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Dark Knight / Le Chevalier Noir
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---- Nous avons besoin d'un traduction français!
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Tom, I always respected you as a player, individual, perhaps a friend (hey, you slept on my veranda once!). Yet, you seem to neglect GM Suttles, GM Yanofsky, GM Ivanov, "GM" Anderson, to name a few, and there are many others, who, perhaps in earlier times, certainly provided significantly to chess in Canada. Personally, I would put GM Suttles at the pinnacle - there is no doubt in my mind that excepting some new phenom, GM Suttles will be written/talked about much longer than any other Canadian player to this point in history.
I purposely chose your post to answer - quite honestly, I am biting my tongue/fingers to stop myself from attempting to respond to the mostly moronic posts, especially those denigrating the team - how ridiculous. It is little wonder there is no support for the idiosyncratic world of Canadian chess, and, as exampled by posts in this thread, no chance of a turnaround.
PS - As always, I am open to in person debate...the opposing side buys the first beverage however...
Brian
" ... no other single player ever has made a bigger contribution to the increase in skill of the pool of Canadian players than you have. ..."
Players get stronger playing superior players. Bator has literally played dozens of local tournaments in the Quebec City to Windsor corridor every year since moving here. He must have played at least 1000 rated games in Canada, which works out to more than 100 per year. I am sure there must be dozens of young master+ players who have played him dozens of times. That's a huge learning opportunity.
I am not questioning the selection process result. I am not privy to any information that led you to your decision. Nor am I going to get bogged down in some argument of whether GM X is better than GM Y. How am I to judge that? But in terms of improving the general playing standard in Canada, because he plays A LOT in Canada and fights in every game, I would put Bator far ahead of any of the players you named.
"Tom is a well known racist, and like most of them he won't admit it, possibly even to himself." - Ed Seedhouse, October 4, 2020.
The general sentiment seemed to be that the decision was motivated by the CFC-FQE agreement. On the surface, having an FQE representative on the Selection Committee seems to a formality- there is no doubt that the Canadian team should have Quebec representation. However, a couple of posters have noted that the FQE may not consider yourself or GM Kovalyov to be Quebecois, i.e. this year's team would have had no Quebec representation without GM Lesiege!
Most people appreciate your active involvement in the chess community. Hopefully you will retain a desire to represent Canada in future olympiads.
Your analysis clearly amounts to badmouthin the FQE. Only ONE Quebecer was on the 3 person commitee.
Whether this or that player is considered by onlookers to be «québécois» or not that much is clearly irrelevant here and certainly played no part at all.
More likely we are simply facing controversial or poor judgement.
a) The CFC Executive may, at its discretion, approve the payment of appearance fees to specific players.
b) The payment of appearance fees to specific players is distinct from the payment of travel expenses and pocket money.
c) The appearance fees paid to each player shall not be confidential and the CFC Executive shall inform the Governors of such payment.
As a CFC member where can I find the appearance fees from the last Olympiad? Do I have to email the Governor (voting member) from my area?
I heard that for every FIDE point over 2450 a player gets $15. Based on today FIDE ratings the appearance fees for this Olympiad should be:
Bareev, Evgeny 2675 $3,375.00
Kovalyov, Anton 2602 $2,280.00
Hansen, Eric 2582 $1,980.00
Lesiege Alexander 2497 $705.00
Krnan, Tomas 2437 $0.00
Total $8340
Can a CFC executive or a voting member confirm this?
a) The CFC Executive may, at its discretion, approve the payment of appearance fees to specific players.
b) The payment of appearance fees to specific players is distinct from the payment of travel expenses and pocket money.
c) The appearance fees paid to each player shall not be confidential and the CFC Executive shall inform the Governors of such payment.
As a CFC member where can I find the appearance fees from the last Olympiad? Do I have to email the Governor (voting member) from my area?
I heard that for every FIDE point over 2450 a player gets $15. Based on today FIDE ratings the appearance fees for this Olympiad should be:
Bareev, Evgeny 2675 $3,375.00
Kovalyov, Anton 2602 $2,280.00
Hansen, Eric 2582 $1,980.00
Lesiege Alexander 2497 $705.00
Krnan, Tomas 2437 $0.00
Total $8340
Can a CFC executive or a voting member confirm this?
The CFC did not pay appearance fees at the last Olympiad and the CFC will not pay appearance fees at the next Olympiad except perhaps as a pass through from the very generous private sponsor of the team who did pay appearance fees and will likely pay appearance and performance fees at this next Olympiad. The formula was quite complicated as I recall and is somewhat different this time.
The CFC did not pay appearance fees at the last Olympiad and the CFC will not pay appearance fees at the next Olympiad except perhaps as a pass through from the very generous private sponsor of the team who did pay appearance fees and will likely pay appearance and performance fees at this next Olympiad. The formula was quite complicated as I recall and is somewhat different this time.
So the private sponsor will pay the appearance fee directly to the players without getting CFC involved?
a) The CFC shall actively raise funds and seek sponsorship for Canadian participation in the Olympiad.
b) Sponsors and donors may specify that some or all of their contribution to the costs of Canadian participation in the Olympiad be directed towards paying the travel costs or appearance fees of a specific player or players, or other member of the Canadian delegation.
Is this OK according to the NFP act? CFC is no longer a registered charity and the donations cannot be claimed as tax credit. Why does CFC has to be the middleman if the private sponsor decides where the money goes?
a) The CFC shall actively raise funds and seek sponsorship for Canadian participation in the Olympiad.
b) Sponsors and donors may specify that some or all of their contribution to the costs of Canadian participation in the Olympiad be directed towards paying the travel costs or appearance fees of a specific player or players, or other member of the Canadian delegation.
Is this OK according to the NFP act? CFC is no longer a registered charity and the donations cannot be claimed as tax credit. Why does CFC has to be the middleman if the private sponsor decides where the money goes?
Off the top of my head, if the CFC is solely the middleman and nothing more there shouldn't be a problem. IF the CFC did a fundraising campaign for the Olympiad, and IF the team sponsor is arms-length from both the CFC and the team members, and had no influence on the team selection.
Steve
P.S. Has anybody thought of doing a kickstarter campaign for a second Canadian team?
Off the top of my head, if the CFC is solely the middleman and nothing more there shouldn't be a problem. IF the CFC did a fundraising campaign for the Olympiad, and IF the team sponsor is arms-length from both the CFC and the team members, and had no influence on the team selection.
Steve
P.S. Has anybody thought of doing a kickstarter campaign for a second Canadian team?
Only the guest country can register more than 1 team.
In fact I perused about 30 odd messages on the French side on the thread, and I believe there is a possible different reason behind the committee decision that might be revealed in the French discussion. The posters on that side seem a lot more in tune (conjecture?) with the political side of things. According to that side of things, Bator is on very poor terms with both Kovalyov and Hansen. I have no idea if this is true, and I know none of these players on a personal basis. However, if GM Sambuev has personal relationship issues with two players who have already qualified for the team (not contestable) then it is possible he shot himself in the foot. This might explain the committee's decision to exclude him this year.
Again I have no idea if this is true or not, but there is a mention that the fight between Hansen and Sambuev is such that if one goes to the Olympiad the other does not wish to go. Well we can see if that is true, how that argument ended.
I am curious if Bator has anything to say about this. Maybe it is complete BS/lies. Again I do not subscribe to rumours. I am just looking for why objective reasoning was vetoed in this case by the committee. Bator is ahead of Lesiege numerically by rating, results and activity. There is however such a thing as extenuating circumstances.
In fact I perused about 30 odd messages on the French side on the thread, and I believe there is a possible different reason behind the committee decision that might be revealed in the French discussion. The posters on that side seem a lot more in tune (conjecture?) with the political side of things. According to that side of things, Bator is on very poor terms with both Kovalyov and Hansen. I have no idea if this is true, and I know none of these players on a personal basis. However, if GM Sambuev has personal relationship issues with two players who have already qualified for the team (not contestable) then it is possible he shot himself in the foot. This might explain the committee's decision to exclude him this year.
Again I have no idea if this is true or not, but there is a mention that the fight between Hansen and Sambuev is such that if one goes to the Olympiad the other does not wish to go. Well we can see if that is true, how that argument ended.
I am curious if Bator has anything to say about this. Maybe it is complete BS/lies. Again I do not subscribe to rumours. I am just looking for why objective reasoning was vetoed in this case by the committee. Bator is ahead of Lesiege numerically by rating, results and activity. There is however such a thing as extenuating circumstances.
Mavros
It is complete BS/lies. I have no any conflict with Anton. You can ask him or Mr. Plotkin if you want. And I don't care if there is Hansen in the team or not. As I said it was always big honour for me to represent Canada.
It is complete BS/lies. I have no any conflict with Anton. You can ask him or Mr. Plotkin if you want. And I don't care if there is Hansen in the team or not. As I said it was always big honour for me to represent Canada.
In my opinion, that is the key. There can be some conflicts and bad blood, but as long as the guys openly admit they can put it aside for the team, there shouldn't be any problem.
Thanks for clarifying your position.
Do we have Eric Hansen's position on that "issue"?
That you are willing to respond to this on an open board is good enough proof for me. Might be good to address it on the French side, if you are so inclined. Mathieu Cloutier has defended your honour considerably and consistently in the thread to his credit. I'm not going to dig into this anymore then, I think there might be a bigger issue here. This is starting to look really unfair to you.
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