THE
INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENCE
CHESS FEDERATION
http://www.iccf.com/
ICCF Press Officer
Pedro Hegoburu
Email: pfhh@escape.com.ar
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THE
INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENCE
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| ICCF
Congress |
Thun, Switzerland, September
xx, 1999. |
Welcome and goodbye, readers! Yes, I will not upset you with more news and gossip from the ICCF Congress! Mainly because it was over last Friday morning… First of all, I must beg your pardon for posting this last report so late. Franklin Campbell was absolutely correct when he wrote about "exhausted" delegates! So I will try to summarise what we did on Wednesday and Thursday, thus ending this report. As I wrote previously, the Congress Agenda could not be dealt with in full before the Tuesday evening, and so we were summoned for Wednesday morning meetings. We discussed several items and reports, the best part was the presentation of the 2000 Congress in Daytona Beach, an excellent wok by Ruth Ann Fay (Max Zavanelli's wife). At this point I would like to congratulate Ruth Ann for her job at the 1999 Congress (she did not join the Ladies program which consisted of tourism, but instead she took part in Congress sessions!) and for the work she will surely perform admirably in next years' Congress (when they will be hosts). Then we confimed the 2001 Congress (Rimini, Italy), 2003 Congress (Karvina Raj, Czech Republic, in conjunction with the Slovak Federation), and 2004 Congress (Rio de Janeiro, Brasil!), and gave a first option for the 2002 Congress to Belgium. And thus this years' ICCF Congress ended! After lunch there was a short ICCF Presidium and Senior Officers' meeting, in order to exchange ideas for the future. And after that I had a Marketing Commission meeting, which set the milestones for next years' work! This was undoubtedly the most demanding ICCF Congress, but we are all proud of the time we dedicated and the results we achieved. It was friendly (as usual) and very successful! The official ICCF Congress Minutes are currently being prepared, they will be available at ICCF's Website in October. Later that day, a handful of ICCF kamikazes decided to challenge GM Vlastimil Hot in a 30-board simul. The final results can be seen somewhere in this Website, I will only share with you three good games… for ICCF! The first one is a very correct game from Med Samraoui, Zonal Director for Africa/Asia: GM Vlastimil Hort - Mohamed Samraoui [ALG] [C85] Then we have a good game from Carlos "Viceroy" Cranbourne, Zonal Director for Latin America: GM Vlastimil Hort - FM Carlos Cranbourne [ARG] [B91] Finally, another win from the South American task force, this time by Brazilian Delegate Alberto Pinheiro Mascarenhas: GM Vlastimil Hort - FM Alberto Mascarenhas [BRS] [B22] The final result was a clear plus for GM Hort, but the "real" winners were those who took part in the simul, because they had a great time and enjoyed their games no matter the result!! On Thursday morning we woke up really early because we had to take a bus from Thun to Grundewald, and from there the cabin to Mount Schilthorn! It was our (well-deserved) tourist day after so much work. The ride in cabins was very nice, they take you to the mountain top (2970 meters above sea level) in less than 35 minutes! Once we reached the top, we had one hour of free time to walk around until lunch was served. Most people just took pictures around the restaurant, some others that were more daring left the restaurant in order to see the surroundings… and two of the bravest ICCF people went trekking into the mountains, until the restaurant was nothing but a small accident amidst the mountains! The courage shown, the determination to succeed, the stamina and adrenaline flow, nothing stopped these two men in their quest for success beyond the 64-square chess board! Let us remember the name of GM Fritz Baumbach as one of "Mount Schilthorn's Conquerors", and that of Pedro Federico Hegoburu as the dumb, non-existent player that followed his trail!! (I promise not to do this again, I was much near to defeat than to victory…). A splendid lunch rewarded our intrepid appetite; the restaurant is a marvel of architecture, as it spins on its center, giving a magnificent view of the mountains around. But after eating we had to head back to the cabins and the bus, because later that day we had the Closing Banquet aboard a ship sailing the Thunersee! As you can surely imagine, these last events are very relaxed, after a hard week's work. The Banquet is a nice retribution to our effort, I enjoy it very much but always feel a bit sad because it also means that our stay has come to an end and I will not see my friends for a year or more! For example, next year we will not have the company of George Stibal and his wife Sheila, nor that of Mart Tarmak (who is, BTW, Vice President of the Estonian Football Federation!!) because they will be attending the Olympic games in Sydney! However, we will meet new friends form all over the world, everyone with a keen spirit and good intentions is welcome and will surely enhance the ICCF family! And the show goes constantly on. This being the last report on the ICCF Congress, I bid you farewell! Next year some other ICCF Press Officer will have the task to report to you, our "customers", "clients", or simply "friends" or "supporters", on the development of the 2000 Congress. I am sure that whoever takes over me will be better than his predecessor (it really does not take that much to be better than me!) and he will write more entertaining, insightful, informative reports. Nevertheless, I will feel my task has been successful if these reports have helped you see what ICCF is about, what Congresses are like, the way we work to bring you a better CC future, the way we enjoy ourselves and how human all this "ICCF fever" is. Therefore I appreciate your patience in reading these so-called "reports" which are nothing more than a personal look at an ICCF Congress, hoping that you have enjoyed reading them as much as I have enjoyed writing them. And on behalf of the ICCF family gathered in Thun, a big "thank you" for trusting us to decide on the future of this wonderful, unique experience that Correspondence Chess is. May it give us many more hours of happiness! |
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