2016-012 Allow Changes to Playing Rules - Server Only Once in 2-Years:

This was proposed by India and has also been voted YES.
The rationale for this proposal is that each year, following ICCF
Congress, many new rules for server play are introduced. This is costly
for ICCF as they pay their developer to make software changes. However
it is also very confusing to players if the rules keep on changing
frequently. With the passing of this proposal, server playing rules will
remain frozen for 2 years.
2016-017/022 Revised Rating Rules and Evaluation of Glicko System:

Proposed by Austin Lockwood and voted YES.
ICCF will gradually adopt the Glicko rating system which is an
improvement over the present Elo rating system. Please read the full
proposal: https://www.iccf.com/Proposal.aspx?id=85 for details (requires
login with ICCF Id).
2016-028 New Time Control System - Triple-Block System:

Proposed by Dennis Doren and voted YES
This was a controversial proposal. India strongly voted NO. This rule
proposes a radically different way that time will be accounted in server
games. The rules are difficult to understand and confusing. Many nations
were strongly against. However the proposal was passed by a small
margin of votes. Luckily they want to implement the proposal on trial basis
initially in only 1 tournament. So our players don’t yet have to bother

about this.
2016-040 Congress Duration and Schedule:

Proposed by George Pyrich and voted YES.
From 2017 Congress duration will be reduced by 1 day and the financial
support provided by ICCF to organisers will correspondingly be reduced
from 5,000 Euro to 3,000 Euro. There will be only 1 half-day excursion
and the other full day excursion will not be there. The hosts will provide
only one Opening Reception and no separate Opening Banquet. This
budget cut has been made instead of thinking of holding the Congress
every alternate year.
Urmila and Ambar Chatterjee at the Opening Banquet
Dinand Knol (left) and Brian Jones at the Congress

th
ICCF’s 28 World Champion GM Ljubičić, Ing. Leonardo of Croatia (right)
th
with Dr Fritz Baumbach, ICCF’s 11 World Champion
Hosts Mrs and Dr. Uwe Staroske pose for a picture with Urmila Chatterjee
Ambar Chatterjee receiving IM and SIM certificates on behalf of Sasikiran
Eric Ruch, President (left) and Andrew Delearney Marketing Director

(Four ICCF World Champions (L to R): 28 – Leonardo Ljubičić CRO, 24 –

Marjan Šemrl SLO, 20 – Pertti Lehikoinen FIN, 11 – Fritz Baumbach
GER)
Top 25 active players in the

AICCF Rating list of Sept 2016
1 Om Prakash 1371 14 Ankur Singh 1205

2 Kalapi B. Trivedi 1348 15 Satyajit Das 1189
3 Gautam De 1316 16 Dilshad Kausar 1171
4 R.K. Chauhan 1308 17 Rohan Saxena 1158
5 Dr. A.Chatterjee 1307 18 Vibhor Gupta 1157
6 A. Sailesh Chandra 1293 19 Shyam Challapally 1157
7 Arghyadip Das 1293 20 Aayush Somani 1151
8 T.Pavan Kumar 1282 21 Shams Khan 1150
9 Mohan Jayaraman 1265 22 Rashmi S. Somani 1146
10 Alok Saxena 1251 23 Valsan K. 1144
11 A. Dutta Gupta 1250 24 Rakesh Agrawal 1050
12 Amit Dutta 1247 25 Umesh P. Nair 1036
13 Anil Anand 1215
AICCF Champions
1501 A.G.Nagradjane 1508 P.B.Dhanish

1502 K.Lhouvum 1509 T.Pavan Kumar
1503 N.R. Anil Kumar 1510 T.Pavan Kumar
1504 N.R. Anil Kumar 1511 Om Prakash
1505 Sunil K. Somani 1512 K.V.S.Sastry
1506 P.B.Dhanish 1513 Gautam De
1507 P.B.Dhanish
Printed by A.Chatterjee Vadodara 39009 on behalf of AICCF

2016 02

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AICCF Bulletin Aug 2016 Page|1

VOLUME 24, Number 1

Choir at the opening ceremony of the ICCF Congress, Bremen

Management Matters A.Chatterjee and Alok Saxena . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

AICCF members S.P.Sethuraman (Board 4) and R.B.Ramesh (Coach) are

INCOME AND EXPENDITURE A/c FOR THE YEAR ENDED

35,095.00 By bank 6,524

BALANCE SHEET AS ON 31st MARCH, 2016

For T.B.Karnik & Co For All India Correspondence Chess

Anil Anand writes:

Neelakantan also played in the server era. The webserver records 63

During the years 1993-2010 he regularly attended the AICCF meetings

contributed to suggestions and ideas for postal correspondence chess.

About his OTB play, Sagar Shah

Trying to emulate the play of

Neelakantan worked in Central

Our target audience should not be only the 5000 OTB

For memorable games of Neelakantan including that against Daniel King

Neelakantan, N. - Saxena, Alok 33.Kf4 Bxa2 34.Kg5 Rh8 35.Rxa6

Neelakantan was a very

MOBILE PHONE APP: YOUR MOVE BY ASIM PEREIRA

There were several technical problems. XFCC (see http://xfcc.org) needs

XFCC allows players to make their moves directly in a database program

Asim Pereira (left) with Ambar Chatterjee in Bangalore

Your Move running on a Samsung mobile phone

After my return to Vadodara, Asim Pereira’s team soon released a new

The app is very easy to install

Your Move on an iPad mini

MORE ABOUT XFCC

There are XFCC aware programs available on PC which can be used to

After deciding on a move, following many hours of analysis and storing it

AICCF WhatsApp Group

In this article Om Prakash writes about

But Gautam Jee played what was

that, having done this 3 times in a

This type of problem can be

Now once it is connected, it shows a list of all my games as shown above.

When “Save Game” is clicked (red arrow in the picture above), it

This sends the move to XFCCPlay (a part of Aquarium package) ready to

In XFCCPlay there is a “Make Move” button at the top (I have marked it

I am very grateful and obliged to Dr Ambar Chatterjee Jee for his

Sailesh Chandra is an active player, a member of the AICCF

moves in databases and analyzing moves with engines. AA zone 4 server

There are many levels of tournaments which are available to play on

1. Fixed (based on more than 29 games) rating of at least 2300 on the

This is an important criterion for the player to consider, because after

What tournaments should a player avoid if possible? A player rated 2300

A decision on the number of games is often based on the research time

All I want to do, ever, is just play Chess

Selecting your ICCF

The previous article gives you an idea of how you can

What is AICCF International Section? Why are there extra charges

affiliation fees are charged. It would not be fair to charge a uniform

Membership to the International Section is Rs. 320/- for 2 years or Rs.

I can play directly on ICCF by registering on their site, why should I

Should I register for ICCF tournaments directly from ICCF site?

Free ICCF tournaments available to you are (a) Friendly International

We announce these tournaments prominently on the front page of the

What are Norm Tournaments, Promotion Tournaments and Aspirer

Note: From January 2017 fees will be reduced to

These tournaments start as soon as there are enough entries. In order to

What is a Fixed or Unfixed ICCF Rating?

Your ICCF rating is considered fixed if you have completed at least 30