4. Executive and Officer report

[Lyle Craver]

Please post your reports here titling your report with the title (4A, 4B etc) as given in the Agenda

[Fred McKim]

Deleted as duplicate.

[Fred McKim]

We have had another healthy year financially as can be seen by the Financial Statements (posted in the Executive Director's section). This is despite the Memberships and Rating fees effectively shutting down for the last two months of the Fiscal Year. 2020/21 is going to be the first year we suffer a loss in 8 or 9 years, but with strong assets we should still be OK, assuming things start returning to normal by the summer of 2021. OK means this will be blip in the road (ie loss of $10-$15,000) as opposed to an event that drains $50 - $75,000 of our cash assets.

With software handling all of the CFC's financial transactions, I have tried to give my time to the CFC in being involved in management decisions, such as Go Membership and more recently the new Web site. It will be exciting to see these two projects both go ahead this fall.

I will be re-offering as CFC Treasurer for the upcoming year.

Fred McKim
CFC Treasurer

CFC Revenue Statement for 2019/20 (Summarized Version)

Revenue

Net CFC Memberships........$42590 ........................... I have removed payments to CFC affiliates (both here and in Expenses) and Life memberships, all donated to Chess Foundation
Net Rating Fees.................$34496 ........................... I have removed Rating fees paid to FIDE (both here and in International expenses)
Chess Foundation..............$11495 ........................... Interest from their investments donated to CFC
CMA / Strategy Games........$5000 ........................... Promotion and Advertizing
Total...............................$93581

Expenses

Office/Admin.....................$56541 ............................ Includes ExD Salary, Website expenses, GoMembership, etc.
Olympic Fund....................$15000 ............................ To pay for air flights and incidentals for 2021 and 2022 Olympiads
International.......................$9382 ............................ Payments to FIDE / FIDE America / Grants for players to Int tournaments
Media.................................$3812 ............................ CFC Magazine and News Feed
Youth Training.....................$3750 ............................ Grants for players to attend Juniors to Masters Inc training
CFC Promotion....................$1500 ............................ CSTA Conference
Total...............................$89995

Surplus.............................$3586

[Fred McKim]

I'm sure Bob will be presenting his own report here soon enough, but I wanted to post the Financial Statements ASAP. Please direct any comments to either me (under 4M) or Bob (here at 4N).

Fred McKim
CFC Treasurer

[Vladimir Drkulec]

There was a significant drop in revenues but the drop in net income is also due to reserving funds for next year's olympiad. Usually at this point there would be payments for the last olympiad but this is a reserve for next year and the following year if FIDE sticks to their announced plan of holding the 2020 event in 2021 and holding the normal olympiad in 2022 which I don't think they will be able to. I think that the covid virus would have to be stamped out almost everywhere before you can bring teams from around the world into an olympiad situation. Given that the pandemic is just starting in some countries I am not sure that the logistics will work out. We will have to wait and see what happens.

[Bob Gillanders]

Executive Directors Report - AGM 2020

We were enjoying an absolutely great year of chess, memberships had grown from 2,501 to 2,735 in 10 months but then we hit a wall called COVID19. In early March we saw virtually all chess clubs close and tournaments one by one were cancelled. Our membership extension policy was announced on June 9 on the CFC discussion board so that memberships would not expire during the shutdown. Effectively for fiscal 2020, we have forgone membership dues for March & April while members had no opportunities to play CFC rated events. Even with the membership extension, we were still able to book a surplus of $3,586 as well as set aside an additional $ 15,000 for the 2020 Olympiad that has been delayed until 2021.

Opinions vary widely on how long the COVID19 shutdown will last. I believe we will see clubs and tournament resume in October, but at a reduced participation rate. Then we will need to make the decision as to the date to end the membership extension period. We should see a steady rise in activity until I believe next summer we will be firing on all cylinders again.

During this shutdown period, we are tackling 3 major projects.

We have now encroached into the world of online chess by rating events hosted on chess..com and Lichess..org. This has been a challenge as we navigate the waters of combating online cheating.

We have launched a new website. This was an emergency effort as our website of 10 years was hacked. The basic website functions are now operational with further features coming over the next few months. Many thanks to Don Parakin, our new webmaster for his efforts.

Within a few weeks we will bring our Go membership platform online. This will give members the ability to login and update their information and renew memberships. Additional features will be added as we go. More news as we proceed.

I look forward to seeing many of you over the board soon. In the meantime, stay safe all.

Robert Gillanders
Executive Director

[Hal Bond]

FIDE Representative Report

Once again it has been an honour to serve Canada as FIDE Representative. I have put my name forward for re-election and I hope you can support me.

FIDE activities have been affected by Covid just like the rest of us. To their credit, FIDE has switched to online for competitions and various capacity building and training activities. At this writing we have no financial update for 2019, but it was due this summer so we may have something before the end of our meeting. The Planning and Development Commission where I serve is now handing out grants to a maximum of $5k, down from $20k last year. We are also developing a series of webinars for good governance, along with a Federation Manual.

I am very pleased to see that the Arbiters’ Commission has recruited former Secretary Aris Marghetis to aid in the development of an Arbiter education program.

Prior to the OTB shutdown some titles were earned by deserving Canadians. Congratulations to Halldor Palsson, Corinna Wan and Karen Wan for completion and award of their FA titles. Olivier Kenta Chiku-Rattee is now an IM, and Mark Plotkin’s IM application has been filed and will be confirmed at the next Council meeting. Congratulations gentlemen!

After much preparation and planning, FIDE has launched its “Chess ID” program. This is the brainchild of FIDE ED, GM Victor Bologan. Here is a brief description form the FIDE site: “Chess ID aims at uniting all agents in the chess community, creating a unified ecosystem that will result in benefits for us all. A unique reference code will be assigned to any person engaged in any chess-related activity, on any capacity: players, coaches, instructors, arbiters, publishers, et cetera. A consolidated database for all of them will result in many practical advantages: the implementation of chess programs or initiatives would be more effective, and registering to a tournament or a seminar would be faster and easier. Chess ID will be used for online and offline worldwide recognition and Chess ID holders will have access to multiple services and benefits as members of a global activities program.”

The Women’s World Cup, which will feature Pan-Am Champion WGM Maili-Jade Ouellet plus one more from our Zonal or some other procedure, has been postponed to the spring of next year. It remains to be seen if Belarus will still host it.

Looking ahead, it appears that President Dvorkovich’s objective of hosting the 2024 Olympiad in the Western hemisphere will not be achieved. There was at least one bid afoot from Europe during the congress in Adu Dhabi. Bids for 2026 will be due in 2022 – our 150th anniversary. Presenting an Olympic bid in the year of our sesquicentennial would be awesome!

Respectfully submitted
Hal Bond
FIDE Zone 2.2 President and Delegate, Canada
August 16, 2020.

[Jose Fernandez Triana]

[QUOTE=Hal Bond;34536]FIDE Representative Report

After much preparation and planning, FIDE has launched its “Chess ID” program. This is the brainchild of FIDE ED, GM Victor Bologan. Here is a brief description form the FIDE site: “Chess ID aims at uniting all agents in the chess community, creating a unified ecosystem that will result in benefits for us all. A unique reference code will be assigned to any person engaged in any chess-related activity, on any capacity: players, coaches, instructors, arbiters, publishers, et cetera. A consolidated database for all of them will result in many practical advantages: the implementation of chess programs or initiatives would be more effective, and registering to a tournament or a seminar would be faster and easier. Chess ID will be used for online and offline worldwide recognition and Chess ID holders will have access to multiple services and benefits as members of a global activities program.”


Thanks a lot Hal for your report. Quick question about the FIDE "Chess ID" program (link here: https://www.fide.com/news/684), which was also posted in this Forum by Vladimir a few days ago. Is there any more information about that project? I mean beyond the general presentation of it. The last two paragraphs of that link even mentioned an "online gaming portal", would that be related to FIDE-rated (or CFC-rated0 online chess? I guess we will have to wait to know more, but I ask in case you had some insight about that. Thanks! Jose

[Paul Leblanc]

Chess Foundation of Canada
Boring is good in the investment world these days and the Foundation had a boring year.
Funds under management $333,746 down a few percent in line with market conditions.
We made very few changes, mostly just investing the income from 15 new life members.
Dividends passed to the CFC $12,445.57.
I encourage everyone to think of the Chess Foundation in your Estate planning.

[Paul Leblanc]

Rating Auditor Report
The rating system continued to perform as expected with some minor inflation at the lower end, which I assess to be the bonus formula doing its job
and some minor deflation in the middle range to compensate.
The average rating of the top 100 has been rock solid at about 2360 for several years.
We introduced Quick rating for internet games and the COVID-19 bonus as an interim measure during the pandemic.
It has allowed at least some activity and rating fee income.

[Vadim Tsypin]

CFC Publicity Officer report, 2019-2020

Dear colleagues,

My mandate from the Board is to ensure the news flow to and from the CFC, in particular between FIDE and the CFC and between the CFC and the FQE. During the 2019-2020 term, I continued to implement this mandate by all means available.

Via forum posts and e-mail, I systematically informed the Executive, players and parents about announcements and regulations of upcoming events such as World Youth / Cadet, World Amateur, World Schools, events for players with disabilities, norm tournaments in the U.S., events by the Susan Polgar Foundation, as well as about FIDE news such as the progress in drafting the new Charter, PB/MB/Council decisions, surveys addressed to national federations. I was also explaining the CFC developments in French in Quebec and advocated for having more event sections rated with FIDE and the CFC.

Clear communication became even more important once the COVID-19 pandemic hit. I systematically posted schedule changes and postponement announcements in the CFC Forum and placed links to the CFC Forum on Chesstalk.com. At present, we have dedicated threads in both locations that list FIDE Calendar changes for 2020 and 2021.

I was successful in securing an invitation for Canada as the only Western Hemisphere country among ten teams chosen to participate in the 2019 edition of the Vladimir Dvorkovich Cup that was held in Aktobe, Kazakhstan, in last September. This annual team junior U-17 competition that runs under the auspices of FIDE since 2005 and is called an unofficial mixed-gender world team championship was a great experience for Canadian players and parents. I am grateful to the CFC for appointing me the captain, approving the selection criteria (by national rating) and providing moral support to the team. No CFC funds were spent on this extremely costly undertaking: organizers covered all transportation, accommodation and meals; devoted parents Igor Gaisinsky and Chau Diep graciously sponsored team uniforms; MPs, MPPs and MNAs kindly made available Canadian flags, pins and souvenirs.

Four bright U-17 players: Svitlana Demchenko, Cynthia Cui, Adam Gaisinsky, and Henry Zhang made supporters on-site and at home extremely proud. Canada finished +2, =1, -6 winning a match 2.5:1.5 over the chess superpower India and drawing 2:2 with the host Kazakhstan, which turned out to be a huge difference in final standings since it was that missing matchpoint that didn’t allow the Kazakhstan team to get to the podium. I regularly took photographs and shared them within the parents’ group, with the CFC Youth Coordinator and the CFC Newsfeed Editor. Good manners, erudition and friendliness of Canadian teenagers (who spoke six languages altogether) made a lasting impact on the organizers and officials. The hosts have kindly provided a special day of sightseeing and museums just for our team. Right upon return home, the players organized to pen a heartfelt note of thanks that left a big impression on the addressees. I am glad to share this letter here.

The 2020 edition of the VDC is obviously canceled because of coronavirus. If the CFC Executive continues to support me in these efforts, Team Canada has really good chances to be invited to the VDC again when over-the-board competitions resume.

At the World Youth U-16 Chess Olympiad in Çorum, Turkey, I was privileged to serve as the FIDE Technical Delegate and liaised closely with the Canadian delegation. The Captain GM Gergely Szabo and the HoD Canada Ms. Sandra Vettese were prohibited from bringing cell phones to the playing hall. Thus, I systematically took photos of all Canadian players before and during rounds, then posted them within the parents’ group and shared with the CFC Youth Coordinator to publish at home.

Likewise, at the King Salman World Rapid and Blitz Championships in Moscow, Russia, where I served as an anticheating arbiter I took pictures of all Canadian players and posted a photo gallery in Canadian forums.

I was always available to answer questions from the CFC and the FQE colleagues regarding FIDE plans, event bids, and such.

Last but not least, in my lecturer capacity I gave more than a dozen FIDE seminars and workshops overseas during the last year, and whenever it came to Q&A, the audience was always keen to ask questions about life and chess in Canada. Thus, I used every opportunity, like this one:
https://fide.com/news/289
to explain how things work in this great country. Over the years, we were fortunate to have a steady inflow of high-level chess players to Canada, and the interest in immigrating and changing federations remains high, especially from the Maghreb and North Africa. The CFC Executive has provided letters of support to Canadian authorities on several occasions in the past. It would be good if we continue doing this in order to facilitate acceptance and accommodation of chess players from all cultures to Canada.

Respectfully submitted by Vadim Tsypin.

[Vladimir Drkulec]

A great group of kids. Thank you for giving them the opportunity to play at such a high profile event. I am most familiar with Henry and Adam but all four of them are great ambassadors for the CFC.

[Hal Bond]

Thanks a lot Hal for your report. Quick question about the FIDE "Chess ID" program (link here: https://www.fide.com/news/684), which was also posted in this Forum by Vladimir a few days ago. Is there any more information about that project? I mean beyond the general presentation of it. The last two paragraphs of that link even mentioned an "online gaming portal", would that be related to FIDE-rated (or CFC-rated0 online chess? I guess we will have to wait to know more, but I ask in case you had some insight about that.

Thanks! Jose

Thank you Jose. I wish I understood this project better. When I first spoke about it with Victor, my sense was that he wanted to obtain better evidence of the number of chess players in the world, and the nature of their chess activities. This will be useful with sponsors and will also provide programming insights for our much varied chess community. The online portal is consistent with this plan but I don't know if this means the FIDE online arena which already exists, or something new.

[Pierre Dénommée]

Covid-19 is the greatest newa in international Women Chess, causing the postponement or cancellation of numerous tournament including our own Canadian Women Zonal Championship.

For the first time. Canada will be allowed two participants in the Women Word Cup: The Continental Champion, Maili-Jade Ouellet and our to be determined Zonal Champion. The Executive assure me that we can cover the extra expenses.

FIDE has postponed the World Cup, negotiations are being made with the organizer, but he cannot be forced to accept the new dates. I am confident that this tournament will be held in 2021 somewhere in the world.

I would like to thank Aris for his bid on the 2020 Women Zonal. I am still hoping that it can be done in Kingston later this year.

My place of residence is Covid safe with only 11 cases in Matawinie https://monjoliette.com/lundi-leclosion-se-poursuit-a-st-gabriel-deces-dun-lanaudois/. It is not close to the airport. Montreal, where the airport is, is the worst contaminated place in Canada. My region is safe for a Zonal, but travelling to it isn't totally safe and hotel room availability is usually limited.

My preference is still to hold the Zonal in Kingston, but we should be prepared with a plan B in case this is not possible.

I do hope that FIDE will announce the World Cup sufficiently in advance. For the Continental, we got so little notice that selection by rating was the only possible option.

Respectfully Submitted,

Pierre Dénommée
CFC Woman’s Coordinator

[Vadim Tsypin]

Hello Hal and Jose,


Thanks a lot Hal for your report. Quick question about the FIDE "Chess ID" program (link here: https://www.fide.com/news/684), which was also posted in this Forum by Vladimir a few days ago. Is there any more information about that project? I mean beyond the general presentation of it. The last two paragraphs of that link even mentioned an "online gaming portal", would that be related to FIDE-rated (or CFC-rated0 online chess? I guess we will have to wait to know more, but I ask in case you had some insight about that.

Thanks! Jose

Thank you Jose. I wish I understood this project better. When I first spoke about it with Victor, my sense was that he wanted to obtain better evidence of the number of chess players in the world, and the nature of their chess activities. This will be useful with sponsors and will also provide programming insights for our much varied chess community. The online portal is consistent with this plan but I don't know if this means the FIDE online arena which already exists, or something new.

Yes, this is correct. Chess ID is a living breathing project; its vision and scope are being constantly improved after the concept was approved at the Q2 2019 PB meeting in Baku. You can get more information from the latest public presentation (https://doc.fide.com/docs/90%20Congress%20Agenda%20and%20Annexes/Annex%208.1.pdf) made at the EB in Abu Dhabi in February.

The general architecture and specifications are being finalized by the Steering Committee that includes outside business experts with excellent track record. The platform will contain a number of modules that use standard APIs.

As an important milestone, we have started the Call for Offers procedure for the first, relatively small and dependency-free, module this month. Things are going according to the schedule; we're going to publish the Response to queries document tomorrow, August 19; the deadline to submit offers is August 24. The offer framework outlined in the current procedure document (https://www.fide.com/docs/regulations/FIDE-CallForOffers-[ChessID_GameViewer]-Procedure.pdf) shall stay essentially the same for other modules; only Request for Proposals and Technical Data Sheet documents will be changing.

Due to an unfortunate contract signed by the previous administration, the so-called "FIDE Online Arena" was allowed to fall into private hands and changed owners twice. It is currently controlled by the same people who run World Chess (formerly Agon). FIDE actively collaborates with and holds its official online competitions at a variety of leading Hosting Internet Platforms (HIPs): Chess.com, Chess24.com, Playchess.com, lichess.org.

[Pierre Dénommée]

Hello Hal and Jose,

Yes, this is correct. Chess ID is a living breathing project; its vision and scope are being constantly improved after the concept was approved at the Q2 2019 PB meeting in Baku. You can get more information from the latest public presentation (https://doc.fide.com/docs/90%20Congress%20Agenda%20and%20Annexes/Annex%208.1.pdf) made at the EB in Abu Dhabi in February.



If I understand it well, the goal is to create a unique ID that will allow access to all the information about a person. This ID would be used on all online platforms, so a convicted cheater could be banned from all platforms. Furthermore, a single ID would allow access to both the FIDE rating and the CFC rating and while we are at it, why not the FQÉ rating as well. For those who are not in Quebec, I will say that submitting the rating report to three Federations is a time consuming process. First, the FIDE and CFC reports are submitted, but because the pairing software does not support more then 2 IDs, one FIDE and one National, all CFC ID and ratings must be deleted and replaced with FQÉ ID and ratings. Entering a single ID into the pairing software would be a big plus.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

I'm sure Bob will be presenting his own report here soon enough, but I wanted to post the Financial Statements ASAP. Please direct any comments to either me (under 4M) or Bob (here at 4N).

Fred McKim
CFC Treasurer

In the section 5 Membership revenue, there numbers of annual paying members. All higher than 2019 however the revenue is lower. How is that?

[Vladimir Drkulec]

Possibly related to deferred revenue. I think part of the revenue is pushed into next year. If people pay their membership late in the fiscal year say four months before the end of the fiscal year, eight months or 2/3 of the payment is counted as happening next year. We did lose two months of revenue in the fiscal year 2019-2020.

[Fred McKim]

In the section 5 Membership revenue, there numbers of annual paying members. All higher than 2019 however the revenue is lower. How is that?

I think we were counting players who's membership expired between 2020/03/01 and 2020/04/30

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

I think we were counting players who's membership expired between 2020/03/01 and 2020/04/30

The key word is "paying"...

[Fred McKim]

The key word is "paying"...

Yes, there should have been an explanation on that. You should be able to multiply by .833 to get a more accurate figure of memberships actually purchased during the fiscal year.

[Bob Gillanders]

In the section 5 Membership revenue, there numbers of annual paying members. All higher than 2019 however the revenue is lower. How is that?

Because of the 2 free months (March & April) we extended to members because of COVID19, it distorts some of the usual comparisons.
But careful analysis of note 5 - Membership revenue has all the answers.
The first line - annual memberships $45,408 is the actual collection of membership dues during the year.
Because of the shutdown, very very few members paid dues in March & April. So this is effectively only 10 months of normal dues paid.

Deferred Revenue is a calculation of the portion of memberships that are not expired yet.
So if your membership expiry date is June 1, you have 1 month if membership left in a normal year.
This year however, due to the extension, you have 3 months left in your membership left.

March & April are usually a little higher than average for memberships renewed, so if you add 10k, 45k+10k=55K without the shutdown.
All the numbers begin to compare better with last year.

[Vadim Tsypin]

As an important milestone, we have started the Call for Offers procedure for the first, relatively small and dependency-free, module this month. Things are going according to the schedule; we're going to publish the Response to queries document tomorrow, August 19; the deadline to submit offers is August 24. The offer framework outlined in the current procedure document (https://www.fide.com/docs/regulations/FIDE-CallForOffers-[ChessID_GameViewer]-Procedure.pdf) shall stay essentially the same for other modules; only Request for Proposals and Technical Data Sheet documents will be changing.

FIDE responds to queries regarding the Chess ID Game Viewer (https://fide.com/news/701).