English Chess Forum

I am sorry to inform you that Andrew Dearnley passed away in October 2025 at the age of just 61.
Andrew's contribution to correspondence chess was enormous.
He was the EFCC President in 2016 but stood down due to ill health. He was England's International Secretary from 2008 to 2017 and again in 2019. He was also a member of several of England's sub-committees.
Andrew also carried out a considerable amount of work for the ICCF where he was Marketing Director from 2013 to 2017, and was also Non-Title Tournament Commissioner from 2011 to 2013. He introduced the ICCF Aspirers events to the ICCF calendar which are extremely popular.
Andrew obtained the International Master title and the Senior International Master title in 2014, and the International Arbiter title in 2010.
Andrew was a Life Patron of the EFCC. He was awarded the ICCF Bertyl von-Massow medal in 2016.
England will hold a Memorial tournament for Andrew which is likely to start in 2026.
RIP

Sorry for my ignorance, but what does IMO stand for here?

Matt Mackenzie wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 11, 2025 1:01 pm

Sorry for my ignorance, but what does IMO stand for here?

International Master Correspondence Chess.
It was a reply to me in the Toni Halliwell obituary.

I will quote here what I said then (click the up arrow to go to the original thread):

Christopher Kreuzer wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 09, 2025 11:39 am

The thread titles should, IMO, get the chess titles right. If these are all CC titles (nothing wrong with those) that needs to be made clear. Thank you, Simon, for flagging up this death. It is a bit sad that she posted about some of her contemporaries (including Miss Loftus) but no-one (including me) thought to document or record more memories in the time available (another 15 years it turned out). Maybe she wrote down or related some memories to others?

When I said "IMO", I was saying "in my opinion". I was NOT saying that IMO is a chess title abbreviation!!

Christopher Kreuzer wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 11, 2025 3:47 pm

I will quote here what I said then (click the up arrow to go to the original thread):

Christopher Kreuzer wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 09, 2025 11:39 am

The thread titles should, IMO, get the chess titles right. If these are all CC titles (nothing wrong with those) that needs to be made clear. Thank you, Simon, for flagging up this death. It is a bit sad that she posted about some of her contemporaries (including Miss Loftus) but no-one (including me) thought to document or record more memories in the time available (another 15 years it turned out). Maybe she wrote down or related some memories to others?

When I said "IMO", I was saying "in my opinion". I was NOT saying that IMO is a chess title abbreviation!!

Sorry, got confused.
What is the correct title?

https://www.efcchess.org.uk/ccTitles.html

International Correspondence Chess titles are awarded by the Worlds Governing body, the International Correspondence Chess Federation. ICCF awards titles in recognition of a players' achievements. Qualification for these titles is dependent upon achieving Norms (linked to Ratings) in ICCF International Title events. Listed below are the various ICCF Titles:

Grandmaster - (GM)
Senior International Master - (SIM)
International Master - (IM)
Correspondence Chess Master (CCM). Female players can have this Title converted to Ladies Grandmaster - (LGM)
Correspondence Chess Expert (CCE). Female players can have this Title converted to International Ladies Master (LIM)
International Arbiter (IA)

Which is a bit unhelpful.

I think the clearest way is to name the awarding body, the ICCF.

Hence:

ICCF GM
ICCF IM
FIDE GM
FIDE IM

Technically, the Fide title is IGM (International Grandmaster), but that is a bit of a can of worms.

EDIT: With apologies to Andrew Dearnley! Maybe someone has a game of his that can be posted?

Christopher Kreuzer wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 11, 2025 4:29 pm

https://www.efcchess.org.uk/ccTitles.html

International Correspondence Chess titles are awarded by the Worlds Governing body, the International Correspondence Chess Federation. ICCF awards titles in recognition of a players' achievements. Qualification for these titles is dependent upon achieving Norms (linked to Ratings) in ICCF International Title events. Listed below are the various ICCF Titles:

Grandmaster - (GM)
Senior International Master - (SIM)
International Master - (IM)
Correspondence Chess Master (CCM). Female players can have this Title converted to Ladies Grandmaster - (LGM)
Correspondence Chess Expert (CCE). Female players can have this Title converted to International Ladies Master (LIM)
International Arbiter (IA)

Which is a bit unhelpful.

I think the clearest way is to name the awarding body, the ICCF.

Hence:

ICCF GM
ICCF IM
FIDE GM
FIDE IM

Technically, the Fide title is IGM (International Grandmaster), but that is a bit of a can of worms.

EDIT: With apologies to Andrew Dearnley! Maybe someone has a game of his that can be posted?

Thanks for that Christopher. Sorry that I appeared a bit ignorant, I didnt know how the title system is named or works in Correspondence Chess.
Hope we are okay.

Absolutely fine. It confuses a lot of people. Not many know about SIM!

Very sorry to hear that Andrew has died.

Someone asked for a game, so...

[Event "BCCA Counter-Gambit Tournament"]
[Date "2005.??.??"]
[White "Dearnley, Andrew"]
[Black "Tait, Jonathan"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C57"]
[PlyCount "45"]
[GameId "289008202868"]
[EventDate "2005.??.??"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5 d5 5. exd5 b5 6. Bf1 Nd4 7. c3 Nxd5 8. Nxf7 Kxf7 9. cxd4 exd4 10. Bxb5 Qe7+ 11. Kf1 Bb7 12. Bc4 Rd8 13. d3 Qf6 14. Nd2 Qf5 15. h4 h6 16. h5 Be7 17. Rh3 Kg8 18. Qe2 Bf6 19. Ne4 Kh7 20. Nxf6+ Nxf6 21. Bf7 Qd7 22. Bg6+ Kg8 23. Bf4 1-0

Quite nice from Andrew's perspective at least.

Adding the pgn tags to the game Jon Tait provided.

[Event "BCCA Counter-Gambit Tournament"] [Date "2005.??.??"] [White "Dearnley, Andrew"] [Black "Tait, Jonathan"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C57"] [PlyCount "45"] [GameId "289008202868"] [EventDate "2005.??.??"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5 d5 5. exd5 b5 6. Bf1 Nd4 7. c3 Nxd5 8. Nxf7 Kxf7 9. cxd4 exd4 10. Bxb5 Qe7+ 11. Kf1 Bb7 12. Bc4 Rd8 13. d3 Qf6 14. Nd2 Qf5 15. h4 h6 16. h5 Be7 17. Rh3 Kg8 18. Qe2 Bf6 19. Ne4 Kh7 20. Nxf6+ Nxf6 21. Bf7 Qd7 22. Bg6+ Kg8 23. Bf4 1-0

Was this a tournament where the first few moves were pre-determined, and how many of those moves in this case? Do we have more moves, or do correspondence players stop at the point that the win becomes more obvious than in OTB chess?

Maybe Andrew sent a convincing "conditional" with his 23rd move?

John Clarke wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 25, 2025 9:14 am

Maybe Andrew sent a convincing "conditional" with his 23rd move?

I think 'if you move the Rook on h8 I won't take it' would probably be enough for me!

Christopher Kreuzer wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 24, 2025 10:03 pm

Was this a tournament where the first few moves were pre-determined, and how many of those moves in this case? Do we have more moves, or do correspondence players stop at the point that the win becomes more obvious than in OTB chess?

I think probably up to 5...b5 (Ulvestad), which then transposed into a Fritz (5...Nd4) line. Not sure how much after that was theory or previous praxis; I'd have to dig out my notes (from a pile of cardboard folders). But anyway, nowadays I'd play 6...Nxd5.

No, no more moves. I assume I resigned because Black is basically a rook down. I note that Stockfish 2025 has White at +4.4