Originally Posted by
Vladimir Drkulec
There have been a parade of FIDE officials, grandmasters and players endorsing Vadim Tsypin as Canada's FIDE representative. Vadim is very well connected within FIDE. He can go to anyone, anywhere within FIDE and get answers or cooperation. I have been told by some including you and Hal that many fear Vadim. When I expressed this to Vadim, he was quite surprised and asked "Why would anyone be afraid of me?"
I know why they are afraid of him. He is very intelligent. He works very hard. He does not quit. Ever. Why am I not afraid of him? I have some intelligence. I work very hard. I do not quit. Ever. He reminds me of me in some ways. I see a lot of people projecting their shadow upon him. They fear him because they want something from him. I don't want anything from him beyond his help to advance the cause of Canadians within FIDE. He does this at every turn and at every opportunity. He cares about the disabled. When faced with a situation where others gave up without trying to help, he turned over every stone and found a way to accomplish it. When faced with a situation where he can help the CFC, he moves heaven and earth to get things done.
When I organized the CYCC, Canadian Open and NAYCC in 2016 I learned from being on the committee that organized the CYCC in 2015. In 2015, several committee members went to each meeting with several different venues and the thing that I noticed was that two or three heads were not better than one. The more people in the meeting, the more the meeting went off message. We were not able to present our best case and there were few concessions made to the organizers. The following year I went alone to all of the important meetings. I stayed on message. I told the story of the CFC and the story of the CYCC, the Canadian Open and the NAYCC. I stayed on message. In three one hour meetings I raised all the funds needed to run the tournaments and got the halls for free if I was able to meet the conditions of room nights sold.
Sometimes one focused person is better than two or even more people who are not as focused and whose attention is of necessity divided.