CFC FIDE Representative election - Feb 2021

[Victor Itkin]

Dear Victor,



Thank you for questions on substance. It is a pleasure for me to answer them although I am puzzled why didn’t you address those directly to my dear wife who is her own person. Women are not considered “appendages” to their husbands anymore, right?

My spouse Diana Tsypina is an accomplished professional and entrepreneur. She holds Master of Sciences degree in Computer Science and worked with distinction for several decades in Canada in the leading Crown corporations and Information Technology companies. Diana is also a business owner and has significant investment income.

Like many of our colleagues, Diana Tsypina started her successful career as a chess arbiter by leveraging her professional qualifications to master the tournament management software such as Siwss Sys, Vega, and Swiss Manager. By working hard at the scholastic, youth, and national events, she rose through the ranks and distinguished herself:
• First, by becoming the first female FIDE Arbiter in Canada (title awarded at 89th FIDE Congress 2018, 26 Sep - 6 Oct, Batumi, Georgia),
• Then, by becoming the only active female International Arbiter in Canada (after late Evelyn Stringer , b. 1928) (title awarded at 3rd quarter PB 2019, 7-8 September, Budapest, HUN).

Diana and I extremely happy that, due to great efforts of Ontario organizers to promote gender equity in chess, two distinguished ladies, Corinna Wan and Karen Wan (titles awarded at 2020 2nd FIDE Council meeting). Congratulations again, Corinna and Karen! The IA Norms are awaiting you and all the bright hard-working Canadian arbiters in the international events that we will be able to bring to Canada together after this election.

Her background and advanced skills in mathematics and computer science brought Diana Tsypina into a rarified circle of the world’s topmost authorities in Swiss pairing implementation algorithms. Since 2018, she is a ranking member of the FIDE Systems of Pairings and Programs Commission (SPP), contributing a lot to the advances of tournament software, including online platforms, worldwide.
https://spp.fide.com/2019/10/23/spp-meeting/

A lifetime CFC and FQE member, Diana Tsypina served with distinction, including as Chief Arbiter or Deputy Chief Arbiter, in several dozen World, Continental and National events, as well as in huge international festivals in Europe and the marquee norm events in Canada and the USA. Some of you, honourable Voting Members, took part in such events as the 2018 edition of the Canadian Youth Chess Championship / Canadian Open in Quebec and the 2019 edition in Saskatchewan, of the GM Norm event at the famous Max Dlugy’s Academy in New York.

Diana’s official FIDE card can be accessed here:
https://ratings.fide.com/profile/2631717

Diana Tsypina submitted a routine category upgrade application to FIDE for CFC’s acknowledgment in December 2020. It was later established that this application met or exceeded all legal requirements codified in the FIDE Handbook B06, Annex 2, "Regulations for the classification of the chess arbiters".

Yet, for unknown reasons, Diana was viciously attacked by a member of the CFC Executive who suddenly decided to play a role of a self-proclaimed gatekeeper for Canadians’ advance through FIDE – a role that the CFC Exec didn’t entrust him with.

“The Board of Directors of the Chess Federation of Canada overwhelmingly voted to support Mrs. Tsypina's application despite the objections of our delegate who ultimately resigned because the board disagreed with [the delegate’s] interpretation of our role in this process.”

The application has been properly processed by FIDE. Diana decided not to reply to the former delegate’s unfounded statements – she has a business to run and politics is not her style.

Now, some VMs has upped the ante and stepped into the public realm to attack my wife’s and my reputation and our good names. By repeating hearsay, and quoting in public, materially unfounded and patently false allegations, they put their own reputations in question.

Vadim,

Thank you for your quick reply. It is always good to hear the story from both arguing sides.

I didn't ask your wife directly because I wasn't sure if she is reading this thread.

Sincerely,


Victor Itkin.

[Christopher Mallon]

Thank you for questions on substance. It is a pleasure for me to answer them although I am puzzled why didn’t you address those directly to my dear wife who is her own person. Women are not considered “appendages” to their husbands anymore, right?

As a guess, I would say it was probably directed at you because she can't actually post here, not being a Voting Member.

[Vladimir Drkulec]

[QUOTE=Victor Itkin;36646]

- our bylaws say very clearly how a resigned director is to be replaced and that the method chosen does not follow those

Lyle,

1. Why did this happen, and who's fault was it?

2. Maybe in such circumstances, another option is to cancel improper elections and follow the bylaws?

Our bylaw states that 5% of the voting members can call for a special meeting. More than 5% asked for a special meeting. Blame it on the government.

[Vladimir Drkulec]

Dear Chess friends,during my years in FIDE on different positions, I always had great contacts with canadian chess!
Nowadays I want to say few nice words about one of the Canadians, which can contribute a lot to chess!



Vadim Tsypin appeared on the International Chess scene just recently, but he was known for his great love for the game and his organizational and communicative abilities well before.
I had a very nice experience with him during the 2018 FIDE Congress in Batumi , where he showed very realistic evaluation of the situation in chess and showed his ability to change many things in FIDE in positive direction. Later, in my capacity as the Honorary Chairman of the FIDE Trainers’ Commission, I dealt with Vadim professionally on a regular basis for all FIDE matters. He was always on top of every file.
I think that Vadim Tsypin the best candidate for Canada representative in FIDE. He became one of FIDE leaders (Secretary of the Management Board) and showed his professionalism and activity in different chess development projects worldwide. But his most important function can be development of cooperation Canada Chess Federation and FIDE in different areas ,especially in chess education. Canadian chess can benefit a lot from new FIDE development programs which Vadim Tsypin helped to establish in the last few years.



Best regards, IGM Adrian Mikhalchishin

https://en.chessbase.com/post/adrian...nd-che-trainer
GM Adrian Bogdanovich Mikhalchishin (or Mihalcisin or Mihalčišin) established himself as a strong grandmaster who was the second to World Champion Anatoly Karpov. He went on to become an internationally renowned trainer and a prolific author of chess books. Adrian discusses his life and the strategy of chess training in this interview with Özgür Akman.

[Pierre Dénommée]

Diana Tsypin obtained a well deserved IA norm during the Quebec Open in which I was the Deputy Chief Arbiter. The primary duty of the DCA was to handle complaints against the Sectors Arbiters and to resolve any case before it reached the Chief Arbiter. If all arbiters were like Diana, I would have been in vacation because no complaint from her sector ever escalated to me. She can cope with everything arising in her sectors without any assistance, which is what we are looking for when awarding an IA norm certificate.

[Vladimir Drkulec]

Diana Tsypin obtained a well deserved IA norm during the Quebec Open in which I was the Deputy Chief Arbiter. The primary duty of the DCA was to handle complaints against the Sectors Arbiters and to resolve any case before it reached the Chief Arbiter. If all arbiters were like Diana, I would have been in vacation because no complaint from her sector ever escalated to me. She can cope with everything arising in her sectors without any assistance, which is what we are looking for when awarding an IA norm certificate.

Thank you, Pierre. It should be noted that the FQE supported her application but that support came only after the board had already voted to forward her application to FIDE. They sent me a note which I fully agreed with about the role of the CFC being to help advance the interests of our arbiters and players.

[Lyle Craver]

I strongly disagree.

Under the NFP bylaws (note clickable link) anyone will quickly verify that the two roles are one and the same.

The essential problem - and I have made this point for years - is that these bylaws are NOT currently readily available to the membership. They NEED to be on a high level link in the main CFC site and I very much DO believe that we as a federation would NOT be "playing Fischer Random with the Handbook" were access to these more readily available. This is why I insist addition of both the old and the new links be at the top of the list for the next round of chess.ca updates.

We could have avoided a ton of grief had this been done well in advance of Hal's resignation and I'm quite sure you now know this though whether or not you will say so publicly is anybody's guess.

[Lloyd Lombard]

I have read this complete thread (at least twice and some places several times - and again, in my view, Vadim does not have a "conflict of interest" if elected). I have also read Aris's resignation e-mail. As I stated earlier, I have indicated that I supported Vadim, at least until my mind was changed by other submissions. First, I regret that Aris has resigned as he was obviously an excellent candidate however I understand his reasoning. We have two "very" strong candidates remaining for the position sought. I'm certain that I don't need to remind everyone that the most important issue here is the "long-term benefit to the CFC", not-withstanding that we have two able candidates. Aris brings up strong points where I would appreciate the candidates comments on a couple of questions which, for me will likely decide my final vote. I am hopeful that these questions will also assist the Directors to arrive at an informed final decision. I'm not looking for a long-winded explanation, but sufficient information to explain your position:

1) There is a saying that there is "strength in numbers". In other words, would it be of benefit or a detriment to the CFC to have Vadim in his current position and Victor as CFC Representative or is it of greater benefit to the CFC to have Vadim filing both his current FIDE position and CFC representative ?

2) Can and would both Candidates work together for the benefit of the CFC if Victor was elected ?

3) Vadim, of what I've read, I understand that there is a concern that as an employee of FIDE, if there was a situation which may be averse to the CFC but of corresponding benefit to FIDE, that you would be caught in a quandary where you may not be in a position to support the CFC. I would be interested in your comment.

4) Victor, Vadim has a strong relationship with Dvorkovich which should also be of great benefit to the CFC Representative for "getting things done". I note that in your presentation, that you have not always agreed with Dvorkovich's position and policies. In my view, it will be very important for the CFC Representative to have a cordial relationship with the President of FIDE. Can you please comment.

Of course, it is up to either or both of you to decide whether to respond to these questions however I am hopeful that you will as I am frankly uncertain of my vote at this point.

Lloyd

[Mark S. Dutton, I.A.]

As another Executive member I fully agree with how Fred has described things.

This matter has been very very badly handled since Hal's resignation and before and I want to reiterate that:

- our bylaws say very clearly how a resigned director is to be replaced and that the method chosen does not follow those

- that mid-term resignations of executive members is extremely infrequent in CFC recent history

- our bylaws are NOT nearly as accessible to the VMs and the public as they ought to be and providing this accessibility should be an action item on the very next update to the CFC website and that this inaccessibility has contributed to why a special meeting was thought necessary

- this whole thread has been copied from the public areas of our forum and are NOT all posted here afresh in the first 3 hours of this meeting (which I confess REALLY made me wonder)

- in the copied thread there were postings from non VMs and it appeared to me that they had actually posted here rather than being COPIED here. These non-VM individuals are completely innocent of any breach.

- however when I saw their "postings" it appeared they had gained improper access to the forum which is a VERY big deal since anybody who has POSTING access in the meeting has VOTING access in the meeting and we definitely do not want that to happen

- I know who did the copying and while I won't publicly embarrass him / her have admonished them never ever to copy a public forum thread into a VM thread again. In other words giving them the proverbial "wet noodle"

- if nothing else, this whole affair demonstrates (1) why we need to faithfully follow our own rules (2) why these rules need to be freely accessible to all so they are clearly understood by all members (3) why you DON'T copy threads from area to area without a very good reason and the unintended consequences that can follow when you do.

- lastly I am not the first CFC Secretary nor will be the last but I want to say clearly that in this online era VM security and the protection of our posting and voting system is a very very high priority and anyone contemplating seeking the role REALLY needs to understand this. If it's NOT a high priority for you then maybe CFC Secretary isn't the position you should seek.

I am very disappointed in the President’s leadership, for all the reasons my executive colleagues have described in the entire handling of these matters. The FIDE rep position should have been handled by an interim executive appointment until the next AGM.

I don't believe that we should add any further members to the Exec at this time -- what is the urgency? Currently we have 7 Executive members and when Hal Bond resigned the President took over and told us what was happening.

Why do we need to add more members to the executive when our opinions are not respected?

CFC President Vladimir Drkulec you are working almost too hard and this entire situation has now unravelled to this unneccessary and divisive meeting. I find this completely unacceptable.

[Lyle Craver]

ok that would be 5 VMs.

So what you're basically saying is that 5 VMs can overthrow 7 (or 6) executives.

Please explain to me how precisely we can go from having an unadvertised online straw vote - which is what an unadvertised vote is - can morph into a call for a special meeting? Because I'm fairly certain that an unadvertised binding vote isn't legit by any stretch of the imagination. If it is then truly we are in a "strange new world"

The PROPER question should have been "Does the VM Assembly wish to have a special meeting to re-visit the vote of the national executive on the FIDE Rep matter" - we then could have voted and proceeded from there. What you instead had was a straw poll where none of the options got a majority vote. But then that couldn't have happened because you refused to call a vote of the Exec when it was clear which way the wind was blowing there.

In short - morphing an online poll into a formal request for a special meeting is legerdemain far beyond my level. Under the Act there's supposed to be a petition for a special meeting.

What we have here folks is the president deciding his desired result and ignoring his executive and going directly to the VMs and engineering the result he wants completely against the wishes of his board.

I urge all of you to keep this point firmly in mind when you cast your votes.