ICCF CONGRESS 2004
 

REPORT OF THE ZONAL DIRECTOR FOR EUROPE

The European Zone had -as you certainly know- a lot of problems in year 2003.

Therefore my primary task was to re-organize the Zone and to
assemble a staff of capable helpers.
 

After 9 months, I can say that many things have been done; now many
volunteers are working in the European Zone, the tournaments are going on,
we’ve a web site and so on.  The only problem (a big problem, indeed!)
is the European Individual Championship.Let me check with you, now, the single items.

Deputy President

I appointed S. Ja. Grodzensky (RUS) and I’ve a good collaboration from him.

 Treasurer

My friend Carlos Flores Gutiérrez (ESP) accepted to act as European Treasurer: everybody knows him and therefore we’re sure that Zone 1’s money is in the best hands.

Web site

It has been one of my first tasks, because it’s impossible to keep the contacts with the players without an “always updated” Internet page.

The European web site, www.iccf-europa.com, has been built by
Maurizio Sampieri (ITA) and Giorgio Ruggeri Laderchi (ITA) and it’s
now organized by Giorgio, who’s doing a very good work.
Jurai Václav (SVK) is helping him for the tournament tables.

Archive

The ICCF Archivist, Laurent Tinture (FRA), agreed to act as European archivist, too.
A lot of games are now on our web pages.

European Team Championships

The 5.th European Team Championship ended on 6.06.2004 with the victory of Germany. 
The runner-up was Lithuania; third place to Czech Republic.

The Final of the 6.th E.T.C. is now starting with 13 teams (Austria, Czech Rep.,
England, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway,
Spain and Slovakia; T.D. Joachim Walther -GER-). It will be, probably,
the last E.T.C. played by post.

The Preliminary of 7.th E.T.C. will start in early 2005 and it will be played by e-mail,
unless the most of European Federation disagree with my proposal.

European Individual Championships

The “black hole” of my first year as European Zonal Director...

The Preliminaries of 63.rd E.I.C. were played by post and ended a lot of time ago. 
I tried to organize the Final by post, but many players refused to play.

Many groups (but not all groups!) of the Preliminaries of 64.th E.I.C. have already
ended and also a few groups of the Preliminaries of 65.th E.I.C. have already its winner.

I propose to the European Delegates to start the (postal) Final of 63.rd E.T.C.
as soon as possible, inserting all the qualified players from 63.rd, 64.th and 65.th
preliminaries who accept to play by post.   I’ll discuss with the Delegates “how”
to organize the 64.th and 65.th Finals and, finally, I’ll propose new rules for the
66.th E.I.C. (Preliminaries to start on spring 2005 -?-; by e-mail, by post or both?).

Many thanks to T.D. Jørgen Axel Nielsen (DEN) who is conducting the E.I.C.s and who informed me of his willingness to stop his work as T.D. when these Preliminaries will be closed.

Promotional tournaments

One of my hardest problems, indeed!  A lot of players were waiting for their
start-list and many National Associations didn’t send any more their entries. 
I appointed two Tournament Commissioners: Leonardo Madonia (ITA), who
collects the entries and arranges the new groups and Rubens Battistini (ITA),
who collects the results and keeps the contacts with the web-master. 
Thanks to Leonardo and Rubens for their excellent work: now the European
Promotional Tournaments are going on without problems!

In the first 9 months of this year 26 postal groups (8 M, 9 H and 9 O; 214 players)
and 17 e-mail groups (6 M, 5 H and 6 O; 143 players) have been started and the
waiting lists are now quite empty.

 Tournament Directors

I had a few problems, because many T.D.s resigned from their office for personal reasons. I want to thank especially Harro Otte (GER) for his valuable work for many and many years; he was compelled to resign from his office for very important health problems.  Thanks to Frank Riva (LUX), too, who left his office for professional reasons. The new European T.D.s are Laurent Tinture (FRA), Tomas Silfver (SWE) and Enzo Neri (ITA), while Klaus Metelmann (GER) and Marco Caressa (ITA) are still working on their “old” groups.

Invitational Tournaments

A European team is playing in the “15.th Anniversary Rochade Club” tournament
(Team Captain: Frank Geider -FRA-), with 10 players from 10 different countries.

A European team will of course play in the Interzonal 2004.

 European Zone Statutes

My mind was to propose a draft for the Zone 1 Statutes to the European Delegates,
to discuss at Mumbai Congress. Both me and the Chairman of the Statutes Commission,
Eric Ruch (FRA), have been too much involved in other works and therefore I decided
 to postpone this (not urgent) matter to next year.

Once again, many thanks to all the friends, the volunteers, the officials
and the delegates who have helped me in the first year of my “reign”.  
It has been a hard year for me and I’m sorry I couldn’t do better; anyway
I’m quite satisfied of the results I obtained and I do hope the European Delegates are too.

Mumbai, 3.11.2004

Report of European Zone’s Delegates Meeting.

The meeting of the European Delegates during the 2004 ICCF Congress
was held on Wednesday, November 4.th, at Retreat Hotel, Mumbai, after the
ICCF Congress’s official closing.
 

The following Delegates attended the meeting: G. Radosztics (AUT),
M. Michálek (CZE), S. Peschardt (DEN), A. Rawlings (ENG), C. Flores Gutiérrez (ESP),
E. Liebert (EST), H. Brusila (FIN), E. Ruch (FRA), F. Baumbach (GER), G. Mastrojeni (ITA),
A. Gaujens (LAT), M. Rocius (LTU), A.A. van ’t Riet (NED), W. Bielecki (POL),
S. Ja. Grodzensky (RUS), G. Pyrich (SCO), P. Søderberg (SWE).
 

The Zonal Director, G-M Tani, took the chair; the Deputy Z.D., S. Ja. Grodzensky,
and the Treasurer, C. Flores Gutiérrez, set near him.
 

The Zonal Director’s report was distributed to the Delegates before the
Congress and explained to the Congress on Nov. 2nd; G-M Tani asked the
Delegates if they had any comment about it, but no one had objection and/or requests.
 

The most important item to be discussed was the organization of the
European Championships, both individual and by team.
 

7th European Team Championship, Preliminaries.  The Z.D. emphasised
that it was very difficult for him to organize the Final of the 6.th European
Championship by post, because a lot of players refused to play by post and
many Federations had difficulties to find enough postal players to arrange a
strong team. Therefore he proposed to play the 7.th E.T.C. by e-mail. 
The Delegates agreed. After a short discussion, it was proposed to have 8 players
for each team; this proposal was approved by substantial majority. 
The Preliminaries of the 7.th E.T.C. will start on 15.10.2005.
 

Individual Championships, Finals. The Preliminaries of the 63.rd E.I.C.
ended a lot of time ago, but the previous Z.D. didn’t organize the Final. 
G-M Tani told that he tried to arrange the Final, but a large part of the qualified
players refused to play by post.  Many preliminary groups of the 64.th E.I.C.
have already ended and some player has already got a qualification in the
Preliminaries of the 65.th E.I.C.  The Zonal Director therefore proposed to
arrange as soon as possible two Finals, one by post and the second one by e-mail,
both of them with 15 players.  The finalists will be the qualified players
in the 63.rd, 64.th and 65.th E.I.C. Preliminaries, with priority to the ones
who qualified in the 63.rd, then in the 64.th, finally in the 65.th E.I.C.. 
The Delegates agreed with this proposal. The Final of the 63.rd E.I.C. will be
played by e-mail and will start on 15.04.2005; the Final of the 64.th E.I.C. will be
played by post and will also start on 15.04.2005. A. Rawlings (ENG) offered
to organise both Finals, working with the ZD, and his offer was accepted.
 

66.th European Individual Championships, Preliminaries. A lot of players
has already got the right to enter the Preliminaries of E.I.C.; unfortunately,
the previous Z.D. didn’t provide any list of qualified players and it’s very
difficult to arrange a complete list. The National Delegates will be asked to
help the Z.D., providing him with information about the qualified players
from their own country.  The Z.D. proposed to have, in the future, only e-mail E.I.C.,
but P. Søderberg (SWE) strongly opposed, because many players would no l
onger have any possibility to run for the title of European C.C. Champion. 
It was agreed to ask the qualified players for which way of move transmission
they like better and to organize both e-mail and postal championships.
To avoid having too many players in the Preliminaries (and  to arrange
two stages of preliminaries), the Z.D. proposed to allow each National Association
to nominate only one player (and no more two players); the Delegates approved
unanimously. Each preliminary group will have 13 players, with a
maximum of 6 groups, i.e. 78 players. The Preliminaries of the 66.th
and 67.th E.I.C. will start as soon as possible, i.e. when a complete list of the
qualified players will be arranged.  The aim is to start them on 15.03.2005.
 

Entry fees. The Treasurer proposed to equate the entry fees for
European Promotional Tournaments to the fees for the similar
World Promotional Tournaments from 1.01.2005. It was unanimously accepted. 
After a short discussion, it was unanimously voted that the entry fee for the
 7.th E.T.C.  will be 100  Swiss Francs for each team.
 

Interzonal 2004. The Z.D. informed the Delegates that European Zone
will have two teams (16 players) in the Interzonal 2004 Tournament.
He will send an urgent e-mail circular to the National Associations as soon as
he returns home from the Congress.
 

ICCF Webserver. It was agreed that the next e-mail European Championships
(Preliminaries and Finals, both individual and by team) will be played on the
ICCF Webserver if possible.

Mumbai, 4.11.2004.

Amici sumus. 
 

Gian-Maria Tani

ICCF Zonal Director for Europe