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The final of the 16th Correspondence World Chess Championship commenced on 30 June 1999. The impressive list of participants comprising 13 international GMs, 3 IMs and a senior IM has ensured the 14th category of this tournament with an average rating of 2584. The representatives of Germany (4 participants), Denmark (3), Russia (2), Ukraine (2) and one representative from each country - Greece, Austria, Czechia, Poland and the Netherlands - fight for the World Champion title. It is for the first time in the ICCF World Championship history that the representatives of Ukraine, and two of them at once, made it into the final: A.Volchok, IM from Nikolaev, and the only Ukrainian bearer of the new «exotic» title introduced by the ICCF in 2000 - A.Kamenets, Senior IM (Super IM, Vendienter IM), from Mariupol.
Twenty two months of struggle have passed and almost a mid-distance is covered, so some forecasts can be made. A successful start of Achim Soltau, International GM from Germany, brought him 7 points out of 16 after 10 rounds (4 wins and 6 draws), and A.Kamenets from Ukraine managed to score 6 points after 10 finished games (2 wins and 6 draws) - the rest are lagging notably behind. The tournament's unfortunates include evidently the ex-World Champion from Denmark Jorn Sloth, International GM, who has scored only 3.5 points with 7 draws and 1 loss, and the ex-World Champion from Germany Horst Rittner, International GM, who succeeded to score 4 draws, 1 win and 1 loss. The main loser turned to be the grandmaster from Greece Spyros Kofidis who has managed to score 1.5 out of 9 only. Extremely unsuccessful was A.Volchok, a representative of Ukraine, who has got nothing except two losses and... two conflicts with his partners. The representatives of Russia - the international grandmasters I.Kopylov from Ufa (1 win and 2 draws), and I.Samarin from Bryansk (2 draws only) are not in a hurry.
The final is developing in a blitz as a part of the players resort to E-mail to transfer the moves. Conventionally, the world championship final lasted for 6-7 years but this final may end in 3-3.5 years. The author is going to achieve a record of speed and finish the final by the end of this year, i.e. for 2.5 years. True, the record-breaker's glory is to be shared with the State Committee for Youth Policy, Sports and Tourism of Ukraine that refused in 1999 - quite illegitimately and despite the Law of Ukraine «On Physical Culture and Sports» - to fund not only the World Championship Final but also the 12th and 13th ICCF Chess Olympiads!
Unfortunately, a shortage of funds did not allow the author to pass through all degrees of jurisdiction up to the Supreme Court of Ukraine, having limited himself with the court of primary jurisdiction. However, it was quite enough to apprehend that nowadays it is impossible to gain an upper hand over the state in Ukraine, even the absolutely winning game, as the judges (at least of the Moskovsky District of Kiev) take guidance not of the Law but of the practicability. In order to reduce the costs to the family budget, the author had but to agree with the sharp decrease of the number of games being played by offering draws in the better positions in a number of games.
16th World Championship (official ICCF site)
A.Kamenets' games in the Championship (zipped cbv format)
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