CFC presidential campaign

[Lucas Davies]

Ultimately the looney left hopes to introduce identity politics even here.

In the unlikely event that the voting members go with another candidate, the new president will get no honeymoon period on chesstalk. The resistance will continue.

Imagine calling a guy who was a Trump supporter a couple of years ago "the left."

[Fred McKim]

Generally speaking, I have no interest in talking politics on a Chess Forum. Nor do I have any interest in judging someone running for a CFC position by their Canadian / American political views, whether they agree with mine or not.

[Kerry Liles]

Generally speaking, I have no interest in talking politics on a Chess Forum. Nor do I have any interest in judging someone running for a CFC position by their Canadian / American political views, whether they agree with mine or not.

I like that approach Fred - although I don't actually walk that talk myself... :)

What has left me a little uneasy is Vlad's apparent assimilation at the hands of the MAGA crowd "thinking". From many of his posts I think he seems to lack a measured view of many issues and that concerns me for the president of a National organization (even as trivial an organization as the CFC). Just a hard-to-qualify uneasy feeling.

[Fred McKim]

I like that approach Fred - although I don't actually walk that talk myself... :)

What has left me a little uneasy is Vlad's apparent assimilation at the hands of the MAGA crowd "thinking". From many of his posts I think he seems to lack a measured view of many issues and that concerns me for the president of a National organization (even as trivial an organization as the CFC). Just a hard-to-qualify uneasy feeling.

I wish you could put your 2nd paragraph into English I could fully understand :-)

[Kerry Liles]

Well, it seems Vlad has drunk the kool aid. I am worried that he is no longer objective. I hope he once was and I believe he was...

[Fred McKim]

Well, it seems Vlad has drunk the kool aid. I am worried that he is no longer objective. I hope he once was and I believe he was...

I had to look it up and feel stupid for having to do so now; MAGA = Make America Great Again. However, I'm still not sure how thinking Trump has done OK makes him less effective as a CFC President.

[Pargat Perrer]

I had to look it up and feel stupid for having to do so now; MAGA = Make America Great Again. However, I'm still not sure how thinking Trump has done OK makes him less effective as a CFC President.

In following this thread, I am becoming amazed at the extent to which people are believing that the election of a CFC President is going to dramatically affect the course of chess in Canada. Even Trump has been invoked in this discussion... and while I can agree with Kerry that Vlad Drkulec shows lack of objectivity with regards to Trump, and I can also agree that it calls into question whether he could have objectivity in his duties as CFC President, what I'm not getting is.... how important is it really? I think this is what Fred is commenting on.

The President of the United States is called the most powerful man in the world. S/He makes decisions that affect the US military, the US economy, the US legal and criminal systems, the US immigration system, US taxation... it's a very demanding and influential position.

In comparison, the CFC President makes decisions that.... what? Affect what? Affect who?

I understand this is the first actual election for President the CFC will have had for a very long time? Neil Frarey says that it will be "A choice between someone with a 'savior complex' and someone with a 'volunteer complex'" and he also writes about celebrating French Canadian chess (he writes it in English only, duly noted). I would ask Neil Frarey to explain in detail (in French and English if he can) just WHAT Drkulec did or did not do that greatly stifled French Canadian chess.

Drkulec himself overdramatizes the election with the post that started this thread. Maybe he does have a savior complex, and if he does, it's his problem, why make it everyone's problem?

Ok, I get it, elections are fun, let's make the most of it while we have one going on!

But..... guys and gals.... this is chess we are talking about. It's a bloody board game, and yes there can be money involved.... very very huge sums of money.... LOL. Maybe when you get up to those huge sums of money … FIDE and World Championship and all that … maybe money is the root of all evil.

Someone I know used to watch for examples of people overdramatizing things that are truly trivial, and when it happened, he would bring up the Dr. Seuss book "Horton Hears A Who". The book where Horton, an elephant, picks up a flower with his trunk and, with his huge elephant ears, hears voices coming from the flower, and listens in, and finds out about a whole world of activity going on deep in this flower. The flower itself is beautiful, shows no signes of trauma or distress. But even if it did... It is just one flower among many.

[Pargat Perrer]

What is "French Canadian chess"? Have we ever celebrated English Canadian chess?

Lynyrd Skynyrd just wrote a new song, and it contains the lyrics....

"Well I hope Neil Frarey will remember....
An Engilish Canadian Chess Player don't need him around anyhow"

[Brad Thomson]

Lynyrd Skynyrd just wrote a new song, and it contains the lyrics....

"Well I hope Neil Frarey will remember....
An Engilish Canadian Chess Player don't need him around anyhow"

My second-favourite band, after The Allman Brothers Band.
"If I leave here tomorrow..."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0W1v0kOELA

[Kerry Liles]

In following this thread, I am becoming amazed at the extent to which people are believing that the election of a CFC President is going to dramatically affect the course of chess in Canada. Even Trump has been invoked in this discussion... and while I can agree with Kerry that Vlad Drkulec shows lack of objectivity with regards to Trump, and I can also agree that it calls into question whether he could have objectivity in his duties as CFC President, what I'm not getting is.... how important is it really? I think this is what Fred is commenting on.

The President of the United States is called the most powerful man in the world. S/He makes decisions that affect the US military, the US economy, the US legal and criminal systems, the US immigration system, US taxation... it's a very demanding and influential position.

In comparison, the CFC President makes decisions that.... what? Affect what? Affect who?

I understand this is the first actual election for President the CFC will have had for a very long time? Neil Frarey says that it will be "A choice between someone with a 'savior complex' and someone with a 'volunteer complex'" and he also writes about celebrating French Canadian chess (he writes it in English only, duly noted). I would ask Neil Frarey to explain in detail (in French and English if he can) just WHAT Drkulec did or did not do that greatly stifled French Canadian chess.

Drkulec himself overdramatizes the election with the post that started this thread. Maybe he does have a savior complex, and if he does, it's his problem, why make it everyone's problem?

Ok, I get it, elections are fun, let's make the most of it while we have one going on!

But..... guys and gals.... this is chess we are talking about. It's a bloody board game, and yes there can be money involved.... very very huge sums of money.... LOL. Maybe when you get up to those huge sums of money … FIDE and World Championship and all that … maybe money is the root of all evil.

Someone I know used to watch for examples of people overdramatizing things that are truly trivial, and when it happened, he would bring up the Dr. Seuss book "Horton Hears A Who". The book where Horton, an elephant, picks up a flower with his trunk and, with his huge elephant ears, hears voices coming from the flower, and listens in, and finds out about a whole world of activity going on deep in this flower. The flower itself is beautiful, shows no signes of trauma or distress. But even if it did... It is just one flower among many.

Point taken. I absolutely agree that the CFC President is not making life changing decisions of any sort.

Let me insert something here: I think Vlad has done an outstanding job guiding the CFC through some very perilous times. I have some idea of the time commitment and effort required so thanks for that. My point was that I am worried that some of Vlad's viewpoints make me wonder whether he can be objective (about many things, but in particular issues that confront the CFC).

Of course what happens with the CFC in general is a minor imperceptible blip in the universe but this forum is about that tiny microcosm.

[Vlad Drkulec]

I don't agree with the idea that the CFC and the president/board don't make life changing decisions unless you subscribe to the idea that chess is a totally superfluous activity. Obviously we wouldn't put so much time and effort into it if we believed that. One story that I tell when people ask me about the benefits of chess is the example of the under 14 girls from the CYCC in 2013 in Ottawa. The girl that finished first became a world champion within a little over a year later. She also went on to become a women's grandmaster, a writer and a student at the one of the top universities in Canada the University of Toronto who does commentary online and authored two DVDs for Chessbase. She was Ottawa's own Qiyu Zhu.

Qiyu would not have been able to go to the world youth chess championship in South Africa had we not made an exception to send her. She did not win the CYCC the following year in Montreal. She and another girl finished second in their groups. In the two cases, the girls that finished first were not Canadian flag at FIDE and thus were not likely to go to South Africa. I believe the youth coordinator at the time told the two girls that it was unlikely that the winners could change their federation in time and so they would be Canada's representatives. Hal Bond was very good at his job and somehow miraculously was able to get the federations changed and so we had two girls that had been promised the opportunity to represent Canada and the two girls who had actually won. The CFC kept its promise and sent two girls in each of those groups. Qiyu went on to win.In past years the CFC sometimes didn't keep its promises. That was something that changed in recent years.

Anyway back to Ottawa in 2013, under 14 girls division: the two girls who tied for second and third (both from Windsor and my Friday night advanced class) and the girl who finished fourth are now enrolled in different engineering specialties (I believe nanotechnology, chemical and mechanical) engineering at one of the best schools for engineering in Canada, the University of Waterloo. Girls who compete in chess also thrive in the competitive male dominated field of engineering. This is not limited to that group of girls. I am often asked to sign letters of recommendation for young chessplayers seeking scholarships or admission to top universities. I hear where my students wind up attending university and most of them get into top schools, they get the scholarships and they thrive. Chess contributed to who they are whatever the final attainments in chess. If it were not for these types of stories which we live every day, I probably would say, "Oh great! There's a warm body that wants to take my place. I'm outta here!" Its about the journey on the road to mastery which is applicable in many different aspects of life and should not be discounted as inconsequential.

[John Brown]

I think it is time for a change. Vlad never turned my crank. I'm not sure if the new guy is going to change anything either.

[Brad Thomson]

I don't agree with the idea that the CFC and the president/board don't make life changing decisions...

Neither do I.

[Vlad Drkulec]

I think it is time for a change. Vlad never turned my crank. I'm not sure if the new guy is going to change anything either.

Turning your crank was never high on my many "to do" lists. Sometimes the most consequential decision is the decision not to do something.

[Brad Thomson]

'Tis better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.