Canadian Olympiad Teams To Get " Red Carpet" Treatment

Press Release # 5/2010

DATE: Wednesday Oct 13, 2010
BY: Annex Chess Club (ACC)/Chess Institute of Canada (CIC)/Chess Federation of Canada (CFC)
WRITER/CONTACT: Ted Winick, President, Chess Institute of Canada 416-537-2299; ted@chessinstitute.ca
INTERVIEW: can be arranged

TOPIC: Canadian Chess Olympiad Teams "Get Red Carpet" Treatment

Canadian National and Women’s Chess Olympiad Teams Get "Red Carpet" Treatment

Five Canadian men and five Canadian women are about to get a big Canadian “Thank you” reception on Monday, October 18. What for?? For doing a great job at representing Canada in Russia recently at the World Chess Olympiad. The World Chess Olympiad is held every 2 years and is the equal of the Sports Olympics, the World Cup, the America Cup, or any other international championship. With one major difference: Chess is more popular than any other activity and played by more people world-wide than any sport except (maybe) soccer!!

At the reception, 22-year old Grandmaster Mark Bluvshtein, who led the Canadian Team, will share how he defeated the world’s # 2 player Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria. Toronto’s Mark came to Canada from Israel at age 11. At 16, he became the youngest-ever Grand-master in Canadian history. He’s now taking a year off to play “professional” chess; his goal? To be one of the world’s top 100 players.

Also present will be the youngest woman ever to head a Canadian Women’s Chess Olympiad team, 16-year old Women’s International Master, Yuanling Yuan. On first board, she achieved an impressive score of almost 70 %. Yuanling is a student at Toronto's Victoria Park C. I. and is the top ranked Canadian woman.

The reception is being held on the occasion of the grand opening of the newest chess club in Toronto, the Annex Chess Club, operated by the Chess Institute of Canada. It is located at 918 Bathurst Street (a block north of Bloor St. subway station). Doors open at 6:30 p.m.; the reception starts at 7:00; Mark’s lecture starts 7:30 PM. There will be a nominal entry charge.

The Annex Chess Club warmly invites everyone to come and meet these Olympiad players, and give them all the big “Thanks” they so richly deserve!

Note: I have pictures of Mark and Yuanling to pass on if anyone intends to use the press release ( a friend posted a picture here for me last press release, but now I have to learn how to do it myself. I've had some of you try to instruct me. I'll try it out and see what happens. In the meantime, here is the text ).

Background to CFC Press Releases :

At the Toronto July CFC AGM, the governors passed Motion 2010-17 creating a non-executive officer position of " Public Relations Coordinator " ( upgrading the prior position of Director of Publicity ). Bylaw 3 of the CFC Handbook, under Duties of Officers in Section 8C, gives the mandate of this position as:

8C. The Public Relations Coordinator will be responsible for promoting the image of the CFC and for promoting chess generally to the public. As such the Public Relations Coordinator will, among other things:

- deal with mainstream media to promote significant chess news, such as Canadian Chess Champions, a new Canadian GM, major tournaments like the Can. Closed, Canadian Open, Can. Women’s Closed, CYCC, etc., the various benefits accruing from playing chess and other positive aspects of the chess culture.

This position in its initial creation never got filled. And currently, the CFC is looking for a volunteer governor/member to fill the vacant Public Relations Coordinator position.

Because of this situation, the CFC has never developed a bank of Canadian mainstream media contacts who might be willing to publish CFC Press Releases on chess items, or to write articles on chess.

I have currently volunteered, in the interim, as a governor, to try to do some preliminary work on this issue, in advance of us finding the right volunteer to fill the position. I will write some press releases myself, and on some I will be collaborating with others, under who's name the press release will appear.

Feel free to make use of the CFC Press Releases in any publicity efforts you might be undertaking. I would appreciate being advised of any efforts made and use of the material, so CFC can build a file on the efforts being made to promote chess in Canada.

Newspapers do not acknowledge press releases ( too many daily ) and to my knowledge do not notify you if they make use of one. So if you see an article on this in any of the papers, please advise me. I have been warned that it has not been easy to get chess material into the mainstream media, and so CFC should have very modest expectations of success on this front. But hopefully, over time, with developing contacts, this will change.

If anyone has any newspaper, television or radio contacts I might be able to use, or any advice on this effort, please e-mail me : bobarm@sympatico.ca

Bob