50th Anniversary of CAPEA

CAPEA (Club de Ajedrez Postal Español en Alemania / Spanish Postal Chess Club in Germany) was founded by a group of Spaniards on the 1st January 1971 in Mühlheim am Main (Germany). During all this time, it has permanently been organizing multiple tournaments for its members, including especially 10th Anniversary International Open, 20th Anniversary Open, Live Chess International Tournament of La Pobla de Lillet (Barcelona), 25th Anniversary International Open, and 40th Anniversary International Open. It has also published the magazine Revista Ajedrez Postal CAPEA - a yearbook with many articles, analyses and anecdotes on our modality, as well as an original Calendar.

Following our track record, we are pleased to celebrate our 50th anniversary in 2021, and among other events, we will hold two Correspondence Chess Tournaments: CAPEA’s  50th Anniversary Open and CAPEA’s 50th Anniversary Invitational.

CAPEA’s 50th Anniversary Open

It is open to all correspondence chess players, regardless of their ELO ranking. It will be developed in three phases: Preliminary, Semifinal and Final.

The transmission of moves will be made through the ICCF server.

Starting date of Preliminaries Phase: 15 January 2021. Semifinals are expected to start on the 1st of July 2022 and the Final on the 1st of December 2023.

Time control: Triple-Block System will be used.

Preliminaries and Semifinal Phases: 15 months duration (450 days)
Final: 18 months’ duration (550 days)
Groups in the Preliminaries Phase will consist of 7 or 9 players depending on the number of entrants, trying to get the best possible balance of ELO among them, as well as the most appropriate geographical distribution of players in each group.

The first of each group will qualify for the Semifinal and, depending on the number of entrants, the runner-up may also qualify. This criterion will be announced at the beginning of the Tournament.

Prizes (in Final):
1st: 1000 € and a Cup.
2nd: 450 € and ChessBase Correspondence 2020 (worth 199.90 €).
3rd: 300 € and Chessbase 15 (worth 189.90 €).
4th: 150 € and Program Fritz 17 2020 (worth 79.90 €).
5th: 100 €.

The tiebreak systems to be used in all phases will be, in this order, Baumbach, Sonnenbornberger and result between players. If a tie in the places that qualify to the next phase persists in the Qualifying or Semifinal phases once the previously listed rules are applied, all these players will pass to the next phase. In the event of a tie in the Final, after all the tie-breaking criteria have been applied, the prize money will be divided equally among all the tied players. However, the Cup and ChessBase products will be awarded to the player with the highest ELO in the current rating list on the date of the tournament.

Registrations:
The registration fee for the Qualifying phase is €12. Multiple registrations are allowed, but you will qualify for a maximum of two places in the Semifinal and one place on the Final. Qualifying phase registrations no later than 15th November 2020.

Registration for the Semifinal phase is possible for players who have an ELO above 2225 in the Rating List 2022-3. The registration fee for the Semifinal Phase is 20 €. No more than two groups of Semifinals can be registered. Semifinal phase registrations no later than 15th May 2022.

Open Tournament registrations fees must be paid:
By bank transfer to the CAPEA account in La Caixa:
IBAN: ES80 2100 5659 4001 0018 9155. BIC: CAIXESBBXXX

By PAYPAL: tlg@tinet.fut.es.

To be registered, you must also send an e-mail to Tomás Llorach Grácia: tlg@tinet.fut.es with the subject: CAPEA’s 50th Anniversary Open Registration. The information required is: full name, e-mail address, ICCF ID and ICCF current rating.