4E. Many things happened since my last report at AGM. Here is the "short" summary of events related to my position.
1. FIDE
a. FIDE Congress took place in December 2023 with 2 major events: decision about location of 2028 Olympiad (after Budapest-24 and Tashkent-26) and cancellation of terms limit for FIDE President. Bids from Abu Dhabi and Genoa looked very similar as both places are well-known touristic location and have a good infrastructure for this kind of events. Canada voted for Genoa for many reasons including cheaper transportation and more comfortable temperature.
Bid from UAE won with significant margin, mainly because of concern from different federations (mostly Africa and Asia) about visa to Europe. We all know the serious problem with Candidates in Toronto, so visa issues are going to be the central criteria for many big international FIDE tournaments. Looks like North America is the worst place from this point and Middle East (UAE, Turkey, Azerbaijan) is the best one. Europe is somewhere in-between.
b. Another central point was cancelation of terms limit, initiated by some American federations. This motion needed at least 2/3 of votes, as it was a constitutional change. Dvorkovich promised this terms limit during his first election in 2018 and indeed adjusted FIDE documents later, after he won the election.
I voted against this proposal, but they got more than enough support for cancelation, 80% exactly.
For me, it's not a problem if FIDE President runs for more than 2 terms, as many international sport federations don't have any terms limit. The problem is that Dvorkovich broke his word, which is not a good thing anywhere and not a good thing for a politician. Was this his initial plan to give such a promise to increase his support back in 2018 (he won with the total margin of 25 votes only) and cancel the rule later, or he really changed his mind now - we will never know.
Having said that, I still think that Arkady is a very good President with excellent managing team.
c. Rating reform
2 months later than initially expected, but FIDE made a very important reform in rating system, adding more than 30 million rating points total. I am more optimistic now that this reform will not cause catastrophic inflation, but sure FIDE could choose better options.
As a direct result of this reform every 2000- player got his rating 40% closed to 2000. For many Canadian girls the magic number was 1800 as they earn WCM direct title on different junior events and needed FIDE of 1800+ to comply with minimum rating floor rules. Every 1667+ player has 1800+ rating now, and Canada has many new WNMs.
d. FIDE congress (the exact schedule is still not published) should approve GM title for Shawn Rodrigue-Lemieux and IM title for Anthony Atanasov, as they both have 3 norms and rating. Direct titles (one great result on official FIDE event + rating above the rating floor) take less time for approval, and Canada has a new IM Johnatan Han.
Many arbiter applications for FAs and different categories of IAs are also pending for Congress approval.
2. Important tournaments.
a. Zonal - 2024
Hart House won the bid for this tournament, which is just a few days away. It's looking good right now with almost 60 preregistered players for the Zonal and almost 50 for Women Zonal. Both numbers and especially the second one are significantly above my expectations and above these numbers on previous Championships.
I am also happy to see a comfortable 7 days for 10 rounds schedule for Zonal and 6 days for 9 rounds for Women Zonal.
b. Continental - 2024 will take place in Medellin, Colombia from May 24 to Jun 2. Canada has 1 official player for this event. The right goes to runner-up of the Zonal or highest FIDE rated Canadian if a runner-up is not interested in playing.
c. Continental Senior will take place in Havana, Cuba from May 6 to May 12. Canada has 1 official player in every section (50+ and 65+). This right goes to winners of Canadian Senior - 2023. IM B.Hartman (the winner of 65+ section) indicated that he will not be playing, so likely we will have I.Bluvshtein (the runner-up of 65+ section) and myself (the winner of a junior section) as official players.
d. Olympiad - 2024 in Budapest, Hungary.
It's a very important topic, which requires a separate serious discussion, so I just going to mention a few points which I don't like in our current situation.
- 20 games requirement for 12 months period before the deadline. I would like to change it to 10 points penalty for every game below 20. This adjustment could allow strong players like E.Hansen and E.Bareev to compete for Olympic spot
- 5 rating points bonus for every year under 23 for young strong players. This adjustment, if implemented, could allow E.Hansen to play in 2010 (he started playing from 2012) and S.Rodrigue-Lemieux.to play in 2022. Now this adjustment may increase chances of A.Atanasov to get the Olympic spot.
- I know about continuous attempts from FQE to send a separate Olympic Team. FQE also insists that Quebec Team would have the first choice for local players (like Shawn, Bator or Maili). The situation was discussed multiple times on CFC board and board members didn't support the idea (to say the least).
I sent an email to some important FIDE officials (including FIDE general manager E.Sutovsky) a few day ago and got the following reply.
"This obviously contradicts the Olympic regulations.
Only national federations and affiliated members (already accepted affiliated organizations with a specific territory, such as Isle of Man) can participate.
Firstly, Quebec is not accepted as an affiliated member of FIDE, so even technically it could not apply, and only the General Assembly can accept it; secondly, one of the mandatory documents for consideration of an application is the consent of the “mother” federation, that is, the Canadian Federation . Their application cannot be considered without your consent.".
Personally, I don't think that FQE has more rights to send a separate team than, for example, OCA, ACA, GTCL or many other provincial associations.
Originally Posted by Richard Bérubé
