FIDE Congress in Antalya, Turkey 2017

[Wayne Komer]

FIDE Congress in Antalya, Turkey 2017

October 14, 2017

Extracts from the on-line postings at the FIDE site:

http://www.fide.com/component/conten...key-day-6.html

Day 1

The 88th FIDE Congress started today at the Avantgarde Hotel in Antalya, Turkey.

The Congress is organized by the Turkish Chess Federation and attended by the FIDE Executive & Presidential Board, the FIDE Commissions, the FIDE Delegates and the National Chess Federations.

On the first day there were meetings of the Central Board of Commissions, the Marketing Committee, the Technical Commission (TEC), the Arbiters' Commission (ARB), the Trainers' Commission (TRG) and the Commission of Chess Journalists (CCJ).

The Central Board of Commissions discussed several important topics, including the seasonal effect on the FIDE budget in the odd years, the coordinated effort of various commissions to standardise and implement dress code, and the updating of the FIDE Handbook by assigning proper sections to relevant commissions for reviewing.

Day 2

The Qualification Commission approved the title applications and discussed other items from the agenda: direct titles, late registrations and submissions, effects of no-service federations, review of rating system, rating of matches, and the Regulations for rapid and blitz ratings.

The Ethics Commission elaborated on its statement in regard to the "Kovalyov case", following the formal complaint by the Chess Federation of Canada. The Commission members also informed the meeting about the other ongoing cases.

The Medical Commission heard the Chairperson's report, including the new insights on the compliance with WADA-Code. The WADA is tightening the protocol after the series of doping scandals in athletics and other major sports. The Commission answered a large questionnaire issued by WADA and is strictly observing all requirements. The Chairperson added that, however, FIDE is considered a very low-risk sport. FIDE Executive Director added that WADA is very satisfied about the current level of cooperation with FIDE.

The Commission informed that 16 tests were conducted in year 2016, all returning negative results. The organizers and the players cooperated with the Commission. It is added that the current testing pool for out-of-competition tests consists of 15 players (10 male and 5 female).

The Rules Commission reviewed the "Guidelines for the organizers" and "Interpretation of the Laws of Chess made with the Arbiters' Commission", and drafted the "Amendments of the Competition Rules".

Day 3

The Anti-Cheating Commission started with the Chairperson's report. Israel Gelfer specified the role of the Commission and explained what the Commission members have been doing during the last period. The Commission members informed about the outstanding cases, recent cooperation with National Federations and discussed opportunities for developing a 2018 edition of the ACC Guidelines.

Day 4

The members of the Online Commission heard the review of the previous year, statistical information and planning for the upcoming year. The Commission discussed a new simplified version of the transfer regulations and rules of the eligibility for players and proposed changes into regulations for registration and licensing of players.

Day 5

The Commission for World Championships and Olympiads (WCOC) held their meeting from 3 till 6 pm. During the meeting of the WCOC, AGON presented their plans for the Candidates Tournament 2018 in Berlin and the World Championship Match later that year. The Commission has also discussed proposals for Candidates, Grand Prix and World Championship Match regulations.

Mr Zurab Azmaiparashvili informed the commission about Olympiad 2018, while Geoffrey Borg reported about venues for Women Grand Prix 2018-2019 and negotiations with the Chinese Chess Federation regarding Women’s World Championship Match.

Day 6

The President of the Turkish Chess Federation Gulkiz Tulay welcomed all participants of the Executive Board meeting.

FIDE President Kirsan Iluymzhinov briefed the Board about his projects and trips made over the last year.
FIDE Deputy President Georgios Makropoulos reported to the Board about several issues, including organization of the FIDE World Championship Match in New York, the FIDE World Women Championship in Tehran and some other events.

FIDE Deputy Mr. Makropoulos deplored the fact that the Presidential Board and Executive team of FIDE had been defamed, threatened and insulted by an election campaign that Mr. Ilyumzhinov had initiated. Mr. Makropoulos mentioned that Mr. Ilyumzhinov is abusing the name of Russia and the President of Russia Vladimir Putin, in order to hide himself and excuse his team’s insults and threats to FIDE officers. Mr Makropoulos said that Mr Ilyumzhinov should stop doing this.

The FIDE Executive Board reconfirmed unanimously the full delegation of FIDE President Powers to the Deputy President. The decision has been made on 10th of April 2017.

FIDE Treasurer Professor Siegel proposed the following motion "FIDE Executive Board requests Kirsan Ilyumzhinov not to run in the next Presidential election." The members voted 37-20 in favour of the motion with 2 abstentions. This decision is not mandatory and Mr. Ilyumzhinov can decide whether to stand or not.

Professor Siegel gave an explanation of the present situation regarding FIDE finances, which showed a surplus in 2016 of over Euro 800,000.

Ilya Merenzon gave a presentation on Agon, which was followed by a discussion on the subject of FIDE’s contract with the company. FIDE Vice-President Israel Gelfer informed that he had signed a revised agreement with Agon on behalf of FIDE and advised the terms.

[Wayne Komer]

Re: FIDE Congress in Antalya, Turkey 2017

FIDE Congress in Antalya, Turkey 2017

October 14, 2017

The last two paragraphs of these extracts are interesting in that there has been a discussion of random pairings in a swiss tournament in this forum:

http://forum.chesstalk.com/showthrea...ghlight=random

Interim Report from the American Delegate Grant Oen:

https://new.uschess.org/news/live-88...ntalya-turkey/

Reviewing the integrity and validity of various tiebreak methods was next on the agenda, with the tiebreak ramifications of having an unplayed game (bye, forfeit win, etc.) being a particularly interesting point.

IA Hal Bond, Zonal President of Canada, stated that the Progressive Tiebreak system (known as the frequently used Cumulative System in US Chess tiebreaks) was perhaps unjustly removed from the technical regulations of the FIDE Handbook at the 2003 FIDE Congress in Halkidiki, Greece in favor of Buchholz tiebreak systems.

Professor Anantharam Rathinam of India brought to our attention that the Progressive tiebreak can be easily calculated and thus using it as a primary tiebreak may lead to malpractice or thrown results among potential medalists.

GM Arkadij Naiditsch (Azerbaijan) and GM Csaba Balogh (Hungary) of Chess Evolution presented their new software, equipment, and clocks to the TEC. Chess Evolution is developing software and systems, which will rival DGT with regards to live broadcasts of chess tournaments. It will be interesting to see how the market will react to this, as DGT has a strong commercial relationship with FIDE.

The Arbiter's Commission ended the meeting by handing out the 5th edition of the FIDE Arbiters’ Magazine, now available online, which discusses the new FIDE Laws of Chess starting July 2017, and briefly summarizes the arbiter shortcomings in the 2017 Canadian Zonal tiebreak game.

I am very happy to report that all of our arbiter title applications and classification upgrade requests were given a “thumbs up” by the ARB and are slated to pass at the FIDE EB meeting later this week.

A very important item on the American agenda for this meeting was the application of minimum ratings for Direct Titles under FIDE Title Regulations 0.62. FIDE had established new Title Regulations for the winners of certain chess championship events starting July 1, 2017.

Prior to July 2017, players who won the gold, silver, or bronze medal in certain events, e.g., the Pan American Youth Championship, were entitled to “Direct” FIDE Titles and/or Norms, without any other requirements. But, the July 1, 2017 change also required minimum ratings before titles were awarded.

Unfortunately, many qualifying tournaments were held worldwide after July 1st, and this change took place in the middle of the qualification cycle.

After discussions led by US Chess and Canada, and supported by other federations, the QC decided that winners of direct titles will only be subject to the minimum ratings for events starting after January 1, 2018. Thus, titles earned by young American players at the 2017 PanAm Youth, North American Youth, North American Junior U20 and the World Cadet Championships, which were previously subject to minimum ratings, will now be submitted for approval. This is very good news for many of our young players!

Some readers may remember the controversy regarding the rating of a match between Nigel Short and Hou Yifan, in which the last game of a match was eventually not FIDE-rated since the match was already mathematically decided at the time when the last game was played. Mr. Stubenvoll made it clear that the organizers may request that all games in a match be rated, subject to approval of the QC Chairman.

Finally, the pairings of the recently concluded Isle of Man Open were discussed. Fans who followed the tournament will know that random pairings were used in Round 1, which led to some very strange pairings – World Champion Magnus Carlsen faced a 2100 player on Board 1, while GM Fabiano Caruana and GM Vladimir Kramnik met on Board 2, a matchup that was surely not expected until the second half of the event had it been paired traditionally.

Chairman Stubenvoll established that going forward, in according with the Systems of Pairings and Programs Commission, the QC will not accept title norms from events without true swiss pairings. In other words, the randomization of any subset of the pairings should not be done for tournaments, which produce title norms.

[Sid Belzberg]

Re: FIDE Congress in Antalya, Turkey 2017

Mr. Makropoulos mentioned that Mr. Ilyumzhinov is abusing the name of Russia and the President of Russia Vladimir Putin, in order to hide himself and excuse his team’s insults and threats to FIDE officers. Mr Makropoulos said that Mr Ilyumzhinov should stop doing this.

In 2014 when I suggested that Putin was deeply involved with Mr Ilyumzhinov and that he was a person of interest to the US govt and a candidate for sanctions by OFAC (Office of Foreign Asset control) that directly reports to the President of the United States this was met by ridicule by the CFC executive right here on Chesstalk.I posted articles from foreign intelligence journals that showed Putin's involvement in that election that included Russian embassies around the world contacting chess federations about supporting Kirsan. The CFC did not like it when the Globe and Mail published in it's headline "Canada Backs Putin’s Choice To lead International Chess Body"
But the headline was exactly right.
Derogatory remarks were made about probably one of the greatest minds in the history of Chess and Putin's number 1 critic Mr Kasparov. This, despite having the full backing of more then one billionaire to finance FIDE. We were told here on Chesstalk that he might not have proper financing for FIDE and that his election would mean the destruction of FIDE. Draining the swamp is not equal to destruction.
Well sadly history has played out and now that the Chess community in Canada was badly bruised by FIDE after playing by their rules the time has come for the CFC to right it's mistakes of the past and reach out to the USCF and other allies around the world including the ACP and organize a new international chess federation. A good start would be to apologize to Garry Kasparov and get his support in helping. Mig already reached out on this board in 2014 in their willingness to forgive. I certainly do not believe in holding grudges but instead looking forward.
Canada has been denied a potential Canadian world chess champion so the time for being scared that the CFC has something to lose by having a bad relationship with FIDE has passed.

[Hal Bond]

Re: FIDE Congress in Antalya, Turkey 2017

I was a little surprised but happy nonetheless to be leading the charge regarding the QC Direct Title regulations. Several of our youth players now have their titles. Congrats to all of them , along with our newest IM Michael Kleinman and FA Vadim Tsypin.

[Wayne Komer]

Re: FIDE Congress in Antalya, Turkey 2017

FIDE Congress in Antalya, Turkey 2017

October 16, 2017

Day 7

On the seventh day of the 88th FIDE Congress in Antalya, Turkey the Executive Board continued the meeting.

The Commissions reports were discussed and approved. The reports will be posted soon on the FIDE website. AGON presented the report about its activities and presented the information about forthcoming event – Candidates Tournament 2018. The President of ECU Mr. Zara Azmaiparashvili reported about the World Cup 2017 and informed the members about the preparation to the World Chess Olympiad 2018. He confirmed the exact dates of the Olympiad, which will take place from the 23rd of September till the 6th of October 2018 in Batumi, Georgia.

The Executive Board decided to temporarily exclude the Bulgarian Chess Federation and approved that the players from Bulgaria play under FIDE flag.

The Executive Board discussed the future events from the FIDE Calendar for 2019.

The World Youth Championships U-14, U-16, U-18 was awarded to India. China will organize the World Cadet Championship U-8, U-10, U-12. The World Senior Championship will be held in Romania. The World Team Championship 50+, 65+ was awarded to Greece. The World Amateur Championship 2019 will be organized in Mexico. The full list of the Executive Board decisions will be published in a few days.

[Vadim Tsypin]

Re: FIDE Congress in Antalya, Turkey 2017

More important news from the reports of U.S. delegates, which I quoted in another thread.

"

• In the Systems of Pairings and Programs (SPP) meeting, it was discussed that only one previously approved pairing program, Vega, has been re-approved. The other developers, including the ones for Swiss Manager, Swiss Master and SwissSys, have been working on it and have sent in their revisions, yet to be approved. In the meantime, those programs may still be used pending re-approval, hopefully, at the next FIDE Presidential Board meeting.

• [The Events Commission] also recommended that FIDE event organizers should try to cover as many languages as possible. This is a good suggestion, especially with the World Cadet with U12, U10, and U8 sections. Having arbiters and officials being able to talk with the young kids in their native language would be very helpful.
• [The Social Projects Commission]The first work was of prisoners in Brazil and recidivism rates of those in chess programs as compared to the general prison population. The results showed that for every year in the chess program, corresponding recidivism rates went down! The second exciting presentation was a case study done in an educational setting for autistic children. The approach involved integrating chess into the environment initially and then gradually moving to chess lessons. Preliminary results from the first year are that they successfully taught the autistic subject chess, and, in fact, he will be teaching chess to other children in a regular classroom setting in the second year of the study which is in progress now. The results are simply stunning, and we are looking forward to the conclusions at the end of the second year.
• The focus in [the Commission of Chess Journalists] was around certifications of Journalists to FIDE events and did not involve a plan to get more stories in the mainstream media. There is a closed system for chess Journalists, who have interview times mandated by FIDE and with organizers in a controlled environment associated with events. [...] It was noted that the stories that had traction in the mainstream and social media were the “Kovalyov shorts” story at the World Cup and the “headscarf controversy and boycott” of the Women’s World Cup held in Iran.

"

[Larry Bevand]

Re: FIDE Congress in Antalya, Turkey 2017

I had to google QC...in Canada QC is Quebec...but apparently in FIDE QC is...the Qualification Committee...duh...what do I know...congrats to everyone who has earned titles...there is no doubt in my mind that Michael and Vadim deserve their titles! Hal...sorry if I am not up to speed...how did you "lead the charge " on this and are their other players who benefitted from this rule change ( I assume it was a rule change...totally in the dark here)?

[Hal Bond]

Re: FIDE Congress in Antalya, Turkey 2017

Thank you for asking Larry!

Last year at the Baku Olympiad the QC proposed a rating restriction on Direct Title winners, to bolster the integrity of player titles (ie to stop awarding FM titles to 1300 players and such) Sadly we did not have a quorum on the final day of the General Assembly when this was to be voted on, so it was deferred to the Presidential Board. Early this year the proposal was approved, effective July 1, 2017.

The issue came to a head at the Pan Am Youth Championships, which started literally on July 1. Our Delegation sought and received prior assurances from the organizer that the titles earned from this event would not be subject to the rating restriction. However FIDE awarded the titles conditionally upon a minimum rating being achieved - ie 200 points below the rating floor of a given title). The mother and the coach of one of our affected players wrote to me so I got involved. As I investigated it became clear that the Pan-Am event was one of several events harmed by this rule - all of these events had been bid upon and awarded under the old rules. The USCF agreed. I was surprised to be in this position instead of all the organizers but whatever.

The QC was rather annoyed because they actively sought feedback for their proposal from all Commissions and Delegates in Baku and received almost none. After a few letters the QC agreed to hear all arguments at their meeting in Antalya. I had to attend the Ethics Committee for Anton which was held concurrently, so the afternoon before the meeting I proposed to the QC Chair and Secretary Nick Faulks (who was of a like mind by this point) that the rule should come into force January 1, 2018 in order to best serve the affected events. Werner Stubenvoll, the QC Chair, told me later that evening that the Commission had agreed. I believe they simply announced their decision the next day but I was at Ethics so I cannot confirm. Winners from the NAYCC, Pan-Ams, World Cadet, World Schools and Zonal Championships (maybe others) all stood to benefit from the rule postponement.