Veteran's Championship Rules
-
The individual veteran's championship of the BFCC shall be known as the BFCC Veteran's Championship.
- The BFCC Executive Committee shall appoint a Tournament Director to organise and run the tournament.
- The Championship shall be open to correspondence chess players 60 years of age or over residing in the British Isles (except the Irish Republic). Entrants shall be full members of the BFCC and its member organisations.
- There shall be
1) one Championship Section having up to nine competitors,
2) up to five candidates' sections, each having nine competitors where possible. Competitors shall play one game against each of the other competitors in the section. - The following rules shall apply unless the BFCC Executive Committee decides that special circumstances justify an alteration.
Championship Section
a) The first four players in the previous Championship shall be entitled to re-enter.
b) The winners of the five candidates' sections of the previous tournament shall be entitled to enter.
Candidates' Sections
Those relegated from the Championship section and all other valid entrants shall be entitled to enter a Candidates' Section.
Vacancies in the Championship or Candidates' sections shall be filled at the discretion of the Tournament Director. - Entries with entry fee shall be received by the Tournament Director by 30th September each year and play commences on 15th October. The adjudication date shall be 31st July of the following year. Any move posted on or after that date shall not be counted as a move in the game and no claim other than a claim for adjudication shall be entertained. Claims for adjudication together with the adjudication fee shall be submitted to the Tournament Director within two weeks of the date set for close of play. The adjudication fee of the player whose claim is upheld shall be returned. Should an appeal against the adjudicator's decision be upheld, the claimant's appeal fee and adjudication fee shall be refunded.
- Games shall be played in accordance with the ICCF Playing Rules (for individual tournament games played normally by post) in being at the commencement date except as may be otherwise provided in these rules. There shall be no requirement to use the registration or recorded delivery services.
- Moves shall be sent in the algebraic or a mutually agreed notation. Scoresheets or scorecards may be used only if both players agree; they must understand that this method of transmission does not provide positive proof of the moves played or the dates of transmission or receipt.
- The permitted time of reflection is 20 days for the first 10 moves and each succeeding 10 moves.
- Impossible, illegal or illegible moves shall be referred back to the sender for correction and ambiguous moves for clarification. Additional reflection time shall count for the guilty player as if for separate moves but no other penalty shall normally apply.
- Players claiming that the time limit has been exceeded need only send to the Tournament Director, in the first instance, the card or scoresheet on which the opponent has indicated an accumulated time in excess of the permitted number of days.
- If a first claim for exceeding the time limit is upheld, then the player who has exceeded the time limit shall be deemed to have lost the game.
- A player may take up to 14 days' leave during the tournament.
- The transmission of moves and all correspondence with the Tournament Director shall be by first class post.
- In the event of a tie for first place involving the Champion, those involved shall be declared joint champions. Other ties shall be resolved by the application of the Sonneborn-Berger system where promotion or relegation is affected but prizes shall be pooled and shared. Any matters concerning the organisation and running of the tournament not covered in these rules or the Playing Rules shall be decided at the discretion of the Tournament Director.
- Competitors may appeal against decisions of the Tournament Director to the BFCC Secretary whose address shall be shown on the pairing notice. Such appeal shall be posted within seven days of receiving the decision in question. The appeal shall be referred to the appropriate committee of the BFCC whose decision shall be final.
- The BFCC reserves the right to decline an entry or entries without stating a reason or entering into any further correspondence
