ICU, IJCA and ICCA mean the Irish Chess Union, Irish Junior Chess Association and Irish Correspondence Chess Association.
"Competition" means any tournament, league, match or any other competition in which ICU
members participate, including "rapid chess" competitions but excluding both internal club
championships, speed and lightning chess events, and events under the auspices of the IJCA
and ICCA or the Community games.
"Controller" means the organiser(s) and/or controller(s) of any chess competition.
"Subscription year" means the period of 12 months commencing on the 1st day of September and ending on the 30th day of August,
or in exceptional circumstances as determined by the Executive Committee.
A Capitation Fee shall be payable by each player to the ICU at a rate of €35 per Subscription Year,
this fee to be called the "standard fee", except for players 65 and over on the following 1 January
who shall pay a fee of €20, players not earming an income who shall pay a fee of €20,
players under 18 on the following 1 January who shall pay a fee of €20 and
players under 12 on the following 1 January who shall pay a fee of €15 (or sterling equivalents).
The Capitation Fee is due and payable in full on or before the 1st day of September of any subscription year and,
without prejudice to this, players wishing to take part in any competition who are liable to pay a Capitation Fee
must register with the ICU and pay the appropriate Capitation Fee before taking part.
Controllers shall be responsible for ensuring that all participants in any competition who are
liable to pay Capitation Fees are registered as ICU members, and shall be entitled to accept
membership applications on entry to any competition. In the event of any breach of this Bye-Law
by a Controller, that Controller shall be responsible to the ICU for any loss of revenue suffered
by the ICU as a result of such breach.
Clubs and/or provincial unions may submit individual ICU membership applications on behalf of their members.
On registering with the ICU each player must furnish the following information:
Full name
Home address
Rating (if any)
Date of birth (if under 21)
Club (if any)
A player shall be deemed to become a member of the ICU when both the information required by
Bye-Law 6 has been provided and that player's subscription has been received by the Hon.
Treasurer of the ICU provided always that the Executive Committee of the ICU shall have the
absolute right to refuse any application for membership. A person must be a paid-up member of
the Union at least two weeks before an Annual General Meeting for the purposes of attending or
voting at that meeting.
Once a player is deemed to be a member of the ICU, the ICU will arrange for the information
on that player mentioned in Bye-Law 6 to be entered on its membership list. Copies of the
updated membership list of the ICU shall be made available to Controllers, Organisers and
constituent bodies and in the case of a tournament sanctioned by the ICU, it shall be made
available to the Controller of that tournament not less than seven days prior to its
commencement.
Individual membership of the ICU shall entitle the individual member to participate
in all competitions as defined herein without payment of any additional fee, subscription or any
other levy to the ICU, and shall entitle the individual members who pay standard
fees and junior fees as set out in Rule 2 hereof, to receive by post the Irish Chess Journal, free of
charge. The ICU will take over financial responsibility for the running of the Irish
Chess Journal and out of the membership fees paid to the ICU shall make sufficient
funds available for the publication and circulation of same to individual members.
Foreign players whose ordinary residence is outside the island of Ireland shall not be subject
to payment of any fee or subscription to the ICU for participating in Irish
tournaments (other than the Irish Chess Championships), upon production of proof that
they are affiliated to another national body which is a member of FIDE.
The ICU may, and any of its provincial associations or affiliated bodies shall, if so directed by
the ICU, decline to sanction or rate any competition unless all participants who are liable to pay
Capitation Fees are registered as ICU members provided however that any chess event which
does not fall within the definition of "competition" in Bye-Law 1(b) may be rated by the ICU
on payment of a flat rate fee of ten pounds or a fee of fifty pence per participating player
whichever is the greater, provided that all the participants in such an event shall have become
members of the ICU before the event is rated.
The Executive Committee, when fixing the venues for general meetings of the Union, shall
always have regard to the accessibility of the venue to individual members of the Union.
A copy of these Bye-Laws should be available to all members attending the Annual General
Meeting and include any amendments since the previous Annual General Meeting. Copies should
be available to members at all other times on payment of a nominal fee as set by the Executive
Committee.
