The Preliminaries of the World Correspondence Chess Championship are regularly started tournament sections where entries are continually accepted. The WCCC PR tournaments fall under the responsibility and organization of the ICCF Title Tournaments Commissioner, Mr. Marco Caressa (marco.caressa@tiscalinet.it), to whom entries are sent by National Federations. Players may also register via Direct Entry.
Games played in these events are rated for the ICCF rating list.
Those players that fulfil some of the following requirements are entitled to start a WCCC PR tournament section:
1.1.1 The following will reach a full qualification to enter a Preliminary section:
(a) the participants in one of the previous or running Candidates' Tournaments (3/4-Finals) who have scored at least 40% of the possible points if they have not earned a higher qualification
(b) the participants in the previous or running Semi-Finals who scored at least 50% of the possible points
(c) those players, who, at the time of nomination have ratings less than 2400 (fixed or unfixed), are entered through their own national organisation. In each calendar year, each member Federation will be allowed to nominate 2 (two) players (quota) for the WCCC Preliminaries (or Semi-Finals). Additionally, for Federations declaring 200+ members (according to the membership fee statistics) for the previous year, 1 extra Member Federation Nomination (MFN) will be allowed, for Federations declaring 500+ members 2 extra MFN will be allowed, for 1000+ members 3 extra MFN, for 2000+ members 4 extra MFN and for 5000+ members 5 extra MFN. MFN’s shall be allocated to either Preliminaries or Semi-Finals according to their ratings – those with ratings (fixed or unfixed) less than 2400 shall be allocated to Preliminaries whilst those with ratings of 2400 and above shall be allocated to Semi-Finals (Rule 1.2.2 (j)),
(d) Winners of ICCF World Tournaments – Master class,
(e) Any player with a rating of 2500 and above,
(f) The holders of the International Master Title with a rating above 2300,
(g) The holders of the Senior International Master Title with a rating above 2250,
(h) The holders of the Grandmaster Title,
(i) The two top finishers from the acknowledged Zonal Championships of the tournament Category below IV with 13 or less players (with 14 or more players: top three); the third and fourth placed players from the acknowledged Zonal Championships of tournament Category IV to VI with 13 or less players (with 14 or more players: places fourth and fifth).
1.1.2 The following will reach a half qualification to enter a Preliminary section.
(a) those players who achieve 2nd place in a Master Class group,
(b) those players who achieved 1st place in a 7 player Master Class group, or 2nd place in a 15-player Master Class group (old Master Class tournaments).
1.1.3 Normally a Preliminary section will consist of 13 participants.