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Thread: Canadian Open 2015????

  1. #1

    Question Canadian Open 2015????

    The CFC provides two core services to its members:
    1) it calculates national ratings for regular, active and blitz events; and
    2) it arranges for major national events, notably including the Canadian Open and Closed as well as various women's and youth events.
    We all are aware of the crippling problems with the rating system although I must admit I have no idea why it continues to be an unfixable problem. I presume the Governors have taken steps to deal with the issue.
    As to the major events, I have not seen any serious communication from the CFC about the Canadian Open. Has it simply been allowed to drop from the schedule because of the failure of the Executive to encourage organizers to come forward with bids?
    Am I the only CFC member who finds this situation completely unacceptable?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Gordon Ritchie View Post
    The CFC provides two core services to its members:
    1) it calculates national ratings for regular, active and blitz events; and
    2) it arranges for major national events, notably including the Canadian Open and Closed as well as various women's and youth events.
    We all are aware of the crippling problems with the rating system although I must admit I have no idea why it continues to be an unfixable problem. I presume the Governors have taken steps to deal with the issue.
    The situation with the website will hopefully be resolved shortly with the CFC running its own server. The new internet provider should have come online today and should be up and running by Friday. Beyond telling us what the problem is our current providers have not been able to fix the situation except for temporary band aids which seem to last for a shorter and shorter period of time each time they are applied. At least now when the website crashes we will not have to wait for a response from an outside party. The solution that we came up with is not my first choice but I am hoping that it will be workable and will provide us with a stable website.

    As to the major events, I have not seen any serious communication from the CFC about the Canadian Open. Has it simply been allowed to drop from the schedule because of the failure of the Executive to encourage organizers to come forward with bids?
    Am I the only CFC member who finds this situation completely unacceptable?
    The situation can hardly be described as the executive failing to encourage organiziers to come forward with bids. We have talked seriously with no less than half a dozen individuals and groups who have been interested (at least at some point) in organizing a Canadian Open this year including four groups and individuals in Ontario (the final one not dead yet but on life support), two in Quebec and one from the Maritimes which was very serious in 2014 but eventually withdrew after failing to find adequate sponsorship. In the course of those discussions we have also uncovered two groups interested in organizing a Canadian Open next year along with some additional possibilities for a bid in 2016 or 2017.

    A significant complicating factor in even scheduling a Canadian Open has been the very full summer schedule of tournaments including the norm tournaments, the Quebec Open / AIDEF tournament, the Canadian Closed and Zonal, the Kitchener Chessfest and other events in Ontario this summer which do not leave any eight or nine day windows for a Canadian Open to be held without competing with another previously scheduled event.

  3. #3

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    Gee, Vlad, when I first read your response I thought it was a spoof.
    I wish you the best with your new service provider.
    As to the Open, there were many reasons why it was only viable in combination with the CYCC, not least the fact that the top kids played in both. The decision to separate the two was pretty well guaranteed to produce the current result.
    There was a time (up till last year?) when other events were preoccupied with not clashing with the Open rather than the other way around. Experience also proved that the Open must be awarded at least 6 months and preferably more than a year in advance.
    Nearly 10 years ago, it was proposed and, I believe, agreed, that the CFC should gather a group of the top organizers in Canada and have them plot out the schedule for the Open/CYCC five years in advance on a standard rotation (e.g. Ottawa, Victoria, Montreal, Calgary, Toronto, Edmonton, etc.)---but this came to nothing when Chris Mallon unilaterally decided to block access for the committee to its own chat room and the Executive (under Hal Bond) was apparently powerless to correct this bizarre situation. This remains the only tenable solution to the problem since the Open requires a) considerable lead time and b) combination with the CYCC for it to be viable.
    The fact remains that the Canadian Open has been the premier chess event in Canada for decades and its collapse is lamentable to say the least.
    In my view, this is one of the handful of services that the CFC still provides its members and the failure this year does not bode well for the CFC in the future.
    I am disappointed.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Gordon Ritchie View Post
    Nearly 10 years ago, it was proposed and, I believe, agreed, that the CFC should gather a group of the top organizers in Canada and have them plot out the schedule for the Open/CYCC five years in advance on a standard rotation (e.g. Ottawa, Victoria, Montreal, Calgary, Toronto, Edmonton, etc.)---but this came to nothing when Chris Mallon unilaterally decided to block access for the committee to its own chat room and the Executive (under Hal Bond) was apparently powerless to correct this bizarre situation.
    Sounds like something you'd read on a certain blog... mind cluing me in to exactly what chat room I blocked access for? Also, around 10 years ago we still had the (awesome) problem of competing bids for the Open.
    Christopher Mallon
    FIDE Arbiter

  5. #5

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    I do not believe your memory has failed to that extent. You know exactly what I am talking about. The CFC AGM in 2007 struck a committee which I was to chair to put the Open on a systematic footing. You were instructed to set up the necessary chat room. You did not, despite repeated requests/instructions from the president at the time, Hal Bond. Eventually, we gave up in disgust and went back to our busy lives.
    Bids do not just happen, today as then. (There were in fact no competing bids in 2006 for 2007 as the minutes clearly show.) The proposal was to establish a rota of events scheduled several years in advance and to provide a SWAT team of past organizers to help in recruiting, developing and evaluating bids and then supporting the winners on the basis of past best practice. Seemed obvious at the time.
    I am afraid you epitomize the problem, Chris.

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    Luckily we don't have to rely on memory, I am a digital pack-rat and still have every single email I've ever received/sent (other than some lost in early 2004 due to a hard drive corruption issue). I have absolutely not one single communication from Hal regarding such a chat room.
    There was a Tournament Committee forum set up on these newer forums (which were created in August 2008 thanks mainly to a generous contribution by Bob Armstrong) but I'm not sure they were ever really used - other than the rather large Youth committee, most committees seemed to prefer doing business by email instead.

    Quote Originally Posted by Gordon Ritchie View Post
    I do not believe your memory has failed to that extent. You know exactly what I am talking about. The CFC AGM in 2007 struck a committee which I was to chair to put the Open on a systematic footing. You were instructed to set up the necessary chat room. You did not, despite repeated requests/instructions from the president at the time, Hal Bond. Eventually, we gave up in disgust and went back to our busy lives.
    Bids do not just happen, today as then. (There were in fact no competing bids in 2006 for 2007 as the minutes clearly show.) The proposal was to establish a rota of events scheduled several years in advance and to provide a SWAT team of past organizers to help in recruiting, developing and evaluating bids and then supporting the winners on the basis of past best practice. Seemed obvious at the time.
    I am afraid you epitomize the problem, Chris.
    Christopher Mallon
    FIDE Arbiter

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    Gordon, thank you for raising this very important topic and for suggesting a possible solution. In my experience with NATO chess, the committee comprised of a representative from each country, meets annually during the championship event and finds a way to get countries to commit 5 years into the future.
    I'd like to see us encourage Halifax to take 2016 then perhaps Toronto, Calgary, Ottawa and Winnipeg. The CYCC definitely has to follow the C.O.
    One small point; the rating system isn't crippled, it's the website. The rating system is functioning like clockwork when I we can get access to it (?!)
    Paul Leblanc
    Treasurer, Chess Foundation of Canada
    CFC Voting Member

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    An outside the box idea: contract out the CYCC and C.O. to a competent businessman such as Bill Goichberg or Larry Bevan. I believe they are both CFC life members, after all.
    Paul Leblanc
    Treasurer, Chess Foundation of Canada
    CFC Voting Member

  9. #9

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    I agree completely but you should add Montreal into the rota.

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