CFC Presidency

[Sid Belzberg]

Re: CFC Presidency

Paul, if you are such a prominent businessman and are as successful as you say you are, how the hell do you have so much free time to post so much trash on a chess forum?

Here is Paul's history on chessbase http://en.chessbase.com/post/option-...by-paul-bonham which includes working at Microsoft a few times as a contract programmer. I found a lot more about his background then Vlad's. i don't know about prominent but I can say as someone who has been in software develpment since 1984 that his background and knowledge looks impressive.
We use Python in our own company and i actually studied it myself and find it a joy to work with. We happen to also use AI in our own product that includes Bayesian and genetic algorithms and the great thing about python is that we could find many good existing libraries to get going with it.
I can usually tell very quickly if someone is really good at software or is just using buzz words and only has a superficial knowledge. I also find it interesting that chessbase found Paul's ideas interesting and original enough to put out an article about his chess variant.
Mr Cheng, respectfully, I don't think you should be so quick to judge people.

About Paul Bonham
Born in Toronto, Canada
Diploma from DeVry Institute in Electronics Engineering
Self-taught in C and C plus plus , Python, SQL
Briefly played tournament chess in Canada between 1989 and 1995
Arrived in Boston MA in December 1996 to work a three-month TN Visa contract
Met and married Julie Maxfield from Concord, New Hampshire
Continued working in USA and eventually acquired US Permanent Resident status
Twice worked a year at Microsoft in Redmond WA as contract software engineer
Amateur guitarist/bassist/keyboardist, recorded 21 original compositions
Interests include AI, highly concurrent software, game programming, computer graphics, chess variants, poker
Inventor of FET Bender and Ultrasonic Muffler

[Christopher Mallon]

Re: CFC Presidency

Yes, I've read the Governor's Forum.

Do you realise you've just admitted to a crime?

Lucky for you we're in Canada, in the USA/UK you can get 20 years in jail for unauthorized access of a computer network. No minimum sentence here. Although technically, the CFC board is hosted in the USA so it could be prosecuted there...

[Sasha Starr]

Re: CFC Presidency

Here is Paul's history on chessbase http://en.chessbase.com/post/option-...by-paul-bonham which includes working at Microsoft a few times as a contract programmer. I found a lot more about his background then Vlad's. i don't know about prominent but I can say as someone who has been in software develpment since 1984 that his background and knowledge looks impressive.
We use Python in our own company and i actually studied it myself and find it a joy to work with. We happen to also use AI in our own product that includes Bayesian and genetic algorithms and the great thing about python is that we could find many good existing libraries to get going with it.
I can usually tell very quickly if someone is really good at software or is just using buzz words and only has a superficial knowledge. I also find it interesting that chessbase found Paul's ideas interesting and original enough to put out an article about his chess variant.
Mr Cheng, respectfully, I don't think you should be so quick to judge people.

About Paul Bonham
Born in Toronto, Canada
Diploma from DeVry Institute in Electronics Engineering
Self-taught in C and C plus plus , Python, SQL
Briefly played tournament chess in Canada between 1989 and 1995
Arrived in Boston MA in December 1996 to work a three-month TN Visa contract
Met and married Julie Maxfield from Concord, New Hampshire
Continued working in USA and eventually acquired US Permanent Resident status
Twice worked a year at Microsoft in Redmond WA as contract software engineer
Amateur guitarist/bassist/keyboardist, recorded 21 original compositions
Interests include AI, highly concurrent software, game programming, computer graphics, chess variants, poker
Inventor of FET Bender and Ultrasonic Muffler

Very impressive indeed! And what do you think about 960 chess, will it keep the programs at bay for some time?

[Sasha Starr]

Re: CFC Presidency

Do you realise you've just admitted to a crime?

Lucky for you we're in Canada, in the USA/UK you can get 20 years in jail for unauthorized access of a computer network. No minimum sentence here. Although technically, the CFC board is hosted in the USA so it could be prosecuted there...

The crime is that the CFC's adult membership is less then 1000, the crime is that the CFC is grossly mismanaged, there is no handbook and nobody really knows anything anymore, the crime is that only two people wanted the endorsement of Ilyumzhinov and disregarded the opinions and wishes of public at large, and the Governors who elected them in the first place is holding the whole country hostage. It is by far the greatest scandal in the history of Canadian chess!

[Vlad Drkulec]

Re: CFC Presidency

The crime is that CFC's membership is less then 1000, the crime is that CFC is grossly mismanaged, there is no handbook and nobody really knows anything anymore, the crime is that only two people wanted the endorsement of Ilyumzhinov and disregarded the opinions and wishes of public at large, and the Governors who elected them in a first place thus holding all country as a hostage. It is by far the greatest scandal in the history of Canadian chess!

I think we will soon find out whether we ignored the wishes of the governors or not. I suspect that we will have a very strong turnout for this election.

I have only been president for one year and I have been quite preoccupied with the CFC surviving beyond October 17th.

[Vlad Drkulec]

Re: CFC Presidency

Here is Paul's history on chessbase http://en.chessbase.com/post/option-...by-paul-bonham which includes working at Microsoft a few times as a contract programmer. I found a lot more about his background then Vlad's.

I have had stalkers and it appears that I have a few more now. I could write a very interesting book about it and at some point I probably will as a work of fiction to protect the guilty.

[Sasha Starr]

Re: CFC Presidency

I think we will soon find out whether we ignored the wishes of the governors or not. I suspect that we will have a very strong turnout for this election.

Who are "WE" (ignored etc.)? You and ...?

[Sid Belzberg]

Re: CFC Presidency

So you were negotiating with Sid while getting a better IN YOUR OPINION offer from Mr. Ilyumzhinov!

They did not negotiate with me. After I presented in good faith my offer of support as a private sponsor to the CFC along with the help that i was sure I could get from Garry, i got an email from Hal Bond stating that he would recommend Garry as the candidate to the executive. He then went to Russia a few days later to his paid job as an arbiter to the Candidates matches in Russia. When he got back I contacted him via email several weeks later to see what was happening and was very surprised and angry to learn that executive was skeptical. The reason for my anger was at no time was I informed that my good faith offer as a private sponsor was were being used as leverage to get a better offer from FIDE.
Until i got an email from a governor who wished to remain anonymous i would have never known. Because Hal Bond has a conflict of interest i was very suspicious about what went on in Russia and i still am. The offer to the CFC may or not materialize. FIDE has a long track record of broken promises in other countries. i do not have a track record of broken promises. Furthermore FIDE has contributed zero to Canadian Chess in the past and in fact charges the CFC substantial fees every year. Fess that Garry proposes to get rid of for all Federations. I have contributed infinitely more to Canadian Chess then FIDE ever has and given that FIDE has contributed zero that is not saying much.
I am sure the CFC had its mind made up before Hal Bond returned to Russia and I do not believe the offer Hal brought back was his only motivation for favoring Kirsan given FIDE's pathetic track record in Canada.
The CFC wants to call me disrespectful and scoff at the idea that Western Govts will intervene (no this does not mean they are angry at the CFC or will in anyway intervene with the CFC) just watch as one by one Kirsan and his cronies end up on the govt sanctions list. One of the members of Kirsan's Russian Chess Federation's nominating committee is already on the sanctions list. Sorry if that inconvenient truth is too much for the CFC to handle.

[Paul Bonham]

Re: CFC Presidency

Here is Paul's history on chessbase http://en.chessbase.com/post/option-...by-paul-bonham which includes working at Microsoft a few times as a contract programmer. I found a lot more about his background then Vlad's. i don't know about prominent but I can say as someone who has been in software develpment since 1984 that his background and knowledge looks impressive.
We use Python in our own company and i actually studied it myself and find it a joy to work with. We happen to also use AI in our own product that includes Bayesian and genetic algorithms and the great thing about python is that we could find many good existing libraries to get going with it.
I can usually tell very quickly if someone is really good at software or is just using buzz words and only has a superficial knowledge. I also find it interesting that chessbase found Paul's ideas interesting and original enough to put out an article about his chess variant.
Mr Cheng, respectfully, I don't think you should be so quick to judge people.

About Paul Bonham
Born in Toronto, Canada
Diploma from DeVry Institute in Electronics Engineering
Self-taught in C and C plus plus , Python, SQL
Briefly played tournament chess in Canada between 1989 and 1995
Arrived in Boston MA in December 1996 to work a three-month TN Visa contract
Met and married Julie Maxfield from Concord, New Hampshire
Continued working in USA and eventually acquired US Permanent Resident status
Twice worked a year at Microsoft in Redmond WA as contract software engineer
Amateur guitarist/bassist/keyboardist, recorded 21 original compositions
Interests include AI, highly concurrent software, game programming, computer graphics, chess variants, poker
Inventor of FET Bender and Ultrasonic Muffler

Bindi likes to troll me occassionally. Nowhere in my posts did I advertise myself as either "prominent" or "businesman" or "successful". In fact, when it comes to the term "businesman", I am only now making my first foray into business and I have a lot to learn, but I have some very good associates that are teaching me a lot. We are forming plans that will be taking advantage of cloud technologies and the newest web technologies (HTML5, various Javascript libraries on both the client and server, jQuery). We anticipate having to be ready for rapid scale-up since we will be using social media to promote our new offering. Which by the way, is NOT the Option Chess that I designed for the Chessbase article. I am still pursuing Option Chess as an amazing and beautiful game in its own right, but it would not solve the problem of getting non-players to want to watch an event either in person or via television. For that, I have devised something completely different (but still using chess skills very strongly).

Because Bindi used the word "trash" in regards to my posts, we can see that he is biased and not open-minded enough to really consider the seriousness of this election situation and the abuses that Vlad has used to create his cult of personality. For many, Vlad's techniques are working, as we saw Gary Ruben post that he likes Vlad better than the others. But Gary Ruben has no stake in the future of chess in Canada, he's just an observer and he's used to voting in elections based on personality. Others besides Ruben have said they like Vlad because he 'gets his hands dirty'. Well, for getting your hands dirty, all it takes is shaking hands with Kirsan. But besides that, someone who gets their hands dirty usually makes a better EMPLOYEE than leader. Vlad himself recognizes this each time he talks about his work with kids in Windsor. Continuing as CFC President would actually diminish Vlad's contributions to Canadian chess: the Windsor kids would suffer without him, and the CFC membership would suffer with him.

What' needed for leadership is flexibility, openness, honesty and integrity, people skills and Vlad has none of these.

[Gary Ruben]

Re: CFC Presidency

For many, Vlad's techniques are working, as we saw Gary Ruben post that he likes Vlad better than the others. But Gary Ruben has no stake in the future of chess in Canada, he's just an observer and he's used to voting in elections based on personality. Others besides Ruben have said they like Vlad because he 'gets his hands dirty'.

I'll forgive you for that negative opinion because I consider you to be an idi.. errr, I mean uninformed. I quoted the proof. Probably you missed the part where I wrote I thought Vlad did a good job in his first term and has the skill set for re-election. You'd have to reference exactly where I wrote the part you put in quotes as I can't recall it.

I don't know the qualifications of Vlad's opponent because in my 60 or so years in the game I had never heard of him until recently.

Probably you think anyone who had something to do with the Globe and Mail article cares about the future of chess in Canada.

[Hugh Brodie]

Re: CFC Presidency

Gary - does the name "Shterenberg" ring a bell? The couple were named Nava and Isaac Shterenberg earlier in their lives (and their chess careers).

[Garland Best]

Re: CFC Presidency

Just with respect to leaders and getting ones hands dirty, I've always been a fan of this poster.

http://whatwillmatter.com/wp-content...s-v-leader.jpg

[Garland Best]

Re: CFC Presidency

Issac Shterenberg = Sasha Starr? Why the name change? I simply assumed Nava remarried.

[Paul Bonham]

Re: CFC Presidency

I'll forgive you for that negative opinion because I consider you to be an idi.. errr, I mean uninformed. I quoted the proof. Probably you missed the part where I wrote I thought Vlad did a good job in his first term and has the skill set for re-election. You'd have to reference exactly where I wrote the part you put in quotes as I can't recall it.

I don't know the qualifications of Vlad's opponent because in my 60 or so years in the game I had never heard of him until recently.

Probably you think anyone who had something to do with the Globe and Mail article cares about the future of chess in Canada.

No, I did not mean that YOU like Vlad because he gets his hands dirty. I was referring to others besides you. You never mentioned Vlad's dirty-with-corruption hands.

Vlad did do a good job in his first term, both Sid and Sasha have recognized him for the NFP work. But that was then and this is now. And right now, we have Vlad prostituting the CFC for the highest return, and then insulting and throwing away the person who has come through in the past with no strings attached. This for someone who has NEVER come through in the past and has strings attached. And guess what, the strings attached are almost identical to the strings Vlad says Sid wanted attached and that Vlad had some moral repulsion towards (riiiight). Are you blind to hypocrisy?

Vlad does have the skill set for re-election, and that is the problem. That skill set includes lying, alienating sponsors in the name of looking like a good cop even if that means depriving Canadian youth of future sponsorship, shrugging off corruption and worse committed by the incumbent Kirsan, keeping deals hush hush to prevent anyone knowing of his hypocrisy...

I have no idea who the Globe and Mail article was written by, the only thing I know about it was Vlad came across very badly and deservedly so.

One thing you did write was you like Vlad because he toys with his critics. Wait till you see how he toys with the membership.

My main issue is that in the face of a highly polarized community, both voting members and Executive, Vlad forced things in the direction that assured MAXIMUM CONTROVERSY. He should have pushed for abstention. I asked him to explain why he chose endorsement of EITHER candidate over abstention, and he ignores that question. If he were to answer it, he'd likely say something like absention leaves us out of the decision or sends the wrong message or something vague of that nature. But the truth is, abstention sends the RIGHT message, that both candidates have too many warts and FIDE needs to clean up its act. Imagine if every voting federation abstained: FIDE would lose all credibility in the chess world.

Vlad has terrible judgement. I predict more controversy, more bad decisions, and more loss of adult membership in CFC's future if Vlad is re-elected.

[Sasha Starr]

Re: CFC Presidency

Gary - does the name "Shterenberg" ring a bell? The couple were named Nava and Isaac Shterenberg earlier in their lives (and their chess careers).

Thank you, Hugh, indeed we've landed in Toronto on October 28th 1975! And officially changed the names in 1989: I was already known in the entertainment industry as Sasha Starr and while my first public company was getting ready for listing I've been advised to change the name legally to avoid the confusion.
And Nava in the Wikipedia is known under three(!) names: Gordon (her late father's name), Shterenberg (my family name) and Starr (our new adopted name for 25 years now!