4. Executive and Officer reports

[Lyle Craver]

Executive members and Officers please post your reports in this message thread.

When posting please title your posting according to the letter before your position as shown on the agenda. For instance the president would title his posting 4A, as Secretary I would post mine as 4C and so on.

[Vladimir Drkulec]

The FIDE Candidates and Women's Candidates tournament is scheduled for Toronto in April 2024. Sponsored by Isai Scheinberg who wanted to bring a high profile event to Toronto everyone was elated when news broke of this tournament. Elation turned to consternation when we were facing potential relocation due to visa issues. The CFC went to work saving the event for Canada. Various FIDE representatives, including President Arkady Dvorkovich, Anna Burtasova (also on local organizing committee), Maria Balashova, Pavel Tregubov and CEO Emil Sutovsky worked on this and effectively worked with the CFC to get us the information and supporting documents and the interviews that helped us save the event. Emil made a great impression in his meeting with the immigration department. We are down to four visas left of the 42 that we were presented with on January 24th. That is not counting Alireza Firouzja's father who was not on our original list but also got a visa through the normal course of events.

Concerns arose when only one visa had been issued by January 23, 2024, prompting CFC board members to intensify efforts to secure visas for essential personnel. Patricia Gamliel played a crucial role in getting to the bottom of where we were with the visa applications, prioritizing essential individuals and liaising with government officials. Having worked as an immigration lawyer for almost three decades she was the quarterback. With huge, huge assistance from Gary Gladstone, Toronto MP Kevin Vuong, and CFC board members, including Vladimir Drkulec, Christina Tao, Olga Mushtaler, Veronica Hitchlock and Victor Plotkin extensive outreach was made to politicians and immigration authorities and chess players and the parents of chess players who actually turn out to be very well connected.

Media attention helped, including coverage and interviews of your CFC president by the Toronto Star, Bell Media, Hindustan Times, and CBC, heightened awareness of the visa issue. Unbeknownst to me Anna was in the background arranging interviews. I can take some credit for staying on point and making sure that I conveyed the message in simple phrases that other media picked up exactly as I hoped they would. (You can't have a Candidates tournament without the Candidates!) As a result, visas began to be issued, with significant progress made just two or three days before the deadline. Multiple individuals contributed to the success of securing visas, demonstrating amazing effort and influence within the chess community , the Canadian government and beyond. All in, I suspect that more than a dozen members of parliament played a role.

When FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky talked to a senior member of the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Ministry (led by the Honourable Marc Miller) staff they mentioned that they had got the file from Lyle Craver's Member of Parliament the Honourable Minister for Natural Resources and Energy Jonathan Wilkinson, though I suspect that the ministry got it from many more directions as there were at least two other ministers who forwarded it to Minister Miller but that was the arrow that helped us hit the target. The first MP contacted was my own Irek Kusmierczyk who represents Windsor-Tecumseh and whose office I emailed and spoke to so many times that I can spell his name in my sleep. His staff also indicated that he would pass on the issue to the minister as well. I dealt with Irek on a chess issue some years ago when he was a member of Windsor city council.

Sam Belcadi has been in charge of the local issues. Aris Marghetis is the chief arbiter, and the person that we interfaced with and kept informed of progress at every step.

I am very proud and impressed with the way the members of the CFC board mobilized to help in this effort and the way our capabilities were extended by reaching out to the chess community. Of course, Patricia supplied the expertise and worked very hard and very strategically to help the CFC get this over the finish line. She is brilliant. For Patricia and me this was almost a full time job from the moment the crisis broke. Note that both her and I were unpaid volunteers called upon to save the day. With a lot of help from our friends, we did it.

Of course, once everything was secured, an online party of sorts was thrown, while I was away with my family (brother was visiting from Dallas, Texas and the family gathered to see him). This did not sit well with certain people. They made a fuss and accused us of setting this fire or at least being negligent or self-serving. Shame on you. You sicken me. You wonder why you can't have nice things when your first inclination is to go after the people trying to get you nice things when they succeed. No good deed goes unpunished.

[Vladimir Drkulec]

Aside from all the excitement with visas and the Candidates tournaments we had a federation to run, of course, fires to put out (I wish there were fewer arsonists), opportunities to pursue.

Veronica Hitchlock, a law student at the University of Ottawa and the president of the University of Ottawa Chess Club has been appointed by the CFC board of directors for the remainder of the term until the AGM to be the CFC women's coordinator. We were impressed with Veronica's intelligence and ability to communicate in text and in the interview with most of the board through Zoom. Veronica has had success that she has had in attracting female players to participate in university chess. She has a keen understanding of the university scene and is familiar with many of the top young women in chess that are part of the university scene. We look forward to working with her to expand the reach of this wonderful game that we love into new communities. She was very helpful in mobilizing the university chess community to write a letter to the honourable Marc Miller Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship regarding the Candidates visa issue.

There were five candidates for the position of women's coordinator and there were several very good ones.

Veronica gives us a board member in Ottawa, the very seat of power and she has friends working in parliament who gave us some insight in how to approach the right ministers or at least which ones to approach. Veronica was encouraged to volunteer for something she was passionate about by one of her professors and lucky for us that is chess. She has hit the ground running. We all have great expectations for her and she is delivering in her short time on the board.

In mid-January Christina Tao and I met on Zoom with Judit Sztaray Director of Chess Club Relations for chess.com who also deals with federations. I had previously interacted with her in some emails with Bob Gillanders when she organized some high profile events in Toronto involving top grandmasters. We really need to expand our relationship with the online world. Olga Mushtaler is doing all the heavy lifting lately for our chess.com club.

Heidi Gay brought a complaint against vice president Olga Mushtaler with regard to an event at Chess in the Park which featured GM Timur Gareyev who has been promoted as the world record holder of blindfold chess. You can read details of the complaint in the following thread.

https://www.chesscanada.info/forum/s...Olga-Mushtaler

Present at the Zoom meeting of the board to consider Heidi's petition on Tuesday November 28, 2023 were:

Vladimir Drkulec
Patricia Gamliel
Victor Plotkin
Christina Tao
Mark Dutton

The initial complaint arrived on Friday November 24, 2023. I was playing in a tournament in Michigan with no access to phone or internet until late at night.

The conclusion of the board was as follows.

Summary of Our Findings:
Private Initiative: The issue pertained to a private gathering organized by Olga for Chess in the Park, a personal initiative, not directly linked to the CFC or any CFC event. We do not have jurisdiction in this situation.

No Action Taken: After careful consideration, we have concluded that Olga's actions were in line with what could be expected of a reasonably prudent person in the same situation. Consequently, no action will be taken against her.

Free Speech Clarification: The claim of suppressing free speech is not valid, as Facebook groups are not platforms for free speech, and administrators can ban users at their discretion.

In light of these findings, we believe the complaint lacks merit. While we encourage a constructive and respectful dialogue within the community, it is not in the mandate of the CFC to get involved in every situation regarding chess.

A note about the situation. In November, when you searched Timur Gareyev on google or duckduckgo you had to go down three screens of results to find anything about his USCF suspension and the title of the article did not match up as something that would set off warning signals. This has changed recently as he got a more serious suspension than the one that was in place when we heard this complaint.

In October of 2023, I went to Ottawa for a sport tourism conference organized by the same people who used to organize the conferences for Sport Tourism Canada. We renewed acquaintances with a number of hotel chains and communities. There were many interesting and useful round tables and even a free consult with a Sports consultant on how to handle the opportunity of the Candidates tournament. There was a visit to the RA Centre which is pretty impressive as a location for sports. There were sessions on safe sports, marketing topics, sessions with hotel chains and of course speed dating appointments with something like fourteen cities or hotel chains. There was even a session on climate change and sustainable sport.

Sport Tourism Canada is the original conference and association that we joined for free for a number of years. When the conference wasn't in Ottawa, they would provide a free hotel and flight to the conference where we would meet with about 20 communities who were looking for chess tournaments in their communities inside and outside the speed dating. Alas I could not make it to Winnipeg this year given all the issues with the Candidates and given that there was no subsidy this year, we had to pass.

Still on my chess wish list is
1. A safe play framework in place
2. an updated handbook of CFC policies
3. a new Strategic Plan or at least a revision/update of the old one. I probably have one hundred pages of text in various files that needs to pared down to about thirty. I will probably want it to reach two hundred pages of text before I start paring it down to the essentials.
4. more programs for women/girls and youth
5. more high level training for youth and women/girls (have you seen what JtM alumni have been doing recently)?
6. another world championship for Shawn Rodrigue-Lemieux
7. more time to play and apply what I have learned.
8. Ten thousand CFC members (we're half way there).
9. To become a soliciting corporation so that we can fund more projects. This requires that we fund raise effectively as taking this step does not make sense unless we can raise $40,000 per year.

[Vladimir Drkulec]

It seems that new fires are being lit every day and require extinguishing. I feel the current board is functioning well and is populated with a thoughtful and productive group of people. Tasks multiply. Many approach us, asking for funding and it is not possible the way we are structured to fund everyone and everything, even when the proposed recipient is a worthy recipient. We have limited funds and have to concentrate our resources in a productive way.

None of us are perfect, least of all me, but when the situation requires it we are capable of pulling together and accomplishing great things. If we lose a person from the board, in all likelihood what they are doing does not get done. I will likely run again in August/September for my twelfth term assuming my health holds up. It is amazing how much better my blood sugars hold up when I am not under heavy stress.

[Veronica Hitchlock]

Hi everyone!

Vlad already gave me a bit of an introduction in his report, but since I’ve never met most of you it can’t hurt to add a little more.

My name is Veronica and I’m a law student at the University of Ottawa. I come from a background in competitive sailing and I was introduced to chess in high school as an “off-season” activity (which very quickly became an on-season activity).

I’ve been the President of the University of Ottawa Chess Club for the past three years and a big advocate for growing university chess in Canada. I worked with the Corporate Esports Association to organise the 2022 & 2023 Corporate Chess League and the 2023 Pan-American Intercollegiate Chess Championship in Seattle. I also hosted the 2023 Canadian University Chess Championship in Ottawa, the first in-person CUCC since 2020.

I was very lucky to have benefitted from a lot of support from the former UOttawa Chess Club President when I joined and was the only woman in the club. I’ve strived to be that support for other young women in Ottawa and the broader university community, both of which have seen a significant increase in women’s participation in the past two years. I hope that as Women’s Coordinator, I can help build that participation outside of the university community as well!

So far, I’ve met with the Founder of the Women in Chess Federation to discuss Safe Play policies which I’ll develop on in the thread 5A-1 Discussion Items - Safeplay Framework for the CFC. I’ve also researched the various policies used by different chess federations and the UCCMS, which I think will be very helpful but all have some limitations that we can hopefully improve upon!

I’ve also been in touch with the Founder of STEM the Gap Academy, who runs online chess classes for young girls and in-person chess camps for girls in Ottawa, to discuss what’s been working for them to attract young girls to chess.

My primary goal is to see a Safe Play Framework that meets the standards to receive the Women in Chess Federation Safe Policy because I think showing that the CFC is taking a proactive role in creating a safe place for everyone to play chess will help more people, especially women, feel comfortable taking the first step into the tournament world.

My second goal is to work on promoting and encouraging more social chess events like pub chess, to give low-pressure opportunities for more women to make connections in the community. UOttawa hosted a very successful women’s “chess and cheese”, which helped a lot of women who were nervous about attending a regular club meeting take their first step into the club.

Last but not least, I’d like to be a support that women feel comfortable coming to on the board if they are facing issues. I’ve been this person within the university community on several occasions, and I know how important it is to have a safe person to talk to and feel heard.

[ian findlay]

4I Rating Auditor

The major concern with ratings right now is deflation. FIDE and the USCF have already implemented changes to boost their ratings. We have been monitoring this deflation with a major effort by Paul Leblanc, who periodically does statistical analysis of CFC ratings vs FIDE ratings and USCF ratings, and also compares CFC ratings over time. Paul Leblanc, Fred McKim, Don Parakin and Bob Gillanders (all of whom I greatly thank) have discussed the results and we even made a recommendation to the CFC executive that they consider increasing the bonus points in the rating formula to inflate the ratings, which the CFC has done in the past. Given that the USCF and FIDE were making changes, it was prudent that we wait to change our system. In this meeting there will be discussion on CFC ratings and there may be a motion resulting from that discussion.

My other duties were to check that the rating formula is working as it should for tournaments. The biggest discrepancy when trying to calculate a rating change is often because when people gain rating points to go over 2200, their k factor diminishes.
That discrepancy was caused by a bug on the CFC website in the rating calculator. Also, not everyone is aware that when they play a player with a provisional rating, their rating will be calculated based on the provisional player's post-tournament rating.

Ratings can be a highly sensitive area, as we all want to have high ratings. I do my best to make sure that the CFC rating system is fair and that people's ratings are reflective of their playing strength. I am happy to serve the CFC as Rating Auditor as our membership experiences this membership boom.

[Olga Mushtaler]

Hats off to Vlad and everyone on the board (and beyond the board) who helped secure visas for the Candidates. The Candidates are happening in Canada! Let's enjoy the attention it brings to chess in Canada.
I’m also happy to see chess thriving in Canada. My Chess in the Park group is nearing 1800 members. We've also just reached 13,000 members for Team Canada, a Chess.com group of which I’m also an admin. The CFC Chess.com group is thriving. New chess clubs are popping up in Toronto like mushrooms – Knightcap Chess and the Beaches Chess Club opened up this year. The streamer Nemo Zhou just moved back to Toronto, and the Chessbrahs are here. Our benefactor has sponsored chess. com Champions Tour and the Candidates in Toronto, bringing all the Super GMs here. What a time to be alive! I call it the Golden Age of Chess in Canada.

[Bob Gillanders]

Executive Director Report
I am going to make this brief, just touch on a few key items.

Memberships and tournament activity continue to rise.
It is difficult to keep up, but keep it coming, it is better than being bored.

The office team is working well together.
Don Parakin, our webmaster and IT guru.
George Stajov, our JustGo membership expert.
Brian Floyd, invoicing and data analysis.

Feel free to deal directly with them on specific issues, no need for everything to go thru myself.

The executive and other officers are busy doing their thing. John Upper, our newsletter editor is close to a new issue. John also has a press pass for the candidates.

At last count our membership count has reached 5,020 and continues to climb.
New clubs popping up everywhere. To keep up we absolutely need to keep pushing everyone to use our online JustGo membership, even with all the problems.

We do need to evolve, upgrade our infrastructure. A new rating software program, with possibly an integrated membership system. Dealing with the day-to-day stuff, this often feels like a pipe dream, but maybe if I say it out loud often enough, well who knows. I am encouraged to see Vlad mention it in his opening remarks.

Training for arbiters, organizers, volunteers, on SwissSys and JustGo.
Yup, we need that too. I see this has been mentioned on another thread, so I will comment further there.

That brings me to ratings. It has been fun finally getting at some ratings analysis. How do we deal with rating deflation, is it real, how much, and how do we react to the FIDE rating adjustment. I will join the conversation on another thread.

That’s all for now. Good evening.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

At last count our membership count has reached 5,020 and continues to climb.

Sounds good. Do you have a break down by types?

[Aris Marghetis]

Executive Director Report
I am going to make this brief, just touch on a few key items.

Memberships and tournament activity continue to rise.
It is difficult to keep up, but keep it coming, it is better than being bored.

The office team is working well together.
Don Parakin, our webmaster and IT guru.
George Stajov, our JustGo membership expert.
Brian Floyd, invoicing and data analysis.

Feel free to deal directly with them on specific issues, no need for everything to go thru myself.

The executive and other officers are busy doing their thing. John Upper, our newsletter editor is close to a new issue. John also has a press pass for the candidates.

At last count our membership count has reached 5,020 and continues to climb.
New clubs popping up everywhere. To keep up we absolutely need to keep pushing everyone to use our online JustGo membership, even with all the problems.

We do need to evolve, upgrade our infrastructure. A new rating software program, with possibly an integrated membership system. Dealing with the day-to-day stuff, this often feels like a pipe dream, but maybe if I say it out loud often enough, well who knows. I am encouraged to see Vlad mention it in his opening remarks.

Training for arbiters, organizers, volunteers, on SwissSys and JustGo.
Yup, we need that too. I see this has been mentioned on another thread, so I will comment further there.

That brings me to ratings. It has been fun finally getting at some ratings analysis. How do we deal with rating deflation, is it real, how much, and how do we react to the FIDE rating adjustment. I will join the conversation on another thread.

That’s all for now. Good evening.

I would like to send out a big special thanks to Bob for the SO MUCH that he does!!
Also thank to Don, George, Brian for the support that they're providing to Bob/us!!
These are people that we should always let play for free?! They keep us running!!