Early FIDE Zonals

A few months ago, in a post on Early FIDE Titles, I used Marcel Berman's memoirs, published mid-20th century in the FIDE Review. In the same source there is much that is relevant to the early history of the zonals, and to get started I added two clippings to my page on the Zonals 1946-1948 (C00).

Fide Review 1960, p.8

I believe that Berman is the dark-haired fellow fourth from the left in the back row, standing behind then-FIDE President Alexander Rueb.

Update to FIDE Codes

A few days ago, on my main blog, I posted about FIDE Country and Federation Codes (chessforallages.blogspot.com), with a new page on my main site having the same title, FIDE Country and Federation Codes (m-w.com). The new page provides support material for my ongoing project on the World Chess Championship Zonals.

The list of country and federation codes used some obsolete data relating federations to the FIDE continent and zone structure, but it was the best I could do at the time. Sometimes it's better to release a nearly finished prototype, then fix the errors, than it is to attempt perfection on the first release. This was one of those times. Here is a list of errors I corrected for this second edition.

• Added missing data to several federations.
• Added zone 1.10.
• Updated most Asian zones, i.e. 3.x.
• Added zone 4.4.

The Fide.com page, Zone Presidents, was useful to verify the European zones like the relatively new zone 1.10 for small countries. My own page Zonals : Links (and Other References) was useful for the recent history of changes to zone numbering, e.g.

Starting cycle 22 (2004-2005), zone numbering changed from 3.1a to 3.1, from 3.1b to 3.2, from 3.2a to 3.3, from 3.2b to 3.6, and from 3.3 to 3.5; 3.4 unchanged.

FIDE pages for individual federations were useful to verify current zone numbering. I discovered two federations, both in zone 4.4, which are not on my current list.

• Burkina Faso
• Central African Republic

I'll tackle this discrepancy another time.

2015 a Zonal Year (More++)

Since my previous post, 2015 a Zonal Year, there have been additions and corrections to the FIDE calendar for the current cycle (C27, according to my numbering). The additions are noted below. I've also noted a few other events for future reference.

Calendar:
2.1	American Zonal Open & Women	St. Louis, Missouri, USA	31-Mar-2015
4.0	African Individual Championships 2015	Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt	1-May-2015
4.1	African Zonal	Hammamet, Tunisia	25-Mar-2015
4.2	African Zonal (A)	Kampala, Uganda	17-Apr-2015
4.4	African Zonal	Lome, Togo	13-Mar-2015
Other:
0.0	ACP Wildcard	(B)
0.0	FIDE Online Arena	(C)

(A) See also TWIC1047: 24) Zonal 4.2 2014 (1 December 2014); 'The Zonal 4.2 took place in Cairo 21st to 30th November 2014. Bassem Amin won with 8.5/9.' • How to reconcile these two events for zone 4.2? NB: The previous cycle (C26) did not have a zonal 4.4.

(B) ACP Wildcard for World Cup 2015 (30 September 2014); 'The ACP will have a wild card in the World Cup 2015 [...] The wild card will go to the highest-placed participant of the ACP Tour 2014 who has not qualified by rating, continental championships or any other means.'

(C) FIDE Online Arena enters a new era (29 January 2015); 'According to the regulations of the FIDE World Cup (art. 3.1) the FIDE Online Arena will provide 3 qualifiers for the World Cup 2015.'

From fide.com/FIDE/handbook/WorldCup2015Regulations.pdf:-

2.3.5. The number of qualifiers for each continent is:
Europe 46,
Americas 20,
Asia 20,
Africa 6.

3.1. Qualifiers -
There are 128 qualifiers (in order of priority):
World Champion + four (4) semi-finalists from the World Cup 2013,
Women's World Champion,
World Junior U-20 Champions 2013 & 2014,
eighteen (18) rated players as described in 3.1.2,
ninety (92) players from Continental Championships,
the one (1) highest-placed participant of the ACP Tour who has not qualified with the previous criteria,
two (2) FIDE President nominees,
four (4) organiser nominees,
three (3) qualifiers from FIDE-approved internet events.
If there are no internet events, the spot(s) will be decided by the FIDE President after consulting the WCOC.

I'll look at the FIDE Online Arena in another post.

The First Women's World Championship

A January 2015 Chess Note by Edward Winter on Chesshistory.com, 9074. Championship confusion, starts,

It is difficult to imagine a world championship title being decided in an event whose participants did not know that they were contesting the title, but that happened in 1927.

Winter goes on to document how the first Women's World Championship title, won by Vera Menchik, was awarded after the event. On my page World Chess Championship (Women) : 1927-39 Title Tournaments, I added a link to this fascinating research.

Near the end of his note, Winter asks, 'Where are the game scores?' On my main blog I have previously posted two photos showing Menchik at women's events: More Menchik (London 1926) and Folkestone 1933. In both of these photos, the chess tables appear to be too small to allow space for recording the games. Were games from early women's events not recorded? More photos needed...