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Bob Armstrong
10-01-2010, 08:08 AM
Item # 18 - CFC Objective of Chess Promotion to the General Public

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, But I am willing to put some volunteer time on the matter. I will write some press releases myself, and on some I will be collaborating with others, under who's name the press release will appear.

CFC is making its CFC Press Releases available to any member for any publicity efforts they might be undertaking. I have asked to be 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 I have asked that if anyone sees an article on one of our press releases in any of the papers, or on TV or on radio, they 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

CFC has now issued 4 Press Releases since August 19 ( see the CFC Chess News Forum ):

1. Canadians Do Well at World Junior Chess Championship
2. WIM Yuanling Yuan Leads Can. Women's Olympiad Team
3. Canada Supports Karpov for FIDE Presidency
4. Top Canadian Knocks Off World # 2 At World Chess Olympiad

. These press releases have generated some modest results. We have been successful in getting an article into print – “North Yorkers Head Canada's National Chess Teams “, done by Tim Foran on Sept. 21 on InsideToronto.com. ( it also publishes a number of free local community papers in Toronto neighbourhoods ) This article was also highlighted on the very popular Susan Polgar Blog. As well, we have put Dan Robson of The Toronto Star in contact with WIM Yuanling Yuan ( SCC Member ), our first board on the Women’s Olympiad Team, and her family. They were apparently pursuing a future newspaper article. We also put Perry Gray of City TV in touch with Mark Bluvshtein’s father, Ilia, for a possible presentation once Mark comes back from Russia. Also, we were able to arrange 2 TV interviews for Yuanling, on Sept. 18 and 19, before she left for Russia. In both cases, I was present as the CFC Public Relations contact, and was also briefly interviewed for CFC organizational background, and our role in sending teams to the World Chess Olympiad.

I have been slowly and incrementally building up 2 Canadian Media E-mail Groups for the CFC: one for print/digital ( newspapers ); and one for Audio/Visual Media ( TV and Radio ). I now have over 50 e-mail media contacts ( newspaper, TV and Radio ) for CFC to use. If anyone can supply me with a contact with their local media across the country, and an e-mail address, I will add them to my lists.

This is a challenging task, but it is one of the core objectives of the CFC – promotion of chess to the general public through mainstream media.

Egidijus Zeromskis
10-06-2010, 09:54 PM
As several governors noted they are not reading much at chesstalks.
This one might be worth your time (and it is about chess promotion as/through the art)
Nuit Blanche Reunion music event
http://www.chesstalk.info/forum/showthread.php?t=3986

Bob Gillanders
10-06-2010, 11:02 PM
I am surprised there are not more posts on this thread.

We are always taking heat for our lack of public promotion, so thanks to Bob A. for doing something about it.

I am wondering if we can get video clips from the TV interviews with Yuanling to post on the CFC website! :)

Bob Armstrong
10-07-2010, 12:06 AM
Hi Bob:

Governor Chris Field, from the GTCL, kindly put the OMNI TV interview with Yuanling just before she went to the Olympiad, 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 clips interviewing me are not in Chinese:) :) !!

I will make it available to you the next time I see you. If you could copy it and return one copy to me, that would be appreciated.

Bob

Lyle Craver
10-07-2010, 01:12 AM
We should not be shy about having chessplayers on TV - most of Fischer's expenses for the 1958 Portoroz Interzonal were paid for by his appearance on Gary Moore's "I've Got a Secret". (I can't remember if this was detailed in Frank Brady's "Profile of a Prodigy" or Fischer's "My 60 Memorable Games")

This show was very similar to the CBC's Front Page Challenge where the panel had to by questioning reveal the guests' secret and of course the 'secret' was that this 14-15 year old kid was the United States champion who was about to go off to Europe to 'face off against the Russians'

So chessplayers have been on TV for a very long time and we should not be shy about pursuing whatever opportunities come our way.

Michael von Keitz
10-07-2010, 10:10 AM
most of Fischer's expenses for the 1958 Portoroz Interzonal were paid for by his appearance on Gary Moore's "I've Got a Secret".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7JcwOJADf8

Valer Eugen Demian
10-08-2010, 06:47 PM
While appearances of top players on local or natioanal TV and newspapers is great, I would think we should have a plan on how to promote chess. This plan should have some clear goals we would work toward accomplishing!

2 main goals I think CFC should follow (regardless of what happened in the past up to today) is:
1. Recognize chess as a sport in Canada
2. Have chess included as part of school curriculum

Anyone can add more as they wish!