Correspondence Chess Changes January 1, 2024

January 1, 2024, will usher in two significant changes to the Golden Knights and Electronic Knights tournaments.

The entry fee for both tournaments will be increased to $35 per section. Since the inception of the Electronic Knights in 2004, the entry fee has remained at $25. The last increase to the Golden Knights entry fee was in 2002 from $20 to $25.

Also on January 1, 2024, the Electronic Knights will transition from email to the ICCF webserver. “With the success of moving the Walter Muir and Victor Palciauskas tournaments in 2021 from postal and email play respectively to the ICCF webserver, it makes sense to further transition the Electronic Knights to the ICCF server as well,” said Michael Buss, US Chess Correspondence Chess Coordinator.

The 2024 Electronic Knights preliminary sections will be followed by the 2021 Electronic Knights finals and the 2022 and 2023 Electronic Knights semi-final and final sections once the qualifiers have been identified. “We are projecting the 2021 Electronic Knights final to begin during the second quarter of 2024,” explained Buss.

There is no cost to register to play on the ICCF server. If a player is not already registered go to https://www.iccf.com/Signup.aspx. “With this move we hope to see an increase in the number of entrants into the Electronic Knights,” added Buss.