6. Reports (L. Long-Term Planning Committee)

[Christopher Mallon]

I think we should have a chess server, and I think it's not nearly as difficult as some people would like us to believe.

It all depends on what we want to do with it. If all we want is somewhere that CFC members can play online, perhaps for means-nothing online ratings just for fun or perhaps not, that's easy. Bordering on Very Easy. Where it becomes more difficult is if you actually want to worry about cheating, which the online servers trying to make money have to worry about.

[Valer Eugen Demian]

How are you promoting chess at the grassroots? What do you think the CFC should be doing to help you?

From my own point of view I am not sure that I need any help from the CFC other than having the CFC refrain from doing things that undermine local efforts which I can say it hasn't done recently.

Thank you for this opportunity to re-introduce myself to those who know so little about me and our activity:

1. 1994-2001 Have taught chess in schools and one on one (private).

2. Since 2001 I am running the Golden Knights chess club and we are proud to provide Canada on a consistent basis with talented youth players such as WCM Alexandra Botez, Joanne Foote, Stefan Trandafir, Vlad Gaciu, Karen Lam, Jonah Lee, Jacob Jensen, John Doknjas etc to list here only those ones participating either at WYCC, NAICCC or other international tournaments.

3. BCYCC - every year at least half of the participants are or have been at some point members of our club.

4. Every 3-4 years I gather a new group of unknown youngsters (Daniel Du has finished 3rd in boys under 8 @ CYCC 2012 after only 2 years with us) and guide them between 4-5 years until they can hold their own in junior and adult tournaments as well.

5. Holding several chess shops in kindergarden, schools and libraries to promote the game.

What should CFC do to help me? Provide support, encouragement and promoting us as we are, one of the top junior clubs in the country. Outside of providing a space to list our names as any other club and rating our games, CFC has done nothing to us.
- Chess materials are from cheaper sources;
- Chess curriculum is ours;
- Investment (money and time is ours);
- Promotion is ours;
- Scounting us ours;
- Etc.

Don't you think success stories need to be told and CFC use them for the benefit of developing chess in Canada even more? Don't you think a relationship should be established between CFC and such chess activities?

[Valer Eugen Demian]

I think we should have a chess server, and I think it's not nearly as difficult as some people would like us to believe.

It all depends on what we want to do with it. If all we want is somewhere that CFC members can play online, perhaps for means-nothing online ratings just for fun or perhaps not, that's easy. Bordering on Very Easy. Where it becomes more difficult is if you actually want to worry about cheating, which the online servers trying to make money have to worry about.

There are literally hundreds of chess servers available for fun with tens of thousands of Canadian members actively playing there. If you cannot provide something special to atract them, the investment of setting up such a server could be a waste of time and money. It is not only about "cheating" a successful server is judged about!

I can give you several examples if you wish...