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Thread: FIDE Congress Report - Baku 2016

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    Default FIDE Congress Report - Baku 2016

    The 2016 Olympiad and 87th FIDE Congress was held in Baku, Azerbaijan from September 1-14. Overall the event was very well organized. I arrived with our President , Vlad Drkulec as well as Alexandre LeSiege, Qiyu Zhou, Lali Agbabishvili and Maili-Jade Ouellet and we were greeted by helpful volunteers who arranged ground transportation from the airport.

    Arrival day was complicated because both the Opening Ceremonies and Captains’ meeting were scheduled on this same day and many delegations were arriving in the evening. National team Captain Victor Plotkin advised us that had he was one such late arrival and asked our Women’s Captain, Aman Hambleton, to ensure that he obtained all instructions and documentation from the Captains’ meeting. As luck would have it Aman missed his flight so Vlad and I attended the Captains’ meeting and Vlad stood in as Women’s Captain for the first round.

    Although the organization was thorough the logistics were difficult. The hotels were spread out so I spent no time with the team because I was with the other Delegates in a separate hotel. The security at the playing hall was also very thorough – perhaps too much so. Vlad split his time between the team/playing hall and with me at the Congress. It was a packed fortnight for both of us and I am glad Vlad could attend.

    FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov is no longer involved in the finance and operations of FIDE but he does continue to represent FIDE in a ceremonial capacity and he is often invited to attend the openings of various events. He was on hand for the Congress and he briefed the General Assembly on his activities of the past year, including his situation with the US Treasury Department. He advised that he has reached out to the Treasury Department and to the White House, offering to become a US citizen and be tried on American soil. He also offered to submit to a polygraph test. He maintains that his activities in Syria were peaceful chess overtures. He also waved an envelope at the Assembly which he claimed was a reply from the Treasury Department and invited everyone to review it on his website. He described some of the evidence against him but he failed to mention that most of the transcript was blacked out.

    All told I was more sympathetic to his plight than beforehand , and I got the feeling that many other Delegates were too. Jamaican Delegate Ian Wilkinson was given the floor to present his motion calling for Kirsan’s immediate resignation. Although the motion was submitted too late for proper inclusion in the agenda, it was still heard and it was discussed. No formal vote was taken but the prevailing mood was not supportive of the motion.

    Acting President Giorgios Makropoulous advised the Assembly that Kirsan understood that he could not run for President in 2018 if this matter was not resolved. It is worth noting at this point that no Presidential candidates for 2018 are visible. Kasparov is reportedly not interested, Kirsan is a question mark and no one else is making their intentions known. I also spoke to FIDE CEO Geoffrey Borg about Kirsan’s election promise to Canada. He is aware of our predicament and is hopeful for a solution in early 2017.

    FIDE Finances were next on the agenda. Rumours of FIDE’s imminent bankruptcy have been circulating ever since 2015’s financial statements were released. In 2014 and 2015 FIDE has posted deficits totalling €1.68 million, shrinking its net worth to just over €330,000. I spent some time with Treasurer Adrian Siegel, former Treasurer David Jarret and Executive Director Nigel Freeman in addition attending to the Verification Commission meeting. Many factors contributed to the current situation, including a false sense of prosperity created by the extra World Championship Match. One expense which I found particularly irritating was the €32K cost of the Presidential Board to attend the Congress last year in Abu Dhabi. I spent considerable time working with FQE President Bernard Labadie last year on a bid to host this Congress in Montreal. In the end the project was abandoned because of the cost of hosting the Presidential Board. Apparently this can be optional!

    In any case, it seems that our key stewards understand the gravity of the situation and austerity measures have been adopted. Forecast surpluses to the end of 2017 exceed half a million Euros, and even numbered years like 2018 traditionally generate a surplus.

    New Member Federations were confirmed by the Assembly. Five of them were due to be confirmed in Tromso two years ago but lack of a quorum prevented it: Burkina Faso, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Tanzania and Timor Leste. Newer confirmations include South Sudan, Eritrea, Kosovo, Liberia, Nauru and Cabo Verde.
    AIDEF was approved as an affiliated organization. The ASEAN Chess Confederation remains disaffiliated, pursuant to issues relating to Ignatius Leong (who was not removed from office)and TonyTam (who was unlawfully sanctioned).

    Commission Reports were next on the agenda. Each Commission meets prior to the General Assembly where their reports and any proposals are discussed. Their final submissions are then presented to the General Assembly for approval. This time round, the Assembly was asked to defer this matter to the Presidential Board in order to ensure that no proposals conflicted with one another. Title applications for Players, Arbiters and Trainers were approved however.

    Arbiters’ Commission: A moment of silence was observed for the late Sevan Muradian of the USA, who died suddenly of a heart attack earlier this year. He was a rock and a star with plenty of moves left in him. Very sad.

    No new applications were received from Canada, but congratulations to IA Aris Marghetis who has been upgraded to a Class B Arbiter. Chief among the changes approved at the meeting are that Seminar Lecturers will have to be B level Arbiters going forward. This was proposed by India’s IA Rathinam Anantharam, and although it was favoured by members of the Commission, it was opposed by the floor. Oh well.

    Qualification Commission: A number of measures aimed at tightening up the award of norms and titles were approved by the QC. These measures are scheduled to take effect as of July 1, 2017. Direct titles will require a minimum rating within 200 points of the rating required for titles earned by norms or rating alone:
    GM 2300 WGM 2100
    IM 2200 WIM 2000
    FM 2100 WFM 1900
    CM 2000 WCM 1800

    Norms earned at Olympiads will no longer count for twice the games played, and performance norms will be eliminated completely.

    Congratulations to Razvan Preotu, Canada’s newest Grandmaster. Razvan’s title application was initially denied because one of his norms did not have a FIDE Arbiter. This was an error in timing. Paul Truong was the Arbiter for the event in question and his FA title was approved by the Arbiters’ Commission in Tromso, 2014. The General Assembly was not quorate on the final day and was thus unable to ratify the titles. I was able to speak with the Chairs of both the Arbiters’ Commission and Qualification Commission and the matter was resolved in Razvan’s favour.

    Rules Commission:
    I was unable to attend these meetings. No less than 50 refinements, changes and deletions are proposed to take effect July 1, 2017. A table of changes was produced and should be published on the FIDE website in due course.

    Ethics Commission: The main case decided upon regards the European Youth Championships in Budva, 2013. At issue was a false “ECU” bank account which actually belonged to a company incorporated in Delaware USA, allegedly owned by the wife of one of the accused. Apparently over €400K has been deposited to this account. It is not clear to me whether this is a misrepresentation of the payee or if the any or all of these funds are actually owed to the European Chess Union. In any event, Mr. Vladimir Sakotic has been banned for 3 years, Mr. Silvio Danailov has been banned for 18 months, and Ms. Sava Stoisavljenic has been banned for 6 months. Further, the Bulgarian Chess Federation has been sanctioned for punishing 3 of its whistleblower members, namely GM Kiril Georgiev, Simeon Stoichkov and M. Stoynev. The ECU has also issued sanctions against the Bulgarian Chess Federation.

    This case was also played out in the CAS (Sport Court) in Switzerland, which ruled in FIDE’s favour. The other case before CAS concerns Ignatius Leong, who challenged the verdict of the Ethics Commission relative to his electoral contract with Garry Kasparov. The decision is due by the end of September.

    Social Action: Chair Beatriz Marinello reported on the activities of her commission and aired the trailer for the Disney movie “The Queen of Katwe”. This movie is based on a true story in Uganda, and is to some degree a FIDE story. I look forward to seeing this movie and I encourage all chess players to support it.

    FIDE Events include the following hilites:

    The proposal of the Russian Federation to permit a World Championship match from a challenger outside the FIDE WC Cycle was rejected.

    AGON presented its plans for the World Championship and Grand Prix. In the interest of transparency they have agreed to register their company in the UK instead of an “off shore” location.

    AGON will continue to protect their broadcast rights vigorously. They are optimistic that a broadcast package of the World Championship match in New York will be very popular at a price of USD 15.00. We also discussed the venue for the match and I questioned Mr. Merenzon directly about soundproofing, which was an issue at the Moscow Candidates. He contends that the lesson was learned in Moscow and that soundproofing in New York will be in place. Tickets to attend the games are expected to sell out very quickly.

    Changes to the Grand Prix are notable. The format will switch to a 24 player swiss. The marketing emphasis has shifted from the events to the players, with a goal of attracting $100k in sponsorship for each player. Federations interested in hosting an event will be able to name their own player for this fee of $100K. The funds are to be split between the player, the organizer and the prize fund.

    FIDE VP GM Zurab Azmaiparashvili of Georgia reported on the state of preparations for the 2018 Olympiad. He acknowledged the high level of organization in Baku and believes they can meet this standard in 2018. Due to their Presidential Elections on October 10 of that year, Zurab proposed to move the dates forward by a week, to start on September 16. Israel expressed concerns due to Yom Kippur. Zurab was prepared to stick to the original dates of September 23-October 7 . He also requested permission to move the World Cup in 2017 from Tbilisi to Batumi because the hotel costs were more reasonable for the players. This was accepted.

    The Women’s World Championship Tournament is scheduled for Tehran in February of 2017. There was discussion about this cycle. The Chinese Delegate supported the position of World Champion Hou Yifan, who opposes the knockout World Championship. I find it very strange that the Women’s title is on the line every year with alternating formats. FIDE maintains that the knockout tournament cannot attract sponsors if it does not produce a World Champion. For now the status quo remains. Iran has stepped up for 2017 and Khanty Mansiysk has come forward with a package deal.

    Khanty Mansiysk has successfully bid for the 2018 Women’s World Championship Tournament, 2019 World Cup and the 2020 Olympiad. Because the Olympiad has grown since their 2010 rendition, concerns were raised about the number of hotel beds, the playing hall and charter flights to this remote destination. The Governor of the region flew in to address the General Assembly. Although we got a flower show, Marko assured the Assembly that all concerns were addressed in face to face meetings with the Governor . The package was approved. Curiously, it was then announced that the Governor was up for re-election. I hope this does not put the package at risk!

    The World Cadet (8,10,12) will take place in Brasilia Brazil, August 21-31 2017. The World Youth (14,16,18) will be in Montevideo Uruguay, September 16-26, 2017.

    Greece has bid successfully for the World Cadet from October 24-November 5 2018, and Spain has the World Youth from November 3 – 16.

    The World Schools is not an event which Canada typically supports, but the event has been bid through to 2019.
    2016: Sochi Russia, 2-12 December
    2017: Iasi Romania, 21-30 April
    2018: Durres Albania, 20-30 April
    2019: Tunisia, dates TBA

    Other Events:
    World Junior 2017: Tarvisio Italy, 1-16 October
    World Junior 2018: Antalya Turkey, 15-29 September

    World Senior 2017: Acqui Terme Italy, 6-19 September
    World Senior 2018: Bled, Slovenia 17-30 November

    Commonwealth Chess Association:
    The most recent event in Sri Lanka was discussed. There was some controversy regarding prize eligibility for players and sections. While bids were accepted for South Africa for 2017 and Zambia for 2018, Association Chair Bharat Singh made it clear to Vlad and I that a bid from Canada would be extremely well received and that South Africa would step aside in 2017, perhaps December.

    FIDE America:
    Although the meeting was congenial it lasted for 5 hours. New regulations were approved including finances. Beginning next year, the NAYCC will be charged USD20 per player instead of USD15. The original proposal was USD 40. After my objection the amount was halved. Future Zonal tournaments will be subject to USD75 per player.

    The North American Junior returns to USA next year. The NAYCC is due for Mexico but they were absent from the meeting and no bid has been received. Other 2017 events:

    Continental Open: Columbia, June 9-19.
    Continental Women’s: Argentina, dates TBA
    Continental Seniors: Columbia, October 11-16
    Continental Youth: Costa Rica, June 30 – July 7
    Continental Junior: El Salvador, June 5 – 11

    For 2018:

    Continental Open: Uruguay
    Continental Women’s: TBA
    Continental Seniors: St Croix, US Virgin Islands
    Continental Youth: Santiago Chile
    Continental Junior: Ecuador

    Please do not hesitate to contact me if you are interested in organizing any FIDE, Commonwealth or FIDE America events.

    Last but certainly not least, I congratulate Canada’s IA and former Delegate Phil Haley on becoming an Honorary FIDE Member .

    Respectfully Submitted
    Hal Bond
    FIDE Zone 2.2 President and Delegate
    28 September, 2016

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    The most controversial point of the sessions was the awarding of the 64 player 2017 (was 2016) Women's World Championship Tournament to Iran. This matter is currently being discussed by the Executive as well as a lively "no-holds barred" debate on Chess Talk (I've already been called a naïve moron). The facts are that this event was already postponed once as their was no bidder, and Iran was the only country to come forward at the congress.

    Concerns include personal safety while in Iran, as well as the country's customs towards women, which are considered sexist in the Western world.

    The winner of the Canadian Women's Closed, Qiyu Zhou, has indicated her intention to participate, although at least one country's (USA) representative has already said she will not participate. The media is getting turned on by this with articles already appearing in the UK and Canada. Presumably the US won't be far behind.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Hal Bond View Post
    Chief among the changes approved at the meeting are that Seminar Lecturers will have to be B level Arbiters going forward. This was proposed by India’s IA Rathinam Anantharam, and although it was favoured by members of the Commission, it was opposed by the floor. Oh well.
    We are speaking of lecturers here, not super elite arbiters. I have been a part-time Faculty in a real university for many years. The skills set required for lecturing has very little in common with the skills expected from an arbiter.

    Apart from that, Canada should have complained about this A,B,C and D classification. Many Canadian IA are as competent as any IA C, they can lead very large tournaments and a team of arbiters but because most of the tournament is not FIDE rated, our arbiters do not get any credit for their work. The last Montreal Open was a 239 players tournament for which FIDE will give me credit for 56 players http://fqechecs.qc.ca/cotes/tournois/id/5282 . Another problem is that FIDE demands that the 150 players required for promotion to C level be in a single section, this is very rare in Canada.

    Lecturers in language other then English are not in sufficient number. The FQE has to pay a high cost to get a lecturer from oversea. The FQE would like to have a Quebec IA capable of giving those seminar for cost saving reason. It is not the time to increase the requirement for lecturers until we have a sufficient number of them locally.


    Quote Originally Posted by Hal Bond View Post
    The World Cadet (8,10,12) will take place in Brasilia Brazil, August 21-31 2017. The World Youth (14,16,18) will be in Montevideo Uruguay, September 16-26, 2017.

    Greece has bid successfully for the World Cadet from October 24-November 5 2018, and Spain has the World Youth from November 3 – 16.

    The World Schools is not an event which Canada typically supports, but the event has been bid through to 2019.
    2016: Sochi Russia, 2-12 December
    2017: Iasi Romania, 21-30 April
    2018: Durres Albania, 20-30 April
    2019: Tunisia, dates TBA

    Other Events:
    World Junior 2017: Tarvisio Italy, 1-16 October
    World Junior 2018: Antalya Turkey, 15-29 September

    World Senior 2017: Acqui Terme Italy, 6-19 September
    World Senior 2018: Bled, Slovenia 17-30 November

    Commonwealth Chess Association:
    The most recent event in Sri Lanka was discussed. There was some controversy regarding prize eligibility for players and sections. While bids were accepted for South Africa for 2017 and Zambia for 2018, Association Chair Bharat Singh made it clear to Vlad and I that a bid from Canada would be extremely well received and that South Africa would step aside in 2017, perhaps December.

    FIDE America:
    Although the meeting was congenial it lasted for 5 hours. New regulations were approved including finances. Beginning next year, the NAYCC will be charged USD20 per player instead of USD15. The original proposal was USD 40. After my objection the amount was halved. Future Zonal tournaments will be subject to USD75 per player.

    The North American Junior returns to USA next year. The NAYCC is due for Mexico but they were absent from the meeting and no bid has been received. Other 2017 events:

    Continental Open: Columbia, June 9-19.
    Continental Women’s: Argentina, dates TBA
    Continental Seniors: Columbia, October 11-16
    Continental Youth: Costa Rica, June 30 – July 7
    Continental Junior: El Salvador, June 5 – 11

    For 2018:

    Continental Open: Uruguay
    Continental Women’s: TBA
    Continental Seniors: St Croix, US Virgin Islands
    Continental Youth: Santiago Chile
    Continental Junior: Ecuador

    Please do not hesitate to contact me if you are interested in organizing any FIDE, Commonwealth or FIDE America events.

    I do hope we have a plan to send arbiters to all of those opportunities for IA C and B promotion. There is no need to send a team in order to send arbiters. We have not been using all opportunities to the best. The main difference between an IA D and an IA C is that the latter ha been given the opportunity to act as an arbiter in a suitable tournament. Because those suitable tournaments are rare at home, it makes sense to look elsewhere.

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    Pierre I agree with your objection to the Lecturer requirements. Several people in the meeting objected and I voted against it. I am willing to advocate for any Arbiter's promotion is you send me your case. The AIDEF tournament would receive fair consideration.

    As for Arbiting opportunities, we have a competitive situation in FIDE America, and we are at a cost disadvantage. I am more than willing to recommend Canadian Arbiters for these events but it is ultimately up to the the organizer. No doubt the size of our delegation at any given event will be taken into account.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Hal Bond View Post
    Pierre I agree with your objection to the Lecturer requirements. Several people in the meeting objected and I voted against it. I am willing to advocate for any Arbiter's promotion is you send me your case. The AIDEF tournament would receive fair consideration.
    For the last AIDEF event in Montreal, the official organiser was the AIDEF, not the FQE. The AIDEF chose to give the Chief Arbiter and Deputy Chief Arbiter positions to foreign IAs from Italia and Tunesia regardless of the higher fee. No Canadian IA benefited from this tournament. Actually, the two Canadian arbiters are listed as Arbiters instead of Deputy Arbiter, which will give them no FIDE credit for level C. Arbiters get level C credit only for those events : the Candidates Tournament, World Cup, World Team Championships for Men and Women, Grand Prix for Men and Women.

    I understand that we are disadvantaged because we are usually very far from the action.

    FIDE has begun its arbiter training project. Anyone can participate and I have already emailed Aris Marghetis. The more we participate in the FIDE process, the less likely we will dislike the result. This is not restricted to one person per country, so we can participate in great number.

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    Baku Olympiad and FIDE meetings report Vlad Drkulec CFC President
    Flight and Arrival in Baku August 31st through September 1st.
    Hal Bond and I and some of the Olympiad players including Qiyu Zhou and Lali Agbabishvili were on the same itinerary flying from Toronto leaving on August 31st, 2016 to Paris and then from Paris to Baku arriving on September 1st in Azerbaijan. The Paris to Baku leg of the flight was delayed. We were supposed to meet up with the women’s team captain Aman Hambleton but he never showed up in Paris though we watched for him like an audience of the play “Waiting for Godot”. We did meet up with Maili Jade Ouellett and grandmaster Alexandre Lesiege in Paris but there was no sign or word from the women’s team captain.
    There was a delay in Paris for no discernible reason and our flight was late arriving in Baku. Aman was supposed to fill in for Victor Plotkin at the captain’s meeting which was scheduled for 10:30 pm just after the opening ceremony. Since Aman wasn’t there Hal Bond and I filled in for Victor and Aman though by the time we got off the flight we were already half an hour late for the meeting. The organizers were all set to take us to our respective hotels but we and about a dozen captains asked them to take us to the captains meeting and they didn’t miss a beat commandeering one of the smaller hotel buses to take us to the National Gymnastics Center where the opening and closing ceremonies and captains meetings were held.

    Fortunately the captains meeting had not yet wound up when we arrived and we were able to obtain the passwords, green ID cards and instructions to register the teams for the next day’s game. Since Victor Plotkin had posted on chesstalk the team board order we were able to change the default order of the men’s team to the one that Victor posted. We had no such instructions for the women’s team and ordered the players by rating.
    Since there was still no sign of Aman and no word on what was going on mostly because we were incommunicado during the Paris airport stop and while we were in flight, I was inserted as the women’s team captain for the first round and possibly beyond if Aman didn’t show up. This was necessary in order to do the lineup submission and obtain first round pairings.

    The captain’s meeting was a bit of a free for all with many of the English and Americans strenuously objecting to some of the rules for players including the bathroom rules. Its probably the main reason that the meeting was still going when Hal and I arrived. I took the captain’s packages with the thought that I was to get the men’s team package to Victor at the Boulevard Hotel where I and the team were staying. Hal was at the Fairmont.
    We met John Donaldson the U.S. mens team captain, Maurice Ashley, Yasser Sereiwan, Geoffrey Borg and Nigel Freeman among others at the captains meeting.
    September 1st was a bit of a rough night as most of us had been up for a day straight and physically it was a bit draining with the jet lag still in full force. It took about an hour and a half or so after the captain’s meeting before the buses left the National Gymnastic Center parking lot and headed back to the various hotels. We had to change buses at one point and eventually I got to the Boulevard Hotel with my baggage and the captain’s packages. At the hotel I was faced with a lineup that was not that long but didn’t discernably move for about an hour due to some issues with the first person in line. Whatever the issue was it finally got resolved and then the line started moving. I encountered Victor Plotkin while I was waiting in line and handed him the packages for the captains and scheduled a morning meeting for all the players in his hotel room.

    September 2nd Olympiad Round 1
    Despite being tired I didn’t sleep very well that night but made it to breakfast and the captains and players meeting with the help of my alarm clock. Since Canada’s women’s team was playing an easy opponent I asked one of the higher rated players to sit out the first round. Qiyu and Yuanling wanted to play to shake off the rust and jitters and so Alexandra Botez volunteered to sit out the first round and we had our lineup which went on to win 4-0.
    We got word that Aman had missed the flight due to the security rules. He had shown up with an hour to spare but apparently someone decided to make an example of him and didn’t allow him to board. I usually fly through the U.S. and deal with the TSA and so I am conditioned to arrive at the airport three or four hours before the flight for domestic flights.
    Being team captain on the first day, I had full access to the venue though security briefly tried to stop me because I was a head of delegation who did not have access to much at that point in the tournament. I showed them the captain’s card and that seemed to do the trick. We were not allowed to bring cameras, watches or even pens and paper into the venue. This was frustrating and seemed a bit unnecessary as I didn’t bring my 007 pen with laser but one thing we can say is that they were quite thorough on the security end of things. The security officers seemed to be police or military judging from their demeanor and hair cuts. They were polite but firm though if you really insisted on something vehemently they usually gave in if they thought you were some kind of VIP.


    September 3rd, Olympiad Round 2
    Aman showed up and I handed over the captain’s duties and passwords to him. I was just head of delegation from Canada and relegated to the spectators area which was quite frustrating after the full access of the day before. To add to the frustration none of the Canadian games were on the monitors and the spectators area was far enough away from the players that you couldn’t see much. After about an hour and a half I got frustrated and decided to head back to the hotel where I could at least see the games of the Canadian players. Unfortunately the buses back to the hotels were not running yet. I did check out the exhibition area in the annex attached to the Crystal Hall though not all of the exhibitors were there yet. I talked to a policeman outside and asked if it was possible to walk to the Boulevard Hotel which I could see across the bay. He told me it was 7 kilometers and I decided to walk it since the buses didn’t seem to be ready to run any time soon.

    I followed the bay around and managed to stay in the shade most of the way as there were parks with trees and plazas all along the way back to the hotel most of the way. Unfortunately I didn’t have any of the local currency yet so I could only looking longingly upon the refreshment stands along the way. Eventually I made it back to the hotel though it was getting close to sunset then which seems to come earlier in that part of the world probably because it is closer to the equator than Canada.
    My impression of the city from these wanderings is that it is a nice family oriented city with an extensive array of public parks which seem quite safe.

    September 4th, Olympiad Round 3 and beyond
    I met Susan Polgar, Geoffrey Borg (again), Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and several other well known personalities at the playing hall. I renewed acquaintances with Mike Klein of Chess.com and Chesskids.com who I had previously met at CYCC.

    Eventually they allowed heads of delegation to circulate in the area just outside the playing area where there was a view of the games. You could even get into the playing area briefly by looking like you belonged and simply walking in though I mostly respected the organizers’ rules up until the last day when the Canadian men’s team was playing on first board and I simply pretended to be important and walked past the security guards a number of times until they got used to me and I could wander at will.


    FIDE Meetings at Fairmont Hotel and Crystal Hall
    Development Commission
    Hal and I attended the development commission meeting. Canada is currently a level 2 Federation but due to some recent successes and the change of federation by Evgeny Bareev to Canada we are projected to reach level 1 as a result of the September rating list based on top ten ratings.
    FIDE Rated Active Players continue to increase from 77,685 in 2010 to 134,413 in 2015. Russia, France and Germany India and Spain were the five largest federations of FIDE rated active players. Europe has 73% of the active FIDE players. Russia have almost double 2308 vs 1292 the titled players in the number two country Germany which in turn almost doubles the number in the number three USA at 696.
    Canada was number five in the Americas on the number of FIDE Open standard tournaments with 84 in 2015. The USA had only 206 despite the disparity in size.

    Francophone Chess Association (AIDEF) / Association Internationale des Echecs Francophones (AIDEF)
    The CFC is a member along with the FQE of AIDEF. AIDEF sponsored the Quebec Open in 2015 to the tune of $30,000 so they have a budget and are willing to spend money on their events. Patrick Van Hoolandt is the president of AIDEF. Patrick had a press pass and kindly provided a number of photos of the Canadian teams on several days along with those of all the members of AIDEF. Bernard Labadie the president of the FQE also attended the meeting.
    I also enjoyed speaking with Damir Levacic in Croatian. He is a citizen of France, an IM and is involved in two or three FIDE commissions including being involved in financial partners for AIDEF, and the development commission and the social projects commission of FIDE.
    The meeting dealt with a number of issues including an issue of some improprieties by a former executive which led to police involvement.
    Part of the discussion at the meeting was the over exuberance of Canadian Immigration officials which decimated attendance at the AIDEF Francophone / Quebec Open championship in 2015 when many players were denied entry especially those from Africa and even including the president of FIDE Kirsan Illyumzhinov who was denied entry presumably because of visa issues. This will present a barrier to holding more AIDEF events in Canada unless we can get it resolved.

    Commonwealth Chess Association
    Hal and I attended the Commonwealth Chess Association meeting which dealt largely with questions about the organization of the Commonwealth Chess Championship. The Commonwealth is the collection of countries which were part of the British Commonwealth of nations.
    We met a number of the members of the commonwealth executive. There is some doubt about whether the 2017 and 2018 editions of the Commonwealth championships which are both in Africa will have the requisite level of sponsorship. I indicated that Canada might be interested in holding this event if these fell through. They seemed quite receptive to Canada becoming involved in organizing a championship.

    FIDE Trainers Seminar
    Hal and I attended the three day version of FIDE trainers seminar. Aman Hambleton attended the one day version. All three of us finished with the FIDE instructor title. The room was hot and lacked air circulation and was quite overloaded with participants all of whom paid 100 euros for the privilege of participating. We were in the English speaking seminar. The Spanish speaking seminar was down the hall in a more spacious and better climate controlled room. Most of the English language participants were not amused.

    The first day dealt largely with the history of FIDE and involved some questionable assertions by the lecturers which I took issue with including the assertion that analysis of games is not important in teaching chess. When the class was repeated for the team captains on the third day the lecturer had come around to my point of view and analysis was once again important.

    There were some useful topics discussed by some very good instructors but there were also portions of the seminar that could have been dispensed with. There were no handout materials and some topics were covered superficially and there were problems at times with the projector. At the end there was a test where my results were hampered by jet lag and exhaustion and the fact that at least one of the items on the test was not discussed in class. The correct answer was that Lasker’s crowning achievement was the double bishop sacrifice which I really have to stretch my credulity to believe as someone who was world champion as long as Lasker would seem to me to have a few more crowning achievements including his very excellent book called “Manual of Chess”.

    I found the event a bit sloppy and ill prepared. Given the problems with the projector and computer they should have at least provided pdf copies of the material presented. Even better would have been actual hard copies of the material as had been provided in the past but discontinued for austerity reasons.
    The entire reason for the training commission is that it is required by the IOC along with the WADA regime and other requirements.

    I would say that it (the seminar) is not ready for prime time but with the requirements to have team captains have these credentials in order to access the playing halls of FIDE events and to enjoy the organizer accommodation and food subsidies at FIDE tournaments like the Olympiad and various youth events it probably makes sense to subject members of the executive to the same level of suffering that we ask our team captains to endure. The most useful day was day two after we had dispensed with the history lessons and questionable assertions of day one. There was some discussion of best practices for coaching and some useful discussion of coaching mistakes and student mistakes. If I had only gone to day two I would have been somewhat impressed with the seminar.

    FIDE Chess in the Schools Commission
    I attended a meeting of the FIDE Chess in the Schools Commission put on by the chairman of the commission, Kevin O'Connell. Their mission is to add chess to the curriculum of schools as a subject which is taught during normal school hours. There were several presenters and anecdotal evidence of the experience of a number of the participants in the seminar. Some of the participants seemed to be interested in obtaining a certificate of participation in the seminar which was not available. They presented some videos of some of the schools and exercises which were done on giant chessboards. I had previously seen the video and part of the presentation at the AIDEF meeting in French.

    Kevin suggested that the experience of the CIS commission was that schools should make chess fun and be concerned with introducing chess to large numbers of students rather than looking to train elite players . They outlined training materials for teachers which are intended to enable non chess players to teach kids in a very slow but fun process. The contention is that this leads to more strong players because it keeps more of the children interested for a longer period of time. In the video kids jump around like knights on a giant chessboard. It was interesting though I am not sure how we can translate this to the Canadian environment. CIS provides a wealth of materials which can be accessed on their website. The seminar lasted about four hours but unfortunately was held in the same room where the Trainers Commission Seminar was held which was hot and had insufficient air circulation. I did find the meeting quite interesting and useful and had the opportunity to discuss some of the things that had been presented with Kevin O’ Connell after the seminar finished.

    European Chess Union (ECU)
    I attended the meeting of the European Chess Union. The portion of the meetings I attended was largely concerned with some improprieties related to the Bulgarian Chess Federation and the actions of Silvio Danailov. The end result were some significant sanctions against Mr. Danailov and the Bulgarian Chess Federation due in part to the sanctions which they applied to some grandmaster whistleblowers who had alerted FIDE and Bulgarian authorities about the financial irregularities which included reporting to the Bulgarian sport authorities that they had made some significant payments to the ECU when this in fact was not the case. Apparently and allegedly Mr. Danailov had set up some bank accounts in the name of the ECU which the ECU had been unaware of until Bulgarian government sources informed the ECU when they were seeking information about these payments which allegedly went into accounts controlled by Mr. Danailov and his associates including his spouse if my understanding of the presented material is correct.
    Mr. Danailov seemed quite irate about the whole set of circumstances of being sanctioned and stood up to speak later in the general assembly during the discussion on the Jamaican Federation call for Kirsan Illyumzhinov to resign and tried to bring up the matter of his being sanctioned but the chairperson Mr. Makropoulus would not have his seemingly spurious allegations and complaints though he seemed quite tolerant of the apparent opposition to Kirsan from other individuals.

    General Assembly
    The general assembly was addressed by Kirsan Illyumzhinov its president regarding the circumstances of his troubles with the U.S. Treasury Department. Like Hal, it seems that this is a politically motivated maneuver by the U.S. which has little to do with the reality of what Kirsan might have done which apparently was to encourage chess in Iraq. I think most of the delegates seemed to be supportive as only a few individuals had negative things to say. Even some of the detractors said nice things about him.
    The meeting also dealt with the motion by the Jamaican Chess Federation to force Kirsan to resign. There was much discussion with the people encouraging Kirsan to resign being largely people who supported Kasparov in the last FIDE election. Georgios Makropoulos who chaired the meeting let the participants discuss their proposal despite not having submitted the item in time for the meeting. After closing discussion to the three or four people left asking to speak the meeting was adjourned for lunch. As noted previously Makro cut off Silvio Danailov when he tried to bring up his own troubles as part of the discussion with some very sharp words.

    FIDE Finances
    Despite some claims in the media FIDE finances are fine. With the world championships it is expected that the coffers will be refilled and hopefully we won’t have to see more hefty legal bills.

    WGM seeks to move to Canada
    Hal Bond and I held a meeting with a women’s grandmaster who is interested in moving to Canada. She has experience teaching children chess and is also involved in chess broadcasting. She would be a very interesting addition to the Canadian chess scene.

    FIDE America
    Fortunately the $40 per player cash grab did not succeed but the cost did increase the FIDE levy to $20 U.S. per player for NAYCC. This disproportionately affects Canada because the tournament seems to enjoy significantly higher player numbers when it is in Canada typically in the summer months. At $40 U.S. per player the tournament would probably lose money even with 350 players, even with a sweetheart deal for hall rental. After spending a little over $6400 on chess clocks which we will use for years and going a bit overboard on souvenirs for the players we had about $2000 left over.

    Exhibitors
    Chess Informant, DGT, New in Chess
    I had pleasant and interesting conversations with Dusan Krunic Head of Sales for Chess Informant, Hans Pees the CEO of DGT and also Remmelt Otten the publishing director of New in Chess (who I had spoken to in email previously). There may be some opportunities there for some sponsorship but we will have to see where future conversations lead us.

    Conclusion
    I met FIDE President Kirsan Illyumzhinov briefly in the playing hall while he was escorting a government dignitary through the playing venue. I met Georgios Makropoulos for the first time I believe. I renewed acquaintances with Geoffrey Borg and Nigel Freeman who I had met previously in my pre-CFC president days as masters representative when we went to Quebec to meet with FIDE and the FQE back in 2012 or so. I met too many other FIDE representatives to mention and got to see FIDE operating up close and personal. I believe that a number of the contacts I made will be quite valuable in the future. How valuable will probably depend on managing the relationships started in the coming months and years.

  7. #7

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    I have read the publicity of the last Commonwealth Championship. The 16 000$ price fund should not be a problem, but the free board and lodging for all official participants, not only for adults, but for U8, U10, U12 and U14 as well is the main cost. 53 Countries are officially member of the Commonwealth http://thecommonwealth.org/member-countries . In the last championship, there was one open section and 7 sections based on age for a maximum of 8*53 = 424 free hotel rooms and meals to cover. There has been no U14 boys this year. It takes a major sponsor or a generous person to pay this kind of expense unless the minister of sports supports us in some way.

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    This is definitely something that can only be attempted with significant sponsorship in place and with an eye to generating a significant number of participants who do not get free room and board.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Hal Bond View Post
    This case was also played out in the CAS (Sport Court) in Switzerland, which ruled in FIDE’s favour. The other case before CAS concerns Ignatius Leong, who challenged the verdict of the Ethics Commission relative to his electoral contract with Garry Kasparov. The decision is due by the end of September.
    What was a CAS decision?
    .*-1

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    Quote Originally Posted by Egidijus Zeromskis View Post
    What was a CAS decision?
    Leong lost.

    http://www.insidethegames.biz/articl...year-chess-ban
    Last edited by Vladimir Drkulec; 11-19-2016 at 09:44 PM.

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