Invitational Letter

To chess correspondence federations
of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Sweden

On the 8th Baltic Sea CC team tournament

Dear chessfriends,

On behalf of the Russian Correspondence Chess Association (RCCA) I propose to restore our traditional team tournament for the countries located in neighbourhood of the Baltic Sea that is to be the sea of friendship and chess. The Saint Petersburg division of the RCCA is ready to organize the 8th tournament with the following regulations:

1. The tournament will be held on the ICCF web server (http://www.iccf-webserver.com).
2. The start date is March 1, 2008.
3. We would like to invite 3 teams from Germany (winner of the 7th tournament), 2 teams from Poland and Russia, 1 team from Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Sweden. The number of teams is expected to be 13. If the number will be less than 13 (so each player will have less than 12 games) then we wish to invite extra teams from the appropriate countries.
4. Each team will consist of 8 players (that is 8 boards).
5. The players within the team should be preferably placed according their ICCF ratings on October 2007. All the exceptions should be discussed with organizers to preserve qualification norms.
6. There will be the lower level for the player ratings (on October 1, 2007) to be able to establish GM norms on boards 1-4, SIM norms on boards 5-6 and IM norms on boards 7-8. So the lower level will be following: 2401 for the boards 1-4, 2351 for boards 5-6 and 2301 for boards 7-8. All the exceptions should be discussed with organizers to preserve qualification norms.
7. The players lists should be sent us by team captains before December 1, 2007.

The 8th BSTT tournament was registered as a 15 teams (or less) tournament at the ICCF Congress 2007 in Spain. The norms will be set at Congress 2008.