  A search for charginos nearly mass degenerate with the lightest neutralino is
performed with the data collected by the ALEPH detector at LEP, at
centre-of-mass energies between 189 and 209 GeV, corresponding to an integrated
luminosity of 628 pb-1. The analysis is based on the detection of isolated and
energetic initial state radiation photons, produced in association with
chargino pairs whose decay products have little visible energy. The number of
candidate events observed is in agreement with that expected from Standard
Model background sources. These results are combined with those of other direct
searches for charginos, and a lower limit of 88 GeV/c2 at 95 % confidence level
is derived for the chargino mass in the case of heavy sfermions, irrespective
of the chargino-neutralino mass difference.
