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/showthread.php?6281-Resolution-of-Complaint-against-Vice-President-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!!

[Victor Plotkin]

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.

[Victor Plotkin]

Just want to add, that FIDE reply, mentioned in my previous post, was from A.Martynov (the head of FIDE legal department). I used google translator from Russian.

[Richard Bérubé]

Rules has changed Mr. Plotkin. FIDE now permit regional affiliation for distinct society like Quebec. To compare Quebec with GTCL is absurd.

"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)" (Victor Plotkin).

This statement is incorrect. There was only two previous attempts done in the past, a very long time ago. And the CFC will have the absolute first choice to compose the best Canadian team possible. Canada 2 (Quebec) will be composed with substitute players. Mr. Plotkin, if you want to have the correct information in the future, i suggest you call the FQE office at : 514-252-3034.

[Christina Tao]

4F. Youth Coordinator reports

This year we are seeing a significantly increase interests in the Youth Chess. As from Vlad's report, we are seeing lot of youth players has dramatically improve their chess knowledge. We are also seeing parents are more eager, involved and willing to travel in youth chess. This year CFC is doing more educational presentation to parents who will definitely help on the grow of youth chess.

From my last report since Sept 2023, our youth players have did an amazing performance in the following amazing events.


1. FIDE World School Chess Championships, Lima Peru, April 30 - May 10, 2024
FIDE announced this tournament on Mar 17 and the deadline is April 6.
This leave me a very short period of time to setup the team for this event.

CFC Chess Forum post: https://www.chesscanada.info/forum/showthread.php?6395-Urgent-Registration-Open-for-2024-FIDE-World-School-Chess-Championship-Lima-Peru
A CFC google registration form is created for interested players to register.


2. FIDE World Junior Chess Championships, Gujarat India, Jun 1 - 14, 2024
FIDE annouced the World Junior on March 17 and the official deadline date is April 1, 2024. I already wrote the email to extend the deadline date.
Our Canadian Junior which is the qualifying tournament to World Junior will be hosted by Excelsior Chess Club from April 10 - 14, 2024
Canadian Junior post: https://www.chesscanada.info/forum/showthread.php?6392-Join-in-April-Canadian-Juniors-Chess-Championship-Compete-Win-and-Have (https://www.chesscanada.info/forum/showthread.php?6392-Join-in-April-Canadian-Juniors-Chess-Championship-Compete-Win-and-Have-Fun!)-Fun!
A CFC registration form will be created shortly.


3. Canadian Schools Team Championships, June 8, 2024
After a very successfully start from last year, we received many inquiry from players that they are very interested on this event. Vlad Rekhson and I have numerous talk to see if we can incorporate this event into CFC calendar. We are proposed to host this tournament online on Jun 8, 2024.
So far, FIDE doesn't not have World Schools Team Championships in their calendar for 2024.
Vlad will work on more details about this event, and once we finalize it, we will announce it and hope many teams will join from across Canada.



4. World U08-U10-U12, Batumi Georgia, June 22- Jul 3, 2024
This is a brand new tournament and will only invite 48 players top rated players around the world from each age category.
Canada does not qualified for any spot based on article 3.4-3.8 requirements. But at the end, Canada received 12 wildcards for this event.
Official website: https://wcc2024.fide.com/
CFC Chess Forum Post: https://www.chesscanada.info/forum/showthread.php?6329-Urgent-Registration-Open-for-2024-FIDE-World-Cup-U08-U10-U12-Batumi-Georgia

12 players are awarded for this tournament:
U08O Elliot McCallum and Zhihan, Xu
U08G Elizabeth Nagnibedovsky and Anne Gao

U10O Modith Aaroh Mutyalapati and Raunak Amit Ramesan
U10G Florence Zixin Xu and Ashley Fu

U12O Daniel Joshua Lee and Zeming Yin
U12G April Wang and Joanne Wangluo

U12O Mendes Aaron Mendes will register as Personal Right player as he is ranked top 3 in FIDE rating system.



5. Canadian Youth Chess Championship at Laval Quebec, July 9-12, 2024
CYCC official website : https://cycc2024.my.canva.site/
CFC Chess Forum post: https://www.chesscanada.info/forum/showthread.php?6310-Registration-Open-for-2024-CYCC-Laval-Quebec
(https://cycc2024.my.canva.site/)I had been working diligently with CYCC organizer, clubs from across Canada, and players in question to ensure the players are all validated and eligible to play in CYCC.
This year we adopt a new rule. CFC allowed the players to register first and get qualified before Jul 1, 2024. This way, more players can benefit from early bird discount as many regional qualifiers are run very later in the year.

CFC has created a weekly updated Qualified List so parents can check if players are on the qualified list.
CFC has also created a one-time Pre-Qualified List. This list has top 10 players from each age category base on Mar 1, 2024 rating. These players are all pre-qualified into CYCC.

On Mar 20, we had 301 players registered into the CYCC and we expect we will have an new breaking breaking number for this year.


6. PanAmerican Youth Chess Championships, Orlando Florida, Jul 15- 20, 2024
This year, even PanAm Youth is in USA, but the registration has to go thru the Federation.
Official website: https://new.uschess.org/pan-american-youth-championships-xxxiv
CFC Chess Forum Post: https://www.chesscanada.info/forum/showthread.php?6379-Registration-Open-for-2024-Pan-American-Youth-Championships-Orlando-Florida
A CFC registration form is created and players start to fill in the form.
The official players will be selected based on the 2023 CYCC final standings.


7. North American Junior U20, Calgary AB, Aug 14-18, 2024
Official website: https://najcc.com/NAJCC/Home/Home
Registration is open for all Canadian players.


There are tremendous amount of works involved in setting up each team. Even I am overwhelmed with this workloads, I am still very happy to see Canadian youth are shining in all international stages.

Finally, congratulation to all players and thank you to all parents who support your children on all these chess journeys. CFC also thanks to all organizers who run tournaments to provide the best environment for our young players to grow.



Christina
CFC Youth Coordinator

[Victor Plotkin]

Rules has changed Mr. Plotkin. FIDE now permit regional affiliation for distinct society like Quebec. To compare Quebec with GTCL is absurd.

"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)" (Victor Plotkin).

This statement is incorrect. There was only two previous attempts done in the past, a very long time ago. And the CFC will have the absolute first choice to compose the best Canadian team possible. Canada 2 (Quebec) will be composed with substitute players. Mr. Plotkin, if you want to have the correct information in the future, i suggest you call the FQE office at : 514-252-3034.

Using word "absurd" regarding my personal opinion doesn't contribute to respectful discussion. Usually, I trust numbers more than words, and numbers tell me that:

1. GTCL has more CFC members than FQE.
2. Financially, GTCL contributes more than FQE to the CFC revenue.
3. GTCL has more voting members.
4. Last Olympiad, out of 11 Team members (players + captains), at least 5 were from GTCL, but only 1 from Quebec.

About "first choice". My understanding is based on emails from CFC President and his negotiations with FQE about possible team from Quebec.

Also, I have inside information about FQE communications with some Canadian strong players (who have a great chance to make a Canadian Team) about idea to play for Quebec. Is it the "absolute first choice" you agree to give to the CFC?

One of the main goals for this meeting in general and for CFC officers reports especially, is to let other voting members know more about current situation. Also, transparency is always my top priority, so in this case public and fair discussion would be better than some secret negotiations. For many years, CFC - FQE relationship and agreements were not open and not transparent. As a result, we have a current situation, there FQE talks to FIDE over the head of the CFC and tries to undermine CFC efforts for the strongest possible Olympic Team.

[Vladimir Drkulec]

As I said previously to the FQE and to the CFC Board of directors we are not interested in any "divorce" from the FQE as relations have been quite good. A situation where some or all of the Quebec players are no longer available to the CFC because we are suddenly separate federations would not work. To be fair, in our discussions with the FQE the principle that the first CFC team would always be composed of players that made that team the strongest possible including players from Quebec. This is critical as World Cup spots and other benefits from FIDE accrue based on standing in the Olympiad. Slippage by a few places can mean the difference between one and two spots in the World Cup. Based on what I have seen and heard the best hope for a Canada 1 and Canada 2 and a Canada 3 would be for Canada to host the Olympiad which seems a heavy lift at this point without a much better relationship with the government and sponsors.

The Canadian Olympic Committee which I believe shares space with the FQE in the same building has been quite interested in the relationship between the CFC and the FQE especially in the moment where we needed to renew our position under the umbrella of the Canadian Olympic Committee when they went through their transition to the new Canada Not For Profit Act around 2014 to 2015. The Chess Federation of Canada falls short in the area of offering bilingual and French language services. We recognize this and the FQE can and does help us in this regard and in the future will likely do more. Players from Quebec are all Canadians and we don't look and see what part of the country they come from before deciding to support them. The FQE have had a more solid financial footing than the CFC because they receive funding from the Quebec government. We receive no government funding.

In every letter that I sent with regard to the recent FIDE Candidates and Women's Candidates tournament I noted that the CFC is recognized by FIDE and the COC as the NSO or National Sports (Sporting) Organization or governing body for chess in Canada. At all times the leadership of the FQE have acknowledged this and have expressed good will towards the CFC and our relationship. We have had more than one discussion of the need for all of us to be working together and rowing in the same direction. I appreciate the efforts of the FQE which have contributed the furthering of chess in Canada and in the world. Our relationship with the FQE is a strategic asset whose value should not be overlooked. Our status with the COC is also a strategic asset which should not be put at risk without understanding the consequences. Eric Bopala and Richard Bérubé are both friends of the CFC, chess in Canada and myself.

I hope that in the future everyone involved in chess politics appreciates all of these realities. The situation for chess in Canada and in the world has never been brighter. Lets continue to grow the pie for everyone. Let us continue to work together.

[Victor Plotkin]

The first board discussion about FQE proposal was initiated by Vlad in October 2023. A few days later we had a voting. All 8 CFC directors voted against this proposal. (CFC didn't have a Women Coordinator that time). Also, it was agreement that I will inform FIDE about CFC position, which I did in my email to Sutovsky/Martynov.

A few weeks later, in November I got an opportunity to talk to Arkady Dvorkovich face-to-face. Here is my report to CFC directors about it:

"Just had a nice 20-min conversation with Arkady (breakfast, Italy, World Senior). He came for 1 day visit, so I shouldn't expect more of his time and attention. Major points:

1. FIDE is very concerned about VISA for candidates. Russians and especially Indians. Any help from us would be appreciated.

2. Absolutely no chance that FIDE will allow a separate team and affiliated status for Quebec without the CFC content. Clear letter (which I already provided to Sutovsky/Martynov) is enough. Looks like Arkady has even more hawkish position on this issue than me. We both see Isle of Man and other British territories as a completely different situation. Affiliated status is only for them.

3. We also discussed overlap between next Olympiad (Budapest, Sep 2024) and next World Senior (probably, Romania, Sep 2024). He promised to fix this problem."

Hopefully, I am allowed to copy/paste my own email.

Honestly, after this I believed that I am done with this issue. However, about a week ago I got a new information about FQE. I sent another email to FIDE officials and received a reply, which I already quoted in my initial post.

[Eric Bopala]

Thanks Vladimir! you have well summarized our previous discussion, and as you said, FQE is strongly supporting the CFC. The point here is that we can reinforce Canada's chess position in the world by supporting the affiliation of FQE to FIDE, since Canada can have team 1, 2 and 3. We have to focus on what can improve the Canadian footprint for chess in the world. This is in line with FQE’s aspirations towards FIDE. There is no intention of any divorce, Chess in Canada will be strengthened by better collaboration between the two federations.

As an example, let cite the work accomplished by the Canadian embassy and the general delegation of Quebec in several countries. The FQE affiliation to FIDE will open the door to Canada to have more chess teams representing Canada as we used to, in the Olympiad for example. FQE agreed that CFC will have the first choice in order to present the best Team possible at the Olympiad, including chess players from Quebec.

As my friend Vladimir said, CFC and FQE have a very good relationship! We want to keep working together to go farther as much as possible to improve chess in Canada. This opportunity is an unexpected chance, considering the support of the CFC, to develop chess games in Canada for the benefit of our chess players.

[Don Parakin]

Eric, would you support having the OCA and BCCF also affiliated with FIDE? We'd then have team 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 and would REALLY reinforce Canada's chess position in the world!

[Eric Bopala]

Eric, would you support having the OCA and BCCF also affiliated with FIDE? We'd then have team 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 and would REALLY reinforce Canada's chess position in the world!

I would like to remind all chess friends that Quebec is a distinct society, by the act of the Parliament of Canada, the Quebecers are recognized as a nation. Unlike the provinces of Canada, Quebec has exclusive jurisdiction over its taxation system, pensions, immigration, and other crucial aspects of its administrative and police authority. Quebec has its own Ministry of International Relations; in many countries, like I said the Canadian Embassy and the General delegation of Quebec are working together for the best of Canada. Quebec is a full member of the « Assemblée parlementaire de la Francophonie », also of the « Organisation internationale de la francophonie », and a strong member of AIDEF "Association Internationale des Échecs Francophones. Quebec also has a representative to UNESCO, participates in the Organization of American States, and more. Further more, Quebec is the only nation in Canada with French as of it's official language.

Let's keep in mind that the FQE affiliation to FIDE will open the door to Canada to have more chess teams representing Canada as we used to, in the Olympiad for example. FQE is agreed to allow for Canada Team 1 to be the strongest possible according to CFC choices that include chess players from Quebec.

[Richard Bérubé]

While Toronto is important to the CFC, that doesn't mean other partners should be ignored. The FQE remains a good client for the CFC. For example, the CYCC this year is likely to have nearly 500 participants.
But this has nothing to do with money. It's a question of development, good partnership and new possibilities offered by FIDE
A word on the transparency principle : It has its limits. The CFC and FQE are companies and usually companies do not negociate on the public domain. What about Zoom ?

[Lyle Craver]

Let us ALSO remember that this message thread is strictly for the posting of reports by the Executive and Officers of the CFC and while we've been tolerant here general discussion of issues should be discussed in another thread.

Frankly I'm quite offended that some Voting Members consider this specific thread a suitable place for general discussion of political issues unrelated to the CFC.

[Vladimir Drkulec]

Let us ALSO remember that this message thread is strictly for the posting of reports by the Executive and Officers of the CFC and while we've been tolerant here general discussion of issues should be discussed in another thread.

Frankly I'm quite offended that some Voting Members consider this specific thread a suitable place for general discussion of political issues unrelated to the CFC.

I think going forward we should create a Reports discussion thread if we want the reports to be separate from discussion of the reports. I think we have always allowed such discussion but separating things out would make for a cleaner reports section.