Sunday potpourri

SPRAGGETT ON CHESS

I have the honour to be invited by the Club d’Echecs de Geneve to participate in a ”youth versus experience” match between the ”Legendaries” (former world championship candidates) and some of the best young players of the club. It promises to be an interesting event (!), the first such ‘generations’ competition that I have been invited to.

My team mates in this event will be V.Hort (born 1944), V.Korchnoi (born 1931), Z.Ribli (born 1951) and U.Andersson (born 1951). Korchnoi is the eldest, at age 81, and I am the youngest at age 57. I am not certain of the ages of our adversaries.

Here is the official blurb, taken off of the club website:

”CEG versus Legendaries (former candidates to the World Chess Champion Title) chess tournament.

Du 4 au 10 août 2012, au swissôtel Métropole (34 Quai General-Guisan, 1204 Genève) aura lieu un tournoi fermé à normes (5 double rondes) opposant 5 anciens candidats au titre mondial (les “Légendes”) à 5 joueurs du Club d’Echecs de Genève (CEG).

Les 5 “Légendes” seront les GM : Ulf ANDERSSON (Suède, élo 2571) Vlastimil HORT (Allemagne, élo 2476) Viktor KORTSCHNOI (Suisse, élo 2558) Zoltan RIBLI (Hongrie, élo 2564) Kevin SPRAGGETT (Canada, élo 2588)

Les 5 joueurs du CEG seront : Richard GERBER (MI, élo 2413) Alexandre Vuilleumier (MI, élo 2338 Alexandre DOMONT (MI, élo 2364) Bastien DUBESSAY (FM U20, élo 2384) Lars RINDLISBACHER (U16, élo 2250)

Cérémonie d’ouverture le samedi 4 août à 14 heures et 1ère ronde à 16 heures. 10e ronde le vendredi 10 août à 10 heures suivie de la remise des prix. Cadence : 40 coups en 90 minutes, plus 30 minutes pour le reste de la partie avec 30 secondes ajoutées par coups depuis le début.”

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The double round tournament begins just six weeks from now, and I will keep my readers informed of how things develop. The Club d’Echecs de Geneve is one of Europe’s most active clubs, and it is nice to see them invest in their younger stars.

Continental Championship set for October in Argentina!

This week a meeting of Argentine chess officials in Buenos Aires decided on the official dates for this year’s American Continental Chess Championship. The event will be held in Mar del Plata (not too far from Buenos Aires) between October 11 and October 21.

No other details were given of the meeting and the tournament, but according to Canadian FIDE representative Hal Bond four spots to next year’s World Cup will be up for grabs.

As I will be in playing in Venezuela shortly before the slated dates for the Continental, I might just fly down and participate! My Canadian readers will remember that I played in the Continentals in 2005 and 2007, held in, respectively, Buenos Aires and Cali.

Each member country of the FIDE Americas Federation has the right to have 2 players participate with hotel included. All others must pay their own expenses. Should I decided to play, I will pay my own expenses, as usual.

I will keep my readers up to date this summer.

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CFC to recognize separate FQE membership status in FIDE!!

I suppose this was just a question of time, given that the CFC president is a 20-something-year-old with more experience masturbating in his parent’s washroom than in studying worldly affairs. Worse still, sketchy details of an initial 3-year agreement between the CFC and the FQE were released just the other day and give the FQE separate–but equal– rights equivalent to all of the rest of Canada combined in the selection process of all Canadian representatives to ALL international chess events including the Olympiad, World Cup as well as FIDE Congresses. What’s more, this agreement will be ratified without any face to face meeting of the CFC governors!

This year the CFC has decided not to hold the usual Annual Meeting (AGM) of delegates of the federation. Instead, a virtual meeting will be held via the internet. This is the first time in history that a face to face meeting will not have been held. This also marks the first time ANY national chess federation in the world will do so.

This is particularly worrisome, since the FQE-CFC problem is an intriguing political maze that has defied solution for more than 30 years. Without adequate public discussion of the complex issues behind why the FQE has refused to be a member of the CFC, the current CFC president is hoping to pull off what is in effect a coup d’etat inside the Canadian chess community.

There is the question that the entire process is not only illegal but unconstitutional as well, this according to the CFC’s own regulations. The CFC represents Canada to the world as a member of FIDE, the international chess body. As well, the CFC sends teams to the Chess Olympiad, World Youth Chess Championship, and other major international events. But by now proposing the FQE an equal partner in all of these issues–which no other provincial federation is allowed –and by recognizing the unique right of the FQE to represent ANY french-speaking player anywhere in Canada, the CFC is opening itself to law suits from any and every provincial chess federation.

There are numerous french-speaking communities outside of Quebec–numbering in the hundreds of thousands of Canadian citizens– and this agreement recognizes the right of the FQE to represent their interests in chess! Has anyone involved in brokering this agreement even bothered to ask them? (No.-ed)

Furthermore, once ratified members of the FQE will have EXACTLY the same rights as every other member of the CFC (anywhere in Canada), but will only have to pay 9 dollars a year–which will be generously paid for by the FQE!. This represents just a fraction of the real cost. Adult members elsewhere in Canada have to pay anywhere between 35 and 40 dollars for the same rights.

All Canadian chess players will be losing if this deal gets ratified, as they will be in effect, subsidizing the FQE memberships while accepting to be 2nd class citizens in their own province! It is expected that sometime in the next 3 years , when the initial agreement will be up for re-negotiation, the CFC will have formally petitioned FIDE for separate FQE membership. Ofcourse, FIDE will never grant the FQE membership status, principally because Quebec is not a member of the UN, but who knows what Kirsan might do in the future?!

I will keep readers up to date as more information becomes available. Thus far the CFC and the FQE have made sparse the exact details of the deal. The whole deal smacks of pure pork barrel politics!