Preliminaries of this World Cup started on 2011-10-30 with 844 players in 65 server sections and ended on 2013-06-01. Several unfinished games were adjudicated or allowed to be continued.
The semifinal stage was opened to the 2 top players of each preliminary section (no more than 2). In addition, those players who qualified for previous editions of World Cup Finals were also entitled to play – unless, they exploited their right already. Special invitation was addressed to participants of the ICCF Golden Jubilee Final tournaments in order to bridge both 50th and 60th Anniversaries of ICCF. All participants of the “ICCF 50 Jubilee Email Final” and the first 13 players (out of 104) of the “ICCF 50 Jubilee Postal Final“ were invited.
Taking into account number of entries organizer decided to launch 12 semi-final groups – 13 players each, in total 156 entries.
Few qualified players resigned from further play or were silent (despite 3 or more warnings). So finally 152 entries were registered and verified. Before start of the event 4 vacancies were filled up by players from list of reserve.
Final summary (Podsumowanie) as for 2013-07-31:
- entries (zgłoszeń) = 156
- countries (krajów) = 33
- titled players (utytułowanych zawodników) = 59
- GM = 6
- highest rating = 2564
- average rating of all entries (średni ranking wszystkich zgłoszeń) = 2353
Those countries with 5 or more entries are: GER 33, RUS 31, ITA 10, POL 9, AUT 6, ENG 6, ESP 6, USA 6.
Final pairings were completed on 2013-07-31.
In the semi-final stage, in each section there is no more than:
- 4 German or Russian players
- 2 Polish or Italian players
- one player from any other country
- 1 GM or 5 titled players
- one player with the same qualification reason.
With that assumptions we managed to distribute players to 12 groups with average rating from 2353 to 2354. It means that all sections are category 5 with title norms: SIM-9/12, IM-8.
Qualification for the final:
Only the group winner (ties to be decided by points evaluation) will be promoted to the World Cup 18 final, with 12 players going to a 13-15 player final (including former World Cup winners). No player will qualify for more than one place in the final.
Prizes:
Prize 2000€ for the first 4 players (1000€; 600€, 300€; 100€) – in the final, no tie break.
Prize for a semifinal group winner: 1 free entry in any Direct Entry tournament of his choice valid for 1 year (tie-breaking applies).
The start lists have been issued on 2013-08-02.
The official start date is 2013-08-30, when time counting will begin.
There is a fixed closing date of 2015-04-01.
After the end date (2015-04-01) all unfinished games are called for adjudication.
We hope that you will enjoy this event in the spirit of …
Amici sumus
Mariusz Wojnar
Central Tournament Leader
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