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Thread: 4. Executive and Officer reports

  1. #1
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    Default 4. Executive and Officer reports

    Members of the Executive and CFC Officers please post your reports in this section

  2. #2
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    Default FIDE Report

    FIDE Report

    Congratulations to our newest IM, Mark Plotkin!

    The 91st FIDE Congress was held online from November 30 – December 6. It was a great success, as is their brave, ongoing embrace of on-line solutions during COVID. Any glitches from “learning by doing”, as President Dvorkovich put it, were well worth it. Here are some highlights:

    The Treasurer Reported the € 300K loss from 2019, and a forecast “small accounting loss” in 2020. FIDE actually spent some reserves in 2019 beyond the operating revenue and I expressed concern about that.

    In 2021 FIDE is forecasting a very lucrative outcome from the World Championship match in Dubai, which is expected to follow expanded World Cups for both Open and Women’s divisions in Socchi.

    The 2022 Olympiad is headed for Moscow and 2024 has been awarded to Budapest, Hungary. The organizers presented a very strong bid. They are also committed to a minimal carbon footprint, which will be a worthy challenge given that the hotels are some kilometers away.

    I shared my dream with the President, inviting him to a few NHL games in Canada next season to kick start our Olympiad bid for 2026.

    England’s Delegate Malcolm Pein teamed up with FIDE VP Nigel Short to present a motion requiring the Iran Chess Federation to end their blatant discriminatory actions against Israel. After consulting with our Executive, Canada’s written support was given to the motion. President Dvorkovich was ultimately able to draft a more universal resolution which was acceptable to everyone. Even though our letter is dated after the President’s solution, I am pleased that Canada is a supporter of record.

    At the Medical Commission, issues surrounding Cannabis was discussed. It is a prohibited substance according to WADA. FIDE acknowledges that it is legal in many countries and they noted that “in competition” substance abuse was their primary concern. Some countries have their own anti-doping programs, paid by their governments. The cost for this programming in Canada is about $5000 per year and we do not intend to sign up. I suggested that anti -doping was the cost of doing business with the IOC and asked if it was worth it. The Chair found the perspective interesting.

    The Planning and Development Commission (PDC) is the commission where I serve officially. There has been less money available for developing federations in the past year. Our commission has developed a Federation Management Manual consistent with other sport Federations, espousing best practices and resource optimization. The Manual should be ready for download by January 2021.

    The Arbiters’ Commission is focussed on raising the bar for Arbiters across the board. They are calling for more uniform training for new Arbiters and refresher courses for all. Future attendees of FA seminars must already be National Arbiters (NA’s) Our National Arbiter program is among the most lax in the world. I am more convinced than ever that we need an Arbiters’ Commission with an enhanced education program and I hereby call for its formation. Aris Marghetis is the Arbiter for the job and he is available. I am willing to serve as Secretary.

    The Commonwealth Chess Association will hold its 2021 championship online. The organizers in the UK are planning for early February and details are forthcoming.

    Respectfully submitted
    Hal Bond, FIDE Delegate, Canada
    December 12, 2020

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by Hal Bond View Post

    I shared my dream with the President, inviting him to a few NHL games in Canada next season to kick start our Olympiad bid for 2026.
    If we are talking about 2021 the plans that I have read do not include fans in NHL stands as of yet. Have you talked to someone in government about sponsorship for this Olympiad bid?


    England’s Delegate Malcolm Pein teamed up with FIDE VP Nigel Short to present a motion requiring the Iran Chess Federation to end their blatant discriminatory actions against Israel. After consulting with our Executive, Canada’s written support was given to the motion. President Dvorkovich was ultimately able to draft a more universal resolution which was acceptable to everyone. Even though our letter is dated after the President’s solution, I am pleased that Canada is a supporter of record.
    Canada's support for Nigel Short's motion did not make it into any of the press coverage about this motion. We did draw the attention of the Iranian Federation who unleashed a barrage of criticism of the CFC at the FIDE online general assembly which FIDE president muted and deflected. In future, such a letter should probably have an executive motion and vote before being launched. If there is some FIDE event in Iran I would be concerned about Canadians participating as the Iranians have a history of politically motivated detentions. I think in all of our actions, concrete results are more important than virtue signalling which doesn't accomplish anything which benefits the CFC, Canadian players or even in this case Israeli players. I understand that sometimes we have to take quick decisions but this was not necessarily one of those cases.

    This was presented in the context of a larger discussion of the Greek letter disputing the actions of the Verification committee or commission. I believe that I was the only one that expressed any sentiments on this question of the Iranian Federation's possible sanction and I was somewhat cautiously supportive of the idea. I don't want to belabour this but the process in this case was not a good one.



    The Arbiters’ Commission is focussed on raising the bar for Arbiters across the board. They are calling for more uniform training for new Arbiters and refresher courses for all. Future attendees of FA seminars must already be National Arbiters (NA’s) Our National Arbiter program is among the most lax in the world. I am more convinced than ever that we need an Arbiters’ Commission with an enhanced education program and I hereby call for its formation. Aris Marghetis is the Arbiter for the job and he is available. I am willing to serve as Secretary.
    I am sure we can look at this when there is a concrete proposal on the table. Remember that any items which require a vote need to be proposed three weeks in advance of a meeting so that we can provide statutory notice.

  4. #4
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    I've always been of the view that politics should never be part of sports. In this case, I'd like to see the CFC simply put forth that Iran should only be permitted to put forth objections related to Israeli players playing if they have violated FIDE rules. Otherwise, that all qualified chess players should be permitted to play. I'd like to see the CFC make it very clear that political views have no place in the sports world. I fully realize that politics have been involved in sports for generations but it's time for a change.

  5. #5
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    I'd like to see the CFC take the position that there is no place in sports for political views. Further that Iran, or any other country, can only oppose the playing of players if the individual player has violated FIDE rules.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Lloyd Lombard View Post
    I've always been of the view that politics should never be part of sports. In this case, I'd like to see the CFC simply put forth that Iran should only be permitted to put forth objections related to Israeli players playing if they have violated FIDE rules. Otherwise, that all qualified chess players should be permitted to play. I'd like to see the CFC make it very clear that political views have no place in the sports world. I fully realize that politics have been involved in sports for generations but it's time for a change.
    I believe that the FIDE president's proposal to resolve the situation took care of that. We are dealing with a regime that sends would be assassins into other countries to target ambassadors of other countries and grabs citizens of the U.S. and Canada, tortures them and in some cases kills them. I don't think they are really concerned with what the CFC thinks of them though they did enjoy lobbing a few zingers at us at the FIDE general assembly.

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by Vladimir Drkulec View Post
    I believe that the FIDE president's proposal to resolve the situation took care of that. We are dealing with a regime that sends would be assassins into other countries to target ambassadors of other countries and grabs citizens of the U.S. and Canada, tortures them and in some cases kills them. I don't think they are really concerned with what the CFC thinks of them though they did enjoy lobbing a few zingers at us at the FIDE general assembly.
    Agreed, I'm talking about a CFC long-term policy which guides CFC representatives at how to approach these issues at future conferences.

  8. #8

    Default Womens' Coordinator report

    Hal notified me that our Zone is the last to select a player for the Women World Cup. Our Zonal has been cancelled and nobody have been officially selected. I am awaiting the official deadline before deciding on the qualification process. An online tournament would be better then having a selection by rating, but we must have enough time to organize it. I got a copy of the draft FIDE Online rules which are important because we will be qualifying someone for the Women World Cup.

    I was appointed as a director of the Francophone Chess Association in September until the AGM of December 5th. The AGM elected me for a four years mandate. So we now have Hal as vice-chair of the Commonwealth Chess Association and myself as a director for the Francophone Chess Association. We now cover both official languages. I will keep you informed of opportunities for our players. Actually, the Francophone standard chess (Tunisia) and rapid chess (France) Championships have been postponed indefinitely due to Covid-19. It wasn't possible to guarantee all the players entry into the host country for health reasons (nothing political). All those entering Tunisia from Canada would have been compelled to a quarantine of at least 10 days at the traveller's expense.

    Respectfully Submitted,
    Pierre Dénommée
    CFC Womens' Coordinator

  9. #9

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    [QUOTE=Hal Bond;35540

    The Arbiters’ Commission is focussed on raising the bar for Arbiters across the board. They are calling for more uniform training for new Arbiters and refresher courses for all. Future attendees of FA seminars must already be National Arbiters (NA’s) Our National Arbiter program is among the most lax in the world. I am more convinced than ever that we need an Arbiters’ Commission with an enhanced education program and I hereby call for its formation. Aris Marghetis is the Arbiter for the job and he is available. I am willing to serve as Secretary.
    [/QUOTE]

    The FQE has a program that is more stringent then the CFC's. It is not advisable for a single country to have two arbiters certification stream. I am willing to join this team.

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pierre Dénommée View Post
    The FQE has a program that is more stringent then the CFC's. It is not advisable for a single country to have two arbiters certification stream. I am willing to join this team.
    I was thinking about your FQE program when I read this. Probably we do not want to be putting up barriers to running tournaments at this time.

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