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Bob Armstrong
09-17-2010, 12:28 AM
PRESS RELEASE # 2/2010

DATE: Thursday, September 16, 2010
BY: the Chess Federation of Canada ( CFC )
WRITER/CONTACT: Bob Armstrong, CFC Governor ( 416-469-5905; bobarm@sympatico.ca )

TOPIC : 16-Year Old Girl Leads Canadian Chess Olympiad Team

16-Year Old Girl Leads Youngest Canadian Team Ever – World Chess Olympiad

She has been playing competitive chess since she was eight, and in a few days 16-year-old Yuanling Yuan of Toronto heads to Russia to represent Canada in the biggest tournament of her career.

Yuanling, a student at Victoria Park Collegiate Institute, will head the Canadian Women's Chess Olympiad Team – there will be more than 150 countries represented. It is the chess world's equivalent of the Olympic Games, and the world's best will all be there.

Yuanling started chess at the young age of 7 years old – being taught by her father. At 8 she played in her first official rated chess tournament. When younger, she would study 30 hours a week, and played in all the tournaments she could find.

In 2003 she won the Canadian Youth Championship for the U 10 age group, and represented Canada at the World Youth Championships. In 2008 she played on her first Canadian Women’s Olympiad team.

She has progressed up the ranks quickly. She is now the highest rated Canadian woman, and holds the second highest women’s title granted by the international chess body, Women’s International Master.

Earlier this year she won the club Championship for one of the strongest clubs in Canada, her Scarborough Chess Club in Toronto. Recently she won the Hamilton Open chess tournament, winning against one of the highest rated male players in Canada.

At the Chess Olympiad, starting Oct. 21 [ should have been Sept. 21 ], Yuanling will face the top women players in the world, many even higher rated than herself. But she is a determined competitor, and Canada expects she will do well, and surprise many. She has a bright chess future !

Note: for anyone intending to use this press release, I have a good picture of Yuanling to provide ( don't know how to post a picture here yet ).

Background to CFC Press Releases :

At the Toronto July CFC AGM, the governors passed Motion 2010-17 creating a non-executive officer position of " Public Relations Coordinator " ( upgrading the prior position of Director of Publicity ). Bylaw 3 of the CFC Handbook, under Duties of Officers in Section 8C, gives the mandate of this position as:

8C. The Public Relations Coordinator will be responsible for promoting the image of the CFC and for promoting chess generally to the public. As such the Public Relations Coordinator will, among other things:

- deal with mainstream media to promote significant chess news, such as Canadian Chess Champions, a new Canadian GM, major tournaments like the Can. Closed, Canadian Open, Can. Women’s Closed, CYCC, etc., the various benefits accruing from playing chess and other positive aspects of the chess culture.

This position in its initial creation never got filled. And currently, the CFC is looking for a volunteer governor/member to fill the vacant Public Relations Coordinator position.

Because of this situation, the CFC has never developed a bank of Canadian mainstream media contacts who might be willing to publish CFC Press Releases on chess items, or to write articles on chess.

I have currently volunteered, in the interim, as a governor, to try to do some preliminary work on this issue, in advance of us finding the right volunteer to fill the position. I only have a limited amount of time to spend on this at the moment, and it will become even less in the Fall. But I am willing to put some volunteer time on the matter.

Feel free to make use of the CFC Press Releases in any publicity efforts you might be undertaking. I would appreciate being advised of any efforts made and use of the material, so CFC can build a file on the efforts being made to promote chess in Canada.

Newspapers do not acknowledge press releases ( too many daily ) and to my knowledge do not notify you if they make use of one. So if you see an article on this in any of the papers, please advise me. I have been warned that it has not been easy to get chess material into the mainstream media, and so CFC should have very modest expectations of success on this front. But hopefully, over time, with developing contacts, this will change.

If anyone has any newspaper, television or radio contacts I might be able to use, or any advice on this effort, please e-mail me : bobarm@sympatico.ca

Bob

Wolfgang(Wilf) FERNER
09-17-2010, 06:07 PM
Bob: You are using Oct.21 as the start of the Olympiad. It starts Sept.19/10

Wilf Ferner

Bob Armstrong
09-17-2010, 08:30 PM
Hi Wilf:

The formal opening is on Sept. 19. But Rd. 1 is not until Tuesday, Sept. 21. So I picked the start of play to highlight, rather than the date of the formal opening ceremony - a judgment call I guess.

Bob

Bob Armstrong
09-20-2010, 07:22 PM
Hi again Wilf:

I'm sorry but I totally missed the main point of your post. I thought I had posted Sept. 21, and that you felt I should be using Sept. 19. I did not at the time realize I had used " Oct. " rather than " Sept. ".

Thanks for trying to draw it to my attention - it is truly amazing how sometimes these slips happen - like perfection is tough. But as far as I know, the rest of the info is accurate.

I have now edited the original post to make the correction.

Bob

Bob Armstrong
10-07-2010, 04:06 PM
This press release led to Yuanling being television interviewed by OMNI TV before she left for the Olympiad in Russia.

Governor Chris Field, from the GTCL, kindly put the OMNI TV interview with Yuanling onto a DVD for the CFC.

The only limitation is that it is in mandarin chinese for her part, since it was used for OMNI's mandarin show. The couple of shots interviewing me as a CFC representative are not in Chinese !!:) :)

We will be seeing if we can somehow make this available on the CFC website or one of the CFC Forums.

Bob

Kerry Liles
10-07-2010, 04:58 PM
This press release led to Yuanling being television interviewed by OMNI TV before she left for the Olympiad in Russia.

Governor Chris Field, from the GTCL, kindly put the OMNI TV interview with Yuanling onto a DVD for the CFC.

The only limitation is that it is in mandarin chinese for her part, since it was used for OMNI's mandarin show. The couple of shots interviewing me as a CFC representative are not in Chinese !!:) :)

We will be seeing if we can somehow make this available on the CFC website or one of the CFC Forums.

Bob

It should be possible to convert from DVD format to other popular online formats (.mp4 or .mkv etc)

If you cannot find anyone else to do it, I can take a shot at it...

Bob Armstrong
10-07-2010, 06:19 PM
Hi Kerry:

Thanks - all this is way beyond my technical ability. I need help! We'll keep you in mind.

Bob

Christopher Mallon
10-07-2010, 08:59 PM
If it's not copyright, we could upload it to YouTube.

Bob Armstrong
10-11-2010, 11:36 PM
Hi Chris:

I think that if we want to somehow put it on this board under " news ", or somehow on the CFC Website, I will have to get in touch with my OMNI TV contact, to make sure we have their consent to do this.

I think it is a step further to put it on " YouTube ". But that might be a good idea as well. But again, I'd want consent from OMNI TV.

Bob

Bob Armstrong
10-24-2010, 02:22 PM
CFC is now seeking the necessary consents to use the OMNI TV program interviewing WIM Yuanling Yuan ( which is mainly in Mandarin and partly in English ) aired at the start of the Olympiad, and investigating how to post the program clip on the CFC website or this " News " discussion board. Once this is in place, then CFC will have to decide if it will proceed with my recommendation that we use it.

Bob

Christopher Mallon
10-24-2010, 07:48 PM
The easiest way is by posting on Youtube and then we can just add a youtube module to the forums.

btw. http://www.thestar.com/news/article/880467--chess-champ-spreads-her-passion-for-the-game

Bob Armstrong
11-12-2010, 09:58 AM
Here is the link to a video of the Mandarin Chinese program ( small part in English ) on OMNI TV, featuring WIM Yuanling Yuan, just before she went to Russia in September, to play first board for the Canadian Women's Olympiad team ( we just finalized permission to use it from ONMI TV ):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhBMQsyJsPo

Bob