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A Muir · King Joined: 15 Feb 2007 Posts: 489 Location: Dumbarton

-----Original Message-----
From: Herman Hamers [mailto:herman.hamers@hetnet.nl]
Sent: 18 July 2011 11:26
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Subject: FW: Invitation to 21st World Senior individual chess Championships
2011

Dear members of Zone 1.1,

From November 14th until November 27th in Rijeka, Croatia, the 21st World
Senior Chess Championship will be organized.
Participants should be older than 60 years of age (men) or 50 years (women).
The organizer shall provide free board and lodging (single room with bath
and/or shower) for one player of each zone in FIDE.
I ask you to nominate one player from your federation, so I can select a
participant for this event to represent Zone 1.1. Please let me know before
September 15th.
More Information on this championship you can find on www.rijekachess.com.

Send me your nomination before September 15th with the following information
on the nominee:
- name and surname
- e-mail
- address and ZIP code
- country
- telephone/fax
- FIDE-rating
- chess title

Kind regards,
Herman Hamers
President Zone 1.1

Craig Pritchett · Queen Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 114

I'll be there!

Anyone eligible by age can enter, but check regs on "age" carefully ... it's not actually enough to be "60" during the event, you must also have been born in "1951" (FIDE's rules haven't I think changed on this).

A Muir · King Joined: 15 Feb 2007 Posts: 489 Location: Dumbarton

It is safe to say that Craig as gold medallist will be the CS representative. I will try and get him free accommodation from the organisers.
Others can still enter - chance to be world champion and get GM title.
Rules not clear if your 60th birthday in 1951. If this applies to you then I would need to get clarification from the organisers.

Craig Pritchett · Queen Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 114

There is indeed considerable confusion on the age eligibility rule. Unless FIDE changed the rules recently, I believe that to play you must be 60 before 1 January 2011 (i.e. born in 1950 or before - which is what I meant to write in my previous post but got wrong in haste). The Croatian organisers say you must be born in 1951 or before in their "regulations". Many players, however, have had to wait until they were 61 before they could play in the world senor individuals (and the euro teams and euro individual events).

Andrew has asked for clarification as this is very important. Karpov turned 60 earlier in 2011, but I'm fairly certain that he can't play in the event until next year ... though he probably won't anyway!

A Muir · King Joined: 15 Feb 2007 Posts: 489 Location: Dumbarton

phil giulian (age 60 in 2011) wants to play - have asked organisers for entry rules for craig & phil

Craig Pritchett · Queen Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 114

I have checked with the FIDE Qualification Commission (via Stewart Reuben, one of its members). If born in 1951 (any date) / 1961 for women, you can now play in this event ... so there could by a winner who meets that rule but hasn't yet reached age 60!

This is a big (and very recent) change from the old rule that you must have reached 60 (50 for women) by 1 January in the year of the championship. I am told that the Qualification Commission's wording reads:

"The player is allowed to participate in the senior (women senior) competition if he (she) will be at least 60 years (50 years) old during the year of the competition. For example, each participant in the 2011 Championship must be born in 1951 or earlier (women - 1961)"