Pan American Continental Championship

[Jonathan Berry]

The Pan American Continental Championship
http://chesseducators.com/

takes place November 1-7 in Miami, Florida, USA.

Ehlvest, A.Ivanov, Leon Hoyos and Lima lead with 3-0.

http://chesseducators.com/wp-content...wallchart.html

The existence of this event came as a surprise to me. Previously it had taken place in South America. Canadians have played several times. No Canadians are taking part in Miami, among the 58 players.

Yes, this is the official FIDE event, I found it on the FIDE Calendar, with a link to the (top) website.

[Bob Armstrong]

Hi Jonathan:

As I recollect about the 7 top finishers get spots in the FIDE World Cup. It is open to all North, Central and South Americans. Is this correct?

Bob

[Jonathan Berry]

That's the way it has been, Bob. As to the future, well, I did manage to find FIDE World Cup at Khanty-Mansiysk (but no dates) sometime in 2009. But if it's in the latter third of the year, maybe that would mean a later Pan Am would be the qualifier. Guesswork.

If it is a qualifier for the World Cup, then Canadian players would normally compete, if they knew about it....

[Lawrence Day]

This was posted in upcoming tournaments back mid-October:

Dear Canadian Chess Players:

It will be good to have at least one player from Canada participating in the Pan American Continental Championship. Therefore, we will eliminate the entry fee [$200] for the first player from Canada who register in the tournament.

This event usually takes place in South America, for the first time we are hosting it in the USA. One player will qualify to the FIDE World Cup, and as per continental regulations, this event gives 20 games norms for international titles.

All the best,

Beatriz Marinello

[Michael Barron]

Jonathan,

Canadian players knew about it since 08-29-2008 - please see this thread on the Tournament Announcements Forum:
http://www.chesscanada.info/forum/showthread.php?t=46

Unfortunately, there was no much interest...

Would you play if knew about it?

[Jonathan Berry]

Would you play if knew about it?

As always, "Maybe". Perhaps the timing was not good for the Alberta contingent, who have been playing in the USA a lot. Perhaps the promise of only one World Cup spot, rather than seven, was a negative for our top players. Perhaps some of the 177 clicks for that topic were looking for the Pan American Intercollegiate.

Probably, I'm the only person who assumed that Tournament Announcements was for domestic events and that postings would be sporadic. In fact, there are many announcements. I look for local events in the BCCF Email Bulletin, and wasn't expecting a norm event in greater Canada until next summer, the 2009 Canadian Closed, perhaps.

In ye olde days, this sort of event would have prompted a snail mail letter, at least to the top 20 or so players. Today, that could be done by email at no cost, with the selection criteria:

IF (FIDE_RATING > 1999) AND (COUNTRY <> "FO") THEN SENDMAIL email729

I'm not complaining, just pointing out that there can be alternative ways to get the word around. We still have the difference that Canadians went to (far away and expensive) South America, but this year didn't go to closer Miami.


Becerra, Ehlvest, Alex Ivanov, Leon, Lima, and Friedel now lead with 4-1. To get the current crosstable, you need to refresh the homepage

http://chesseducators.com/

and then click on standings. The URL to the standings changes with each round.

[Michael Barron]

Jonathan,

At no cost you can get only a cheese in mousetrap.
Yes, with technology advancement the cost of information exchange could be reduced, but still there is a cost associated with anything useful.
Time is money.
You could volunteer and donate your time - or you could hire somebody to do a work for you.
Our President estimates that an hour of CFC Office work costs $60.
If you want information to be delivered by snail mail to your mailbox or by email to your Inbox, you should pay for it.

We could add this work to job description of paid CFC employee - or develop an hierarchical system of information distribution on volunteer basis.

Meantime we could agree on some kind of collaboration with two-sided efforts:
I will post information on the CFC Forum, and you will come and read it there.

By the way, there is another fantastic opportunity for young players - International Youth Camp at Chess Olympiad -
please see http://www.chesscanada.info/forum/showthread.php?t=165

If I was 17, I would certainly grab it...

Please spread a word, if you know somebody who could be interested.

[Lawrence Day]

I think there are strong negatives for this tournament that account for the low attendance. 63 players is small with such a subsidized prize fund.

FIDE has taken North and South America and considered them as one continent. When there were 7 qualifying spots it was not so serious but for this event there is only one, a drastic reduction.

Also a Western Hemisphere player has a serious disadvantage at Khanty since the time zones and long trip will guarantee jet lag for the first few days and the knockout format will guarantee that only exceptionally alert play will survive the deliberately imbalanced first round pairing.

A realist will find this situation discouraging, especially compared to old Interzonals where many more games were played. The new system has too much travel for the actual chess played.

Another problem is political. Where are the Cuban representatives? When one country is blockading another it seems unfair to hold FIDE qualifiers in the belligerant country. I'm sure the USCF would be complaining if this event had been awarded to Havana.

Then there are normal personal safety issues: hurricanes, very high crime rate and the possibility of riots if Florida had (mis)counted their ballots as egregiously as four years ago.

All in all it was an easy tournament to reject.

[Jonathan Berry]

Jaan Ehlvest leads the Pan American Championship with 5.5 / 7. Seven players have 5. No Canadians.

Jonathan,

At no cost you can get only a cheese in mousetrap.
Yes, with technology advancement the cost of information exchange could be reduced, but still there is a cost associated with anything useful.
Time is money.
You could volunteer and donate your time - or you could hire somebody to do a work for you.

I have volunteered to do computer programming for the CFC (not my project, but something they want to do), and on multiple occasions it has been a frustrating experience, ultimately a waste of my time.

Our President estimates that an hour of CFC Office work costs $60.
If you want information to be delivered by snail mail to your mailbox or by email to your Inbox, you should pay for it.

Once a system is set up, no CFC Office work would be required. I don't see how an office, in the sense that we have known it since 1973, can be maintained anyway, given the lack of income sources. The CFC needs automation.

It was clearly my mistake to think that the Pan American Championship, which qualifies player(s) directly to the World Cup, was anywhere near as important as the Women's Olympiad or the WYCC, upon which both, the CFC devotes considerable resources, and communicates with players by mail, either snail- or e-, I don't know. "Players wishing to inquire about their eligibility for X should enclose $20." Maybe that's the magic formula the CFC has been seeking.

We could add this work to job description of paid CFC employee - or develop an hierarchical system of information distribution on volunteer basis.

Meantime we could agree on some kind of collaboration with two-sided efforts:
I will post information on the CFC Forum, and you will come and read it there.

Loud and clear. I'm sorry that you didn't find my suggestion constructive.

[Bob Armstrong]

Hi Lawrence:

The North/Central/South Americas used to be assigned a certain number of FIDE World Cup places, and as I understand it they were divided up between the Americas zones, and the Continental Championship. Now that the number of places for the Continental has been reduced from 7 to 1, where did the other 6 places go? Were they reassigned to the Americas zones, or did they just disappear? Canada, a separate Americas zone, certainly didn't get any extra World Cup places.

Bob

( or perhaps Michael Barron, our FIDE rep. can answer this question )