5b. FIDE Report

[Bob Armstrong]

"Use it or lose it" was stated in the context of funding. The basic premise is that we pay for the champ if he/she want to go, but no one else. This may be seen as a grouchy way to cut costs, and no doubt there are more progressive, inclusive alternatives. I'm just saying that too often we overlook the need to cover the cost of staying alive - all programs should be subject to this reality to the fullest extent possible.

I'm not convinced of the " use it or lose it ".

Whatever the first prize, however defined, it should go to the winner regardless of whether s/he chooses the World Junior or the Pan-Am Junior. We need to make the prize the most advantageous possible, and should not retreat from that on the basis of some cost cutting concept.

Bob A

[Christopher Mallon]

No Bob, the first prize should BE a trip to the World Junior, and if the first-place player wants to decline that, I don't see why they should get an equal-value prize to some other tournament.

[Hal Bond]

This is from the FIDE website. The World Senior, Junior and Amateur all have self financing elements which would make them potentially interesting for us:

A. Open for Bids FIDE Events
A. World Junior Championship 2014
B. World Senior Championship 2014
C. World Amateur Championship 2014
D. World Youth U16 Olympiad 2014
E. World School Individual Championship 2014
B. Deadlines:
Deadline for the 2014 events is 1st March 2012

All bids to be submitted by the due dates in sealed envelopes to the FIDE Secretariat.
Address: 9 Siggrou Avenue, Athens, Greece 11743

With effect from 1 January 2012, the following timelines shall be observed:-

• 1 March – Deadline for Bids
• 30 June – Completion of Inspection Visits
• 31 July – Deadline for submission of Evaluation Reports
• General Assembly/Executive Board to Award successful bids.
C. Bid fees:

All bids for 2014 must be accompanied with a bid fee:
2.000 Euro – World Youth;
1.000 Euro – World Junior;
500 Euro – all other FIDE competitions

Bid Fees are not refundable. Bid fees should be paid the latest by 8st March 2012 to the FIDE bank account (free of charges) or to be enclosed in the bid envelope.

D. Deposit fees:

FIDE Congress (General Assembly/Executive Board): 10,000 Euro
Presidential Board Meeting: 5,000 Euro
World Team Championship: 10,000 Euro
World Youth Under-8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18 Championships (see also regulation 17): 30,000 Euro
World Junior Championship: 10,000 Euro
World Senior Championship: 10,000 Euro
World Rapid Championship: 10,000 Euro
World Amateur Championship: 5,000 Euro

Deposit fees should be paid the latest one month after the official notification that a FIDE event granted to a National Federation. Deposit fees can be paid to the FIDE Bank account or by a bank guarantee sent to FIDE without any terms. When the event has been successfully concluded the deposit fee shall be credited to the account of the organizing federation or refunded.

E. Inspections

Inspection Visits shall be made by an Event Inspector (EI) nominated by the Presidential Board (PB) and the EVE. Ideally, the EI shall be chosen from the same continent of the bidder.

The cost of Inspection Visits – travel and per diem – shall be covered by FIDE. The bidder shall be responsible for hosting the EI with a double-room and meals for the duration of not more than two working days.

[Lyle Craver]

So to merely bid for an Olympiad costs 500 Euros?

Does FIDE intend to charge for Zonals?

Seems like an impressive money grab to me...

[Pierre Dénommée]

I have read the minute of the last FIDE meeting. The legality of half-point byes for Swiss tournaments was on the agenda but I did not find any decision on this matter in the minutes. Are the minutes right?

This was the original agenda http://www.fide.com/images/stories/N...ee_meeting.pdf . The point of interest is

Half-Point-Bye
Acceptance at all
Floater aspects
Colour aspects
Other byes after such a bye

Under item 13 of those minutes http://www.fide.com/images/stories/N...Commission.pdf , a player can receive only on bye in a tournament. It is unclear if this includes half-point byes.

1. Is FIDE telling us that a player cannot take more then one half-point bye per tournament?
2. If a player has received a full point bye, does the arbiter has to revoke his future half-points byes?

This gets confusing because FIDE has amended the Swiss rules to allow half point instead of full point for the player who does not have an opponent because the number of participants is odd. When I read half-point byes in FIDE document, I have to wonder if they mean their replacement for full point bye or our half-point byes which are requested by players.

Here is the new FIDE Swiss rule Should the total number of players be (or become) odd, one player ends up unpaired. This player receives a bye: no opponent, no colour , 1 point or half point. A bye is considered to be a downfloat.

I'm quite sure that FIDE is only speaking about their half-point byes but I want to be sure. Fortunately, Hall was there at the Technical commission meeting and should be able to clarify the situation.

[Hal Bond]

As I understand it a player may receive more than one half point (requested) bye, even though it bothers the purists. I was at this meeting to protect the practice of half point byes and the discussion became quite convoluted. I don't recall the half point forced bye being discussed at all. I'll follow up with the TC chair.

[Hal Bond]

Lyle - Zonal fees are a long standing reality. In 2004/5 the zonal fees became payable to FIDE America. $750 a pop. This will increase to $1000 in 2014 I believe. And we will start paying an annual zone fee of $400 to exist.

[Lyle Craver]

I understand that - what it looked like from your posting was that FIDE wanted 500 Euros from Canadian Closed bidders on top of that whether the bidder was successful or not!

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

If any of you have ideas for Olympic fundraising please let me know. For the moment the fundraising activities are essentially comprised of donations and designated tournaments. Again I encourage all of you to be in touch with prospective donors and organizers in your area to promote our Olympic efforts.

You should spread the word The Newsletters should one of the main ways to reach members. Get a permanent space with a donors' list (it could be structured by the amount of contributions), profiles of potential players (the two last issues have interviews with Olympic teams members, keep this tradition and emphasize Olympics), some historical facts (smth 30-40-50-60-70 years ago Canadians beat such and such GM), recently finished tournaments which raised monies, etc

[Hal Bond]

Yes Egis - that is part of the plan. Can you help?