CFC FIDE Representative election - Feb 2021

[Vladimir Drkulec]

There will be an election for the position of CFC FIDE representative at the special meeting starting February 21st. This thread is for candidates to announce and for discussion about the election.

[Vadim Tsypin]

Dear chess friends and colleagues across Canada,

In compliance with the election procedures published by the CFC, I have declared my candidacy for the position of the FIDE Representative by notifying the CFC Secretary today. As per the procedures, I will provide all required documents to the CFC by Sunday, February 14.

I truly believe that my background in chess governance, including being a core member of the new FIDE management team since the 2018 FIDE elections, makes me the best candidate for this position. I am confident that I will be able to open the door wide for Canada into world chess and to bring exciting opportunities for Canadian players, coaches, and organizers. I hope that you will entrust me with the development of the CFC’s future at FIDE and vote for me.

[Mahmud Hassain]

[QUOTE=Vadim Tsypin;36141]Dear chess friends and colleagues across Canada,


I truly believe that my background in chess governance, including being a core member of the new FIDE management team since the 2018 FIDE elections, makes me the best candidate for this position.

[Mahmud Hassain]

Hi Vadim,

Thank you for putting your name forward and thank you for disclosing that you are "a core member of the new FIDE management team". Not withstanding your claimed chess activities, I have three questions for you.

1- Does not this disqualify you from representing Canada? To my mind, you are clearly in a conflict of interest position. This should be clear to you and to the voting members. So, which hat will you be wearing and which interest will you be advancing? FIDE or CFC?

2- Do you receive any compensation for your management position in FIDE?

3- Are you currently a governor or a management member of any CFC rival association or organization?

If "yes" to either Question 2 or Question 3, then you must not be a CFC voting member either because it is also a conflict of interest.

Thank you
Mahmud

[Victor Plotkin]

A. Bio

1. Was born in 1968 in Leningrad (St.-Petersburg), Soviet Union (Russia). Immigrated to Israel in 1991 and to Canada in 2002.

Education: 1985-1991 Leningrad Technical University (2 year break for Soviet Army).
1991-1994 Technion (Haifa, Israel) - Masters degree in Math.

2. Portfolio manager since 1991. Manage 2 hedge funds and some big individual clients. Interesting that strong chess players (2000+) make up more than 50% of AUM (assets under management).

3. Married with 3 kids. Rina (CFC 1356), Mark (CFC 2549) and Julia (CFC 1150).

4. Started playing chess at age of 7 in Palace of Pioneers, Leningrad. Played in different team events across the Soviet Union with some famous future GMs: Kamsky, Khalifman, Sakaev and others. Got Candidate Master title in 1984. Wasn't strong enough to get the FIDE rating. Quit chess in 1985 and did not play serious chess games until 2005.

Restarted my chess career in 2003 playing blitz at the Dutton-Dobrich chess club. Got my first FIDE rating in 2005, slightly below 2200.

Got FIDE Master title in 2011 at the Canadian Closed. Didn't feel comfortable with this title since my rating was always below 2300. Finally crossed 2300 level in 2014.

Have 2 IM norms (both from Gibraltar). Current rating 2367. I am extremely overrated now. However... while many players improved their rating by 200 points in 15 years, very few did it from age 37 to age 52 at this level.

5. Have significant experience in different major international events. Attended 4 WYCC with Mark (2010-2013). Played in 5 Gibraltar Open, likely one of the strongest open tournaments. Played in 2 World Senior Championship (2018, 2019).

4 times served as the Captain of Canadian National Team (2012-2018). The best result was 11th place in 2016. My strategy "Eric Hansen plays white" worked well and likely improved our performance.

Served as a coach/captain at U16 Olympiad (Hungary, 2014) for 2 Canadian Teams.

Was a player/captain at World Team Senior in 2018 and 2020. Special thanks to my teammates D.Cummings, I.Findlay and M.Barron for a good atmosphere and strong performance in these events.

6. CFC voting member since 2015 (Master Representative). Made major changes in Olympic rules with F. McKim (2016). While many members didn't like the idea of a Selection Committee, it was finally eliminated only after our motions.

Bonuses and penalties for Canadian Closed likely increased the motivation of strong players to participate in this tournament. I want to thank A.Marghetis and his team for an excellent job organizing last Canadian Closed (2019), which was probably the strongest Closed of the last 20 years. Hopefully, our motions also contributed to this success.

Did research with our Rating Auditor P. Leblanc which demonstrated the significant CFC-FIDE gap. The results and recommendations were approved by the CFC President. Now every player without a CFC rating (but with established FIDE) gets CFC = FIDE + 125 initial rating.

B. Platform

1. CFC-FIDE relationship.

On Aug 6, 2018 (2 months before the FIDE election) I posted on Chesstalk "Probably, Dvorkovich becomes a favorite to win the president election". I tried to convince the CFC leadership to support him, but the executives supported Macro.

Generally speaking, I am moderately satisfied with his presidentship so far, I give him a B+ for what he has done so far. I liked some changes that he made for the Championship Circle. The Grand Swiss giving the winner a spot in the Candidate Tournament (instead of qualification by rating) looks like a big improvement. Some progress has been made in the Women championship circle. I do have my personal opinion about transparency and sponsorship issues, but would prefer to discuss it in a different format.

I did not like Dvorkovich's crisis management skills and his decisions for the Candidate Tournament and during online Olympiad. At the same time, it's not fair to criticize him - it was a very difficult and completely new situation, which required some tough decisions.

Vlad mentioned "strained" CFC-FIDE relationship. I am sure I can improve it, if elected. My generally positive attitude towards the current FIDE leadership will not guarantee automatic support. If I have to object or ask unpleasant questions, I'll do it.

The CFC needs to work more with FIDE, and especially with FIDE America to get more Pan-American tournaments to Canada. I am talking not only about the American championship, but also about Youth, Junior, Women and Senior events.

I see this process as a long term project, which requires a lot of time and effort. However, we need to start working on it.

If elected, I would pay special attention to international team events, which are, from my experience, the most interesting and memorable tournaments, especially for young players.

Canada has excellent arbiters and I will try my best to get more official FIDE events for them.

I am sure I can communicate with the current FIDE leadership. I spoke with E.Sutovsky many times at Chess Olympiads and in Gibraltar. I have never spoken with Dvorkovich, but we have a lot in common and it shouldn't be difficult to build a solid relationship. In fact my oldest daughter graduated from the same Law School at Duke University last year.

If elected, I will not hesitate to ask for help and advice from Vadim Tsypin (who is very close to the current FIDE leadership) in certain situations. I was a good student my entire life. I learn fast.

2. Work with CFC president.

I know Vlad for many years, and we were able to build a very good relationship well before he became the CFC president (2013) and my first involvement in Olympiad Team (2012). I believe, as a human being, I understand him well.

For the last several years, we have had a lot of conversations about a variety of issues. Sometimes he accepted my point, sometimes he preferred his own solution. However, I was always able to express and explain my opinion.

While I am not happy with some of his recent decisions, I am absolutely sure we can successfully collaborate for the best of CFC and Canadian chess in general.

3. FIDE representative is also a director who should participate in voting. With my experience as a player, parent, captain, and voting member, I hope to provide enough logic and common sense. At the same time, I will be quiet if I am not competent enough for some problems.

The main point for me - we should follow our own rules. If we don't like them, we have to change them from time to time; but we have to adhere to them. Consistently following our own rules is key to improving the CFC image and allowing us to get more respect from regular players.

C. Personal

My previous public election was in 2012 for the position of Olympic Team Captain. There were 3 candidates for this position: Y.Ochkoos, V.Rekhson and myself. Only 5 team players were allowed to vote. I won with the smallest possible margin. For me, it is very important to remain on good terms with other candidates and I am really happy that we managed to maintain a good and respectful relationship.

I hope for the same with both A.Marghetis and V.Tsypin.

[Aris Marghetis]

Aris' mini-bio:

Hello everyone, in the last couple of weeks for our family, with a death and three hospitalizations, I've been slow to post my bio for CFC FIDE Representative.

In the meantime, here's a link to my position at the FIDE Arbiters' Commission:

https://arbiters.fide.com/about-the-...aris-marghetis

Thank you, best regards, Aris Marghetis.

[Vladimir Drkulec]

http://www.chesscanada.info/forum/sh...b-2021-Part-II

Non voting members can continue the discussion above.

Voting members can continue the discussion at the meeting where all posts as of late this morning were copied.

http://www.chesscanada.info/forum/fo...pecial-Meeting

[Mahmud Hassain]

Dear Voting Members,

In the CV provided here by Vadim, it is stated that Vadim is a Vice President of the CMA, which answers my Question 3 above. The CFC has commercial contracts with the CMA.
There is a conflict of interest here and it is incumbent upon all of you to safeguard our federation. It is your duty to do so.
So, through you President Vlad, I am requesting that either Vadim resign from CMA or he must resign from CFC voting members privilege.

Thank you
Mahmud

[Vladimir Drkulec]

Dear Voting Members,

In the CV provided here by Vadim, it is stated that Vadim is a Vice President of the CMA, which answers my Question 3 above. The CFC has commercial contracts with the CMA.
There is a conflict of interest here and it is incumbent upon all of you to safeguard our federation. It is your duty to do so.
So, through you President Vlad, I am requesting that either Vadim resign from CMA or he must resign from CFC voting members privilege.

Thank you
Mahmud

3- Are you currently a governor or a management member of any CFC rival association or organization?

You are under some misapprehensions of the facts.

The CMA is not a rival association or organization.

A conflict of interest has to be declared. Being an officer or member of the board of the CMA is not a conflict of interest.

The CFC does not have commercial contracts with the CMA.

Having commercial contracts with the CMA would not prevent someone from being a voting member or on the board of directors of the CFC.

Vadim is a voting member by virtue of the fact that he was nominated by the FQE as one of their three voting members. We do have agreements in place with the FQE. Are you suggesting that any voting member from the FQE is somehow illegitimate because we have such an agreement?

If having some relationship with the CMA was an automatic conflict of interest there would be many of the voting members that would need to resign as a number of them teach chess for the CMA.

EDIT: Actually they would have to declare a conflict of interest, they wouldn't have to resign.

The CMA is an organization which the CFC often works with.

I myself have directed tournaments for the CMA in Windsor because parents asked me to.

I believe at one point we had a tournament that was both a YCC and a CMA event at the same time and I directed it and organized it.

I believe that CFC Youth Coordinator Christina Tao may have also organized a CMA event or two at some point. I am pretty sure that I directed at least one or two for her.

The CMA hires many chess players to teach for them. That is not a conflict of interest. Our interests are not opposed, they are complementary. They tend to organize tournaments for children which are even sometimes CFC rated like the North American Youth Chess Championship.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Being an officer or member of the board of the CMA is not a conflict of interest.

Vlad, in some cases it might be. Though it is not called a conflict of interest; just simple "interest". You might find that in the NFP Act.