Winding down the CFC and FIDE elections

[Francis Rodriguez]

Re: Benefits to Canada: FIDE Presidential Election

It seems rather obvious that Rene objected to the use of the very rude 4-character acronym in John Coleman's post...
(I too find that offensive; mind you every one of the threads about or around the CFC/FIDE election and presidency are
just ridiculous but mostly not offensive according to the current practical definition you seem to use).

As for the acronym, IF the words had been spelled out explicitly, would that be grounds for censuring the post? Perhaps
that should be the litmus test?

Ah Kerry, but Johnny Mustard thought he was childishly
funny, Steve the Peeve clapped gibberingly, and Nigel
Magnesia suffered amnesia!

[Paul Bonham]

Re: Winding down the CFC and FIDE elections

And the straw man burns to the ground. Only ashes remain.

Of course you are being logically inconsistent as well. You claim that I am casting aside sponsors and you make an argument that the top down nature of the rewards in chess is our great weakness and yet you spend a great deal of time decrying my alleged casting aside of a sponsor who only ever was interested in the top of the pyramid. If I cast aside a sponsor it was because he made demands that had nothing to do with his past contributions which I could not meet.

Regarding your straw man statements: I can see why Robert Hamilton gave up having any kind of a reasonable debate with you. When the points are getting through your meager defenses, you just trot out terms like straw man to make everything seem ok. Did you learn that from Dale Carnegie?

Well, you are now in the most dangerous phase. As Sid and Sasha have both mentioned, you did well with the somewhat mechanical task of gaining NFP certification. Now you face the much more demanding task of actually growing the CFC. Your chosen means -- bring in huge numbers of kids and eventually gain adult members -- has failure written all over it. It might take 10 or 15 years to realize that all those extra kids didn't make an iota of difference in adult membership. So you have some time to bask in the adulation of those who don't even realize they've been manipulated. But your eventual legacy will be anything but kind.

There's nothing logically inconsistent with arguing against casting any sponsor aside. Jean Hebert would have crucified you for that, but it appears he no longer sees anything in the CFC worth his time. Whereever Sid would have directed his sponsorship money be spent, it would have prevented other monies from being spent there, thus broadening the spectrum of where the CFC could apply financial resources.

Perhaps, though, there is a lesson in all this for Sid and other potential sponsors. Spending money on luxury conditions for Olympiad team members hasn't earned him any respect other than a few people like Brian Hartman and Ian Findlay. There was no long-lasting benefit to chess that Sid can point to and say, 'That wouldn't be here if it wasn't for my earlier donations.' That's why you could give him ZERO respect without batting an eye. Perhaps Sid can learn that the whole pyramid scheme of organized chess is a problem that is only exacerbated by throwing money at it.

But Vlad you go ahead, throw away some other sponsors for 'demands you cannot meet'. Just make something up, and then use Dale Carnegie salesman techniques to get everyone to buy it. Make yourself look like some sort of saviour who is going to cleanse chess and give it respect.

And as you do this, events beyond your control will have your world shrink before your very eyes.

There is no room in your world view for the love of the game. You are wrong. In twenty years you will still be here arguing that there is no future in chess and your project will be no closer to reality unless you shut down your computer and actually do the things that will bring it into reality. Windsor is successful because we find kids that love chess and give them more reasons to love chess and show them adults who also love chess and then we show them where they have an opportunity to play chess. Its not much more complicated than that. If we can transfer that to the rest of the CFC then all of those predictions of fantastic growth in numbers of chessplayers will be wildly pessimistic compared to reality.

I fully acknowledge that kids love chess. No dispute on that at all. And in fact, my federation will not seek to gain members in the age range below university level (but neither will we turn such members away). We realize that up to a certain age, kids / teens think chess is wonderful and limitless and full of creativity. But talk to any elite GM and ask him / her how much routine they have to go through for one little nugget of creativity, and they will give you that ratio out of the side of their mouth. Meaning: "Don't talk to me about creativity, I'm too busy making a living'.

You know what kids REALLY love playing is bughouse. And that should tell you something.

But kids do love chess, and it is great that you are going to teach more and more kids to love and play chess. When they get to university level and beyond starting late this year and expanding in 2015, they are going to find a whole new way to love chess. And for 95% of them, it won't be through the CFC or FIDE.

[Halldor P. Palsson]

Re: Winding down the CFC and FIDE elections

Paul Bonham, why do you not renew your CFC membership that expired in 1996? What a waste of time you are to organized chess.

[Paul Bonham]

Re: Winding down the CFC and FIDE elections

Paul Bonham, why do you not renew your CFC membership that expired in 1996? What a waste of time you are to organized chess.

Aaaaaand..... loving it!

But Halldor, you have it the wrong way. What a waste of time organized chess was to me! And that would be because I was already an adult when I joined, I didn't know chess opening theory, I lost most of my games on time because I spent all my time in the opening, it was too expensive in terms of time and money to learn openings from books....

Or as Vlad Drkulec would translate the above: "blah, blah, blah, blah. You're an adult, we at the CFC don't care what you think."

So the CFC is all about kids now. The only adults that count in the CFC now are the ones that are competing internationally (go Canada!) or the ones who are teaching kids or organizing events, especially kids events.

And my message to Vlad on this strategy is that the CFC will ultimately become a feeder system into my federation, where adults are to be the main focus. And so I can say I'm good with this CFC strategy, it will benefit my federation.