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Jonathan Berry
11-04-2008, 12:23 PM
The Pan American Continental Championship
http://chesseducators.com/

takes place November 1-7 in Miami, Florida, USA.

Ehlvest, A.Ivanov, Leon Hoyos and Lima lead with 3-0.

http://chesseducators.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/nov32008panamcont_wallchart.html

The existence of this event came as a surprise to me. Previously it had taken place in South America. Canadians have played several times. No Canadians are taking part in Miami, among the 58 players.

Yes, this is the official FIDE event, I found it on the FIDE Calendar, with a link to the (top) website.

Bob Armstrong
11-04-2008, 12:45 PM
Hi Jonathan:

As I recollect about the 7 top finishers get spots in the FIDE World Cup. It is open to all North, Central and South Americans. Is this correct?

Bob

Jonathan Berry
11-04-2008, 06:52 PM
That's the way it has been, Bob. As to the future, well, I did manage to find FIDE World Cup at Khanty-Mansiysk (but no dates) sometime in 2009. But if it's in the latter third of the year, maybe that would mean a later Pan Am would be the qualifier. Guesswork.

If it is a qualifier for the World Cup, then Canadian players would normally compete, if they knew about it....

Lawrence Day
11-05-2008, 12:37 AM
This was posted in upcoming tournaments back mid-October:

Dear Canadian Chess Players:

It will be good to have at least one player from Canada participating in the Pan American Continental Championship. Therefore, we will eliminate the entry fee [$200] for the first player from Canada who register in the tournament.

This event usually takes place in South America, for the first time we are hosting it in the USA. One player will qualify to the FIDE World Cup, and as per continental regulations, this event gives 20 games norms for international titles.

All the best,

Beatriz Marinello

Michael Barron
11-05-2008, 12:48 AM
Jonathan,

Canadian players knew about it since 08-29-2008 - please see this thread on the Tournament Announcements Forum:
http://www.chesscanada.info/forum/showthread.php?t=46

Unfortunately, there was no much interest...

Would you play if knew about it?

Jonathan Berry
11-05-2008, 12:48 PM
Would you play if knew about it?
As always, "Maybe". Perhaps the timing was not good for the Alberta contingent, who have been playing in the USA a lot. Perhaps the promise of only one World Cup spot, rather than seven, was a negative for our top players. Perhaps some of the 177 clicks for that topic were looking for the Pan American Intercollegiate.

Probably, I'm the only person who assumed that Tournament Announcements was for domestic events and that postings would be sporadic. In fact, there are many announcements. I look for local events in the BCCF Email Bulletin, and wasn't expecting a norm event in greater Canada until next summer, the 2009 Canadian Closed, perhaps.

In ye olde days, this sort of event would have prompted a snail mail letter, at least to the top 20 or so players. Today, that could be done by email at no cost, with the selection criteria:

IF (FIDE_RATING > 1999) AND (COUNTRY <> "FO") THEN SENDMAIL email729

I'm not complaining, just pointing out that there can be alternative ways to get the word around. We still have the difference that Canadians went to (far away and expensive) South America, but this year didn't go to closer Miami.


Becerra, Ehlvest, Alex Ivanov, Leon, Lima, and Friedel now lead with 4-1. To get the current crosstable, you need to refresh the homepage

http://chesseducators.com/

and then click on standings. The URL to the standings changes with each round.

Michael Barron
11-06-2008, 12:30 AM
Jonathan,

At no cost you can get only a cheese in mousetrap.
Yes, with technology advancement the cost of information exchange could be reduced, but still there is a cost associated with anything useful.
Time is money.
You could volunteer and donate your time - or you could hire somebody to do a work for you.
Our President estimates that an hour of CFC Office work costs $60.
If you want information to be delivered by snail mail to your mailbox or by email to your Inbox, you should pay for it.

We could add this work to job description of paid CFC employee - or develop an hierarchical system of information distribution on volunteer basis.

Meantime we could agree on some kind of collaboration with two-sided efforts:
I will post information on the CFC Forum, and you will come and read it there.

By the way, there is another fantastic opportunity for young players - International Youth Camp at Chess Olympiad -
please see http://www.chesscanada.info/forum/showthread.php?t=165

If I was 17, I would certainly grab it...

Please spread a word, if you know somebody who could be interested.

Lawrence Day
11-06-2008, 12:13 PM
I think there are strong negatives for this tournament that account for the low attendance. 63 players is small with such a subsidized prize fund.

FIDE has taken North and South America and considered them as one continent. When there were 7 qualifying spots it was not so serious but for this event there is only one, a drastic reduction.

Also a Western Hemisphere player has a serious disadvantage at Khanty since the time zones and long trip will guarantee jet lag for the first few days and the knockout format will guarantee that only exceptionally alert play will survive the deliberately imbalanced first round pairing.

A realist will find this situation discouraging, especially compared to old Interzonals where many more games were played. The new system has too much travel for the actual chess played.

Another problem is political. Where are the Cuban representatives? When one country is blockading another it seems unfair to hold FIDE qualifiers in the belligerant country. I'm sure the USCF would be complaining if this event had been awarded to Havana.

Then there are normal personal safety issues: hurricanes, very high crime rate and the possibility of riots if Florida had (mis)counted their ballots as egregiously as four years ago.

All in all it was an easy tournament to reject.

Jonathan Berry
11-06-2008, 12:13 PM
Jaan Ehlvest leads the Pan American Championship with 5.5 / 7. Seven players have 5. No Canadians.


Jonathan,

At no cost you can get only a cheese in mousetrap.
Yes, with technology advancement the cost of information exchange could be reduced, but still there is a cost associated with anything useful.
Time is money.
You could volunteer and donate your time - or you could hire somebody to do a work for you.
I have volunteered to do computer programming for the CFC (not my project, but something they want to do), and on multiple occasions it has been a frustrating experience, ultimately a waste of my time.



Our President estimates that an hour of CFC Office work costs $60.
If you want information to be delivered by snail mail to your mailbox or by email to your Inbox, you should pay for it.

Once a system is set up, no CFC Office work would be required. I don't see how an office, in the sense that we have known it since 1973, can be maintained anyway, given the lack of income sources. The CFC needs automation.

It was clearly my mistake to think that the Pan American Championship, which qualifies player(s) directly to the World Cup, was anywhere near as important as the Women's Olympiad or the WYCC, upon which both, the CFC devotes considerable resources, and communicates with players by mail, either snail- or e-, I don't know. "Players wishing to inquire about their eligibility for X should enclose $20." Maybe that's the magic formula the CFC has been seeking.



We could add this work to job description of paid CFC employee - or develop an hierarchical system of information distribution on volunteer basis.

Meantime we could agree on some kind of collaboration with two-sided efforts:
I will post information on the CFC Forum, and you will come and read it there.

Loud and clear. I'm sorry that you didn't find my suggestion constructive.

Bob Armstrong
11-06-2008, 12:35 PM
Hi Lawrence:

The North/Central/South Americas used to be assigned a certain number of FIDE World Cup places, and as I understand it they were divided up between the Americas zones, and the Continental Championship. Now that the number of places for the Continental has been reduced from 7 to 1, where did the other 6 places go? Were they reassigned to the Americas zones, or did they just disappear? Canada, a separate Americas zone, certainly didn't get any extra World Cup places.

Bob

( or perhaps Michael Barron, our FIDE rep. can answer this question )

Lawrence Day
11-06-2008, 12:39 PM
Back in snail mail days an invitation to the Capablanca Memorial was deposited in the waste basket by President Pugi rather than being forwarded to eligible players.

At least with the posted online system such political interference is avoided.

Erik Malmsten
11-06-2008, 06:48 PM
Building the database requires many hands. Tournament Directors should be collecting email addresses on their entry forms and the CFC should collect email adresses of members. Mark Dutton had maintained such a list years ago. If organizers haven't been doing so, they can start now and in a year we would have an email list of all active players.

Promoting tournaments and getting feedback is so much cheaper and easier by email. Especially with no magazine.

Certainly at the master level there needs to be a master network, possibly maintained by the CFC's Master Rep. There are master issues like foreign invites, receving FIDE titles, the Canadian Championship, media requests or even just finding a FIDE-rated event.

There is a Governor email list and from the CFC I received an email on the Olympiad fundraiser at Umbro on Sunday. Every CFC member should have gotten that email.

Michael Barron
11-06-2008, 10:38 PM
Jonathan,

Sorry if I missed your constructive suggestion.

Did you suggest that YOU will do it?

Michael Barron
11-06-2008, 10:46 PM
Hi Bob,

I don't think the other 6 places were reassigned to the Americas zones or just disappeared.

I guess, you could find an answer at the Confederation of Chess for Americas website:
http://www.fideamerica.com/

Sorry, I don't read Spanish, and could only guess that
• Continental Absolute Championship, El Salvador
which supposed to take place in 2009, will award remaining 6 places.

Jonathan Berry
11-07-2008, 02:39 PM
USA players Jaan Ehlvest and Josh Friedel lead with 6/8, ahead of the pack on 5.5. In today's (Friday) final round, Ehlvest has White against the ever dangerous Alex Shabalov, while Friedel has his hands full as Black against 2602 GM Julio Becerra.

http://chesseducators.com/