The objects of the Inter-Office Correspondence Competition (hereinafter called "the Competition") shall be to encourage and foster membership of the Insurance Chess Club by means of an organisation which endeavours to bring players of as many Insurance concerns as possible into the realm of competitive Correspondence Chess.

These Inter-Office Correspondence Competition Rules shall shall govern the conduct of the Competition. However, they shall be subordinate to the Rules of the Club and in the event of any conflict the latter shall apply. For the avoidance of doubt, it is hereby stated that in accordance with the Rules of the Club the Committee may delegate to the Executive any powers or responsibilities conferred on the Committee by virtue of these Inter-Office Correspondence Competition Rules.

The Secretary of the Club or an Assistant Secretary approved for the purpose (hereinafter called "the Organiser") shall be responsible for conducting the Competition in accordance with these Rules.

The Competition shall be organised each season in one or more Divisions and shall be conducted according to the Hutton pairing system.

For each Division, the number of boards in a team shall be determined each season by the Committee, which may at its discretion delegate this power to the Organiser.

Any Insurance Company or other Insurance concern or Group (hereinafter called a "Company") shall be eligible to enter one or more teams in the Competition provided that each Company shall be represented by a membership of the Insurance Chess Club of not less than that required by the Committee for teams in each Division. The membership so required shall not exceed the number of boards in the relevant Division.

Subject to the approval of the Committee, two Companies may combine to form one team. In these Rules, all references to a Company shall also apply, with appropriate changes of detail, to a combined team.

Each Company shall be responsible for arranging the payment to the Club of its members' subscriptions or the minimum entry fee for the Competition if greater. The said minimum entry fee shall be determined by the Committee from time to time, but shall not exceed the amount payable for the maximum number of members which the Committee is empowered to specify under Rule 6(a) above on the assumption that all such members are employed outside the Greater London area. The minimum entry fee shall be specified in writing on or with the form submitted to each Company in accordance with the provisions of Rule 8(b) below.

Any Company shall be liable to expulsion from the Competition by the Organiser if the sum of its members' subscriptions, or the minimum entry fee if greater, has not been paid by 1st January in the current season, provided that a reminder shall have been sent to such Company at least 21 days before the date of expulsion.

Prior to 1st September each Company wishing to enter the Competition shall notify the Organiser of its entry and of the name, correspondence address and telephone number of its Inter-Office Representative. Such Representatives are required to be members of the Club.

Prior to 15th September or such other date as may be decided by the Organiser, each Company entering the Competition shall declare in writing to the Organiser on a form to be provided by him:

the name, correspondence address and telephone number(s) of a Captain for each team, and

the names and correspondence addresses of all the members of each team,

and shall also specify the persons, whether or not team members, who are to be registered as members of the Club.

Finally, each Company shall also detail, in writing at the time of returning the form, each team member eligible under Rule 9(ii) below, together with his date of leaving the Company and the names of all companies by which he has subsequently been employed.

A player who leaves a Company during the Competition may complete any game(s) then in progress. Subject to this provision, and unless in exceptional circumstances the Committee shall decide otherwise, each team shall consist of players who

(i) are employed by the Company concerned, or are retired from the Company on superannuation, or

(ii) have been employed by the Company and have not been employed by any other company with a team in the Competition, provided always that such players remain eligible for membership of the Club.

Up to half of a team may consist of players eligible under (ii) above, subject to a maximum of three such players.

Companies are required to nominate players on the current assessment of their correspondence chess playing strength, with the strongest players in the first team, the next strongest in the second team, and so on. Companies are also required to play the selected players in reducing order of strength.

Contravention of Rule 10 shall render the offending Company liable to a penalty, being the deduction of up to 4 game points for each player concerned, at the discretion of the Organiser.

The Organiser shall, not later than 1st October (or within 16 days of such date other than 15th September as may have been specified under Rule 8(b)), send each Inter-Office Representative a list of pairings for the season, together with a note of the name, address and telephone number of each opposing Captain and of the correspondence address for each opposing player.

Each player shall play two games simultaneously with one opponent, one as white and one as black.

All games shall be played in accordance with the Playing Rules set out in the attached Appendix.

Play shall commence each season not later than 15th October (or such other date as may have been set by the Organiser) and shall continue until the 15th June following, after which any game unfinished and for which no result can be agreed shall be submitted for adjudication in the manner set out in Rules 19-21 below.

If in exceptional circumstances a player is unable to continue his game(s), the Organiser may at his discretion approve the nomination by the team Captain concerned of a replacement to complete the game(s).

If an ineligible player commences, or takes over as a replacement, a game or games, the Organiser may at his discretion impose upon the offending Company a penalty of up to 4 game points and/or require the game(s) in question to be discontinued and recorded as won by the opponent.

Any change in a player's correspondence address shall be notified, preferably in advance and at any rate within 7 days of occurrence, to the player's team Captain and to his opponent. In the event of failure to comply with this requirement, the Organiser may at his discretion rule the game(s) in question to have been lost by default.

The Captain of each team shall notify results in writing to the Organiser, game by game, as soon as they are known. If the Captain of only one of the teams involved notifies the result then the result as notified by that Captain shall stand.

By 30th June the team Captains shall each send to the Organiser, in respect of each game for which a result has not by then been agreed, the game score and two diagrams of the final position. The diagrams shall show the position clearly, with the black pieces ringed, and shall also state the number of pieces of each colour and whose turn it is to move. Each team shall also state, in writing but separately from the diagram, whether a win or a draw is claimed.

If only one team has complied with the provisions of Rule 19, and the other team's failure is not rectified within a further seven days, the first team's claim shall be upheld. If neither team submits the information required by Rule 19 by 7th July, the game(s) concerned shall be declared a loss to both players. However, in exceptional circumstances the Organiser shall be empowered to override the foregoing provisions.

Copies of the positions for adjudication, but not the claims, shall be submitted by the Organiser (or other authorised official) separately to two independent members of a panel of adjudicators appointed by the Committee. If their decisions disagree the position shall then be submitted to a third member of the panel who shall be advised of the views of the other adjudicators.

The decision of the adjudicators shall as soon as received be notified by the Organiser to the respective Captains who shall have the right of appeal against the decision. In the event of a Captain deciding to make such an appeal, he shall within 14 days of receiving the adjudicators' decision forward to the Organiser an analysis of the position showing the lines of play on which the appeal is based. The analysis shall be referred to the original adjudicators and, if not upheld by them, the position shall be sent to the BCF, whose decision shall be final.

An adjudication fee shall be charged to each Company whose claim is not upheld and to each Company whose appeal is not upheld. No fee shall be charged to a Company whose claim or appeal is upheld. The levels of fee to be charged for claims and for appeals shall be determined by the Committee prior to the start of each season, and any change in the level of either fee from that prevailing in the previous season shall be notified to each Company by the Organiser. All fees must be paid on or before 1st October in each year or such other date as may be decided by the Treasurer.

The final placings of teams in each Division shall be determined in the first instance by game points totals.

Should two (or more) teams tie for any place in any Division, such ties shall be broken by the application of "board count", i.e. for each team the sum of the board numbers on which its players have won and half the sum of the board numbers on which they have drawn shall be aggregated. Teams within each tie shall be placed in ascending order of board count totals. In the event of this score being equal, then board elimination shall be applied between the teams concerned, i.e. the tie shall be broken by the elimination of the scores on each board from the bottom board upwards, one board at a time, until a winner is reached. If the application of board count and board elimination fail to break the tie, the result shall be regarded as a tie, and where first place in any Division is so tied the trophy shall be inscribed with the names of both (or all) such Companies, which shall each hold the trophy for a proportionate period of the year.

The winning team of the first Division shall be regarded as the Champions of the Competition and shall receive the premier Trophy. All trophies shall be held by the Companies concerned until required by the Club, for engraving or otherwise, the following season.

The system of promotion and relegation shall be applied to the Competition. In general the two teams at the foot of a Division shall be relegated one Division and the two teams at the top of a Division shall be promoted one Division. However, the Committee shall be empowered to decide otherwise in appropriate circumstances (such as an alteration of the total number of teams in one or more of the Divisions).

There shall be an Inter-Office Correspondence Sub-Committee (hereinafter called "the Sub-Committee") which shall comprise:

(a) One representative of each Company competing in the Competition. Any Company with three or more teams in the Competition shall be entitled to a second representative.

All such representatives are required to be members of the Club.

(b) All members of the Committee, provided that no such member shall have a vote on the Sub-Committee unless he is also entitled to membership under (a) above or is the holder of a proxy.

A Company unable to send a representative to a Sub-Committee meeting shall be entitled to appoint a proxy and may direct the proxy to comment on its behalf and to vote in a particular way on any item of the business to be considered at the meeting.

The Chairman, or in his absence the Deputy Chairman or another member of the Committee, shall take the chair at meetings of the Sub-Committee, and in the event of a tie shall have a casting vote notwithstanding the provisions of Rule 26(b) above. The quorum of the Sub-Committee shall be three members present in person.

The Secretary shall give each Company competing in the Competition and each Committee member 14 days notice of all meetings, specifying the business to be transacted.

Meetings of the Sub-Committee may be called from time to time for the purpose of considering any matters concerned with:

(i) the conduct and progress of the Competition, and

(ii) the Club's activities generally,

and of offering advice to the Organiser and/or the Committee as appropriate.

The Sub-Committee shall be entitled to be consulted, at a meeting or by correspondence, on any proposal to amend these Rules. The Sub-Committee's views shall be taken into account by the Committee before any such amendment is finalised.

In any situation, whether arising from a dispute or otherwise, for which these Rules do not provide, the matter shall be determined by the Organiser, who shall have regard to any precedent.

Any Company which feels aggrieved by any decision of the Organiser in the exercise of his powers and duties under these Rules shall have the right of appeal to the Committee, provided that any such appeal shall be submitted in writing to the Chairman within seven days of being notified of the Organiser's decision. There shall be no appeal against a decision by the Committee in the exercise of its powers and duties under this Rule or the foregoing Rules.

Rules Sub-Committee 29th March 1966

Committee 30th May 1996

APPENDIX

Rules of Play

First class post shall be used throughout.

Moves shall be sent in English algebraic or a mutually agreed notation.

Moves shall be written in ink on a correspondence chess scoresheet or scorecard, or, if both players agree, in letters or on postcards. Where letters or postcards are used, the opponent's latest move shall be repeated.

Each player is required to send with each move:

a) confirmation of his opponent's postmark date,

b) the date of receipt of his opponent's last move,

c) the date he sent his own move (the probable postmark date: only the actual postmark date is valid),

d) the playing time thus used.

Failing this the opponent may assume the playing time based on average postal transmission times.

A legal move once posted may not be retracted or amended.

It is permissible to propose to the opponent one or more conditional ("if") moves. Once posted, conditional moves shall be binding on the proposer, unless rejected by the opponent.

The permitted playing time is 20 days per player for the first 10 moves and each succeeding 10 moves. Time saved is credited, i.e. the time limit is cumulative for the whole game. The playing time for each move is the difference in days between the date on which the opponent's latest move was delivered and the postmark of the reply. No time is counted for Sundays or for days on which a postal collection is not generally made. A reply posted on the same day as received counts as no playing time.

Illegal or illegible moves shall be referred back to the sender for correction and ambiguous moves for clarification. Additional playing time shall count for the offending player as if for separate moves.

Each player shall keep a full record of the game and the playing times used. A copy of this shall be sent to the Organiser on request.

A player may take up to 14 days leave in total provided he notifies his opponent in advance.

If a player receives no answer from his opponent after 12 days plus average transmission time, he shall remind him by repeating full details of his move by Recorded post. If another 10 days plus average transmission time after this reminder passes without answer, the team Captain shall inform the Organiser.

A claim for exceeding the time limit prescribed in Rule 7 shall be made (if possible by the team Captain) to the Organiser within 7 days. If the claim is upheld the player who has exceeded the time limit shall lose.