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