CFC Facebook

[Vladimir Drkulec]

Here's a summary of the key points regarding my role in the local organizing committee:

1. Representation: CFC President Vlad Drkulec will represent the Chess Federation of Canada at official functions and serve as the "face of Canadian chess."
2. Volunteer Position: Vlad understands that his role is voluntary.
3. Non-Organizer Status: The CFC is not officially considered an organizer of the event.
4. Communication: Aris will ensure that any relevant information from FIDE leadership reaches Vlad, and they will debrief each other after FIDE-related communications.
5. Invitations: The Annex Chess Club will issue invitations to traveling players, following Canadian tradition. However, the CFC will provide supporting letters highlighting the event's importance if needed.
6. Visa Rejection: In case of visa issues, Vlad has political contacts in Ontario and Canada to assist.
7. Financial Support: The CFC will not provide financial support for the event.
8. Location of Side Events: All side events will take place within the Greater Toronto Area.

In actual fact, while the above was the initial agreement, I wound up writing the invitations combining the letter highlighting the event's importance and invitations into one letter for each of the people that needed visas. This was what FIDE asked of me and it was a reasonable request so that was what happened.

[Salim Belcadi]

[*]Invitations: The Annex Chess Club will issue invitations to traveling players, following Canadian tradition. However, the CFC will provide supporting letters highlighting the event's importance if needed.

ACC had no role in the visa matter. FIDE declined the LOC's proposal quoted above and decided that they had to go through CFC.

[Christopher Mallon]

You are just coming off as a very immature individual. In this moment of triumph when everyone came together to successfully save this tournament it is all about your feelings? Seriously? More than one voting member is rolling their eyes. The world is watching. FIDE is watching Mr. FIDE Arbiter. How do you think your post made them feel? Olga was one of those people on the board who stepped up. So was Veronica. So was Christina. Of course Lyle and Victor. Patricia most of all. What did you contribute to the effort? An explanation of your feelings? Grow up.

The community standards are facebook's community standards and as one of the administrators of the facebook page she is well within her rights to react the way she did. I do not want the posts removed except perhaps by the people who posted them but truthfully I don't think those people are mature enough to do so. Prove me wrong. All of you. I won't be disappointed but rather pleasantly surprised.

And no, you are right it was not slander. It was defamation.

I defamed nobody, since I didn't say (or type) anything that was untrue. If you keep accusing me of defamation (or slander or libel), THAT will in fact be defamation on your part.

[Christopher Mallon]

Sounds to me like you are not adding anything positive to the discussion.

Is there a new CFC rule we've all missed about all discussion must now be positive in nature?

[Vladimir Drkulec]

Is there a new CFC rule we've all missed about all discussion must now be positive in nature?

There are social rules not CFC rules. The FIDE Candidates tournament is coming and we are getting views from FIDE and from journalists. The CFC has great momentum having broken the 5000 member ceiling. If we want to carry on with that momentum we have to talk about it. We have to like "tooting our own horn". We need to keep winning.

Of course we can go back to the old days where we were hovering around 1800 members and the CFC was held in derision, contempt and even hatred. I know because when I was master's rep, I was part of the group that contacted old CFC members. There was a good reason that most of them were former members.

We can't hope to row the boat to greener shores if we have someone constantly drilling holes in it. Everyone needs to concentrate on rowing in the same direction. Don't you want chess to have a more prominent place in the world? If you do, we all need to be making positive moves that help and not hinder forward progress. A house divided cannot stand.

I have a great love for chess, almost an irrational love for chess and the community of chess players, organizers and even the parents of young chess players. For this reason, I put up with a lot and exert every bit of my ability to solve the problems when faced with crises. However, I am not immortal and bursts of stress like what happened over the last month are not helpful to my long term ability to continue in this position. You also signal people with ability that it is not worth getting involved with all these dysfunctional people. If one or two of them drop out then maybe next time we will not be able to solve the problem.

[Patricia Gamliel]

Hello,
I am not on facebook and, generally speaking, not a social media person (too busy for that). I just would like to add that one does not apply for a visitor visa to compete in a tournament taking place in Canada and this was a large part of the reasons for these applications being stalled. When I was asked to help, it was too late to correct these applications (48) and the risk of rejection was facing us. My only concern was to get all players in because otherwise the tournament would be moved to Spain. I don’t know what was written about me on Facebook and anywhere else. I don’t need anyone to recognise my volunteer work: I am very happy Canada was granted this tournament. It’s great for the Canadian chess community. I am also grateful for the opportunity I had to “meet” (phone, email) great chess lovers who stepped in to call and send emails to their MP (among many already named, Lars from Calgary).
I pray this tournament will be so successful that it will incite FIDE to come back to Canada with another one 殺

[Vladimir Drkulec]

I defamed nobody, since I didn't say (or type) anything that was untrue. If you keep accusing me of defamation (or slander or libel), THAT will in fact be defamation on your part.

You supported someone who made an untrue statement on Facebook and the CFC forum that made you and her seem ridiculous to everyone who knew anything about the situation. That statement by the other person was made in an attempt to injure the reputation of the two people who volunteered their time and considerable effort to save the candidates tournament by obtaining visas for the players and important FIDE staff members. Claiming that responding to defamation is in itself defamation is a poorly reasoned argument. My experience with going to court, to any tribunal, into any situation where the facts have to be weighed is that I will always go in prepared and if the tribunal is fair, and it always seems that they are, I will win.

I have been part of a defamation action. I know what is involved. The people on the other end of that action certainly regretted their actions when their lawyer read them the riot act and communicated to them just what they could be looking at by way of consequences and by the way when they had to pay their lawyer bills. In that case the law and precedents were unformed as it was more than twenty years ago. The laws are clearer now.

Let us close this chapter now but rule of thumb, if you are going to defame someone in the case of Heidi Gay or support defamatory statements in the case of you and others, try to make sure that one of the people that you are going on about on the other side are not top litigators. That's just unwise.

I am not happy that I had to censor someone (Heidi) on the CFC facebook page and the CFC forum for just the second time in my close to eleven years as CFC president.