My resignation as FIDE Rep

[Vlad Drkulec]

Hal wrote, "Following the 2020 CFC AGM, Drkulec tries to take my place at the FIDE Online General Assembly."

Why, Mr. Drkulec, did you attempt to pull this stunt? Do you recognize that this corroborates the suggestions that you have some guilt in all of this? Are you just the victim of bad luck? The victim of false appearances? Many of us may still have an open mind, but you had best explain. You would go a long way toward absolving yourself if you could legitimately explain to us why you attempted to usurp the position of the rightful FIDE delegate. Why did you do this?

It was no stunt. FIDE sent me an email which implied that I could attend the meeting. Hal's hatred for all things XXXXXXXX1 was getting very difficult to handle. In two years plus he had not made any progress on resolving the issue which was a FIDE issue and not a CFC issue. My purpose was to talk to people and get to the bottom of what was going on. Early on, I'm pretty sure there was an email in which I proposed going very public with this whole situation. I was safe in doing that because I had no FIDE ambitions. Hal did not want to do that because he did have FIDE ambitions. At one point in the run-up to the 2018 FIDE election Hal actually looked into running for FIDE president. The situation festered and got worse and worse when we got into the whole situation just before the AGM when Hal was looking for blood and full of rage which is not a good place to be. It causes one to make serious mistakes that might have been terminal for the CFC. There are people at FIDE who somehow amped up the anger and demanded that we deal with it on the CFC level.

It should be noted that I was on very friendly terms with Hal up until he tried to go after XXXXXXXXX1 just before the AGM. Hal wanted to bypass member discipline rules which require due process. I thought that was a very bad idea. Hal also wanted a public shaming. I thought that was a bad idea. Before things came to a boil we attended the Sport Tourism Canada conference together in Ottawa where I picked him up in Guelph and we drove up and talked for hours about this and many other things. We also went to Oshawa to meet with a Sport Tourism official from Durham region and for me to give a small talk about chess being a sport as part of a panel discussion on esports in their esports facility on a college campus.

Hal Bond turned on me not because of my actions with respect to this FIDE problem, but because I would not let him sink the CFC in his Ahabesque quest to destroy his Moby Dick.

[Vlad Drkulec]

This relates to one of the questions I've been asking: why is FIDE only now investigating this? Why wasn't an investigation under way in 2018 or 2019 at the CFC's insistence?

Who controlled the investigation from the CFC end? Why it was Hal Bond. What a coincidence. Of course if I was involved, I might do a bald-headed version of Columbo and might start pulling at some threads which perhaps were better left buried not to be shared with Canadians. The whole Uruguay business and how that came about. Oh what a tangled web we weave...

[Brad Thomson]

Oh what a tangled web we weave...

...when first we practice to deceive. Chess is chess has always been chess will always be chess.

Well, our FIDE representative of longstanding and valued service has chosen to resign. This I find to be unfortunate. With respect to the President, Mitch McConnell would state that his conduct is certainly suspect, but his crimes do not demonstrably rise to the level of impeachment (which I think is impossible anyway, though I myself tried to have this changed many years ago when I was a governor and proposed an impeachment mechanism), so vote him out of office next election if that is your desire.

It will be interesting to see who runs for CFC President, and the other positions, next time there is a vote. Stay tuned!

[Peter McKillop]

Who controlled the investigation from the CFC end? Why it was Hal Bond. What a coincidence. Of course if I was involved, I might do a bald-headed version of Columbo and might start pulling at some threads which perhaps were better left buried not to be shared with Canadians. The whole Uruguay business and how that came about. Oh what a tangled web we weave...

Vlad, I think Obfuscation must be your middle name.

[Vlad Drkulec]

Nah! I think I've been quite clear. Hal Bond didn't want to go full public, veins in our teeth all out war. We left it to him. I can't help it if he is incompetent in these matters. I offered to help like an elephant in a fine crystal store. Total Destruction is my middle name. We would have got some attention. Of course there is Uruguay which doesn't fit the narrative unless our supposed nemesis could travel through time.

[Francis Rodriguez]

I think this thread's general tenor (onward from Feynman:)
follows Simon's "The Boxer".....

“A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest”.

Brad?

[Francis Rodriguez]

I think this thread's general tenor (onward from Feynman:)
follows Simon's "The Boxer".....

“A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest”.

Brad?

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.

Richard P. Feynman

[Brad Thomson]

I think this thread's general tenor (onward from Feynman:)
follows Simon's "The Boxer".....

“A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest”.

Brad?

True. But if one hears nothing then one makes a bunch of noise and listens carefully to what happens next.

[Peter McKillop]

Nah! I think I've been quite clear. Hal Bond didn't want to go full public, veins in our teeth all out war. We left it to him. I can't help it if he is incompetent in these matters. I offered to help like an elephant in a fine crystal store. Total Destruction is my middle name. We would have got some attention. Of course there is Uruguay which doesn't fit the narrative unless our supposed nemesis could travel through time.

I resigned because of the conduct of Vadim Tsypin, and President Vlad Drkulec’s response to that conduct, since 2018. The pattern of behaviour is of growing concern.

Vlad the Impaler? Vlad the Obscure? Vlad the Roiler of Waters? If it's your intention to be clear then why toss in the reference to Uruguay? Is this supposed to make everyone think that Hal did something disreputable in connection with Uruguay that would have to become public knowledge if you were going to fully support him on the forged email matter? You're CEO of the CFC. The CFC's relationship with FIDE is an important one. If important people at FIDE think that Canada has chosen a racist to represent its interests, then that reflects poorly not just on Hal but on the CFC and its members, doesn't it? As CEO, and regardless of whether Hal wanted to look after the matter himself, it was your job, along with the CFC's executive team, to set the terms under which the CFC would permit Hal to attend to the matter on his own. And then it was your job to follow up with Hal regularly to determine how the matter was proceeding and, if the matter was not moving quickly toward a satisfactory resolution, then it was also your job to take over from Hal and bring it all to a conclusion. I hope that's clear.

If I haven't said it already, thank you to Frank Dixon for his tribute to Hal.

[Henri Hughes]

Hal you've always been a tremendous support to me as a chess player and a big role model. thanks for all you've done for chess in Canada during your time as the CFC rep. and good look to victor

[Bob Gillanders]

Hal you've always been a tremendous support to me as a chess player and a big role model. thanks for all you've done for chess in Canada during your time as the CFC rep. and good look to victor

Henry, your post got me to thinking: You are just a young fella, as such you likely have no idea how long Hal has been a pillar of Canadian chess. I see Frank has tagged 1989 in his post, it's at least 3 decades and perhaps more? That precedes our tournament database! Just ponder that a moment. As long as I can remember, I could always count on a Guelph chess tournament for my regular fix. I would be interested if anyone knows when Hal ran his first chess tournament.

BTW Henry, you should login to your CFC Go membership account and update your date of birth. I am sure 2099 is not correct!

I was reading recently that middle age now starts at age 65. So I hope Hal is not considering retirement any time soon. I look forward to the next Guelph ProAm this fall. Hal, just add my name to the pre-registered list.

[Victor Plotkin]

I played in Guelph from 2005. I believe, I played in Guelph more than anywhere else, more than 20 times, including 3 Canadian Closed (2009, 2011, 2015). Always a great tournament!

[Kerry Liles]

Nah! I think I've been quite clear. Hal Bond didn't want to go full public, veins in our teeth all out war. We left it to him. I can't help it if he is incompetent in these matters. I offered to help like an elephant in a fine crystal store. Total Destruction is my middle name. We would have got some attention. Of course there is Uruguay which doesn't fit the narrative unless our supposed nemesis could travel through time.

I guess "Uruguay" must be some sort of inside joke that none of us are supposed to get?
Come on, stop dancing around and either post nothing or post something of value.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

I guess "Uruguay" must be some sort of inside joke that none of us are supposed to get?
Come on, stop dancing around and either post nothing or post something of value.

I only can suspect what Vlad meant by that country.

Though, the connection between Uruguay and Hal Bond is that he was an chief arbiter during the World Youth Chess Championship held in Montevideo in September, 2017. The championship went into a history for open allegations of cheating towards one player.

Hal Bond's report on the tournament to FIDE: https://www.fide.com/images/stories/...s/Annex_69.pdf

Hal Bond contacted Ken Regan to look at games during tournament and later Ken prepared a full report for Ethics comm. A lot to read at http://chess-news.ru/sites/default/files/3.pdf
Why Ethics comm? Because the accused player's parent asked FIDE Ethics committee to deal with the accuser. Details https://ethics.fide.com/images/stori...sion_final.pdf

Wiki reports that matters went to even the Appellate Moscow Court in 219. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibisara_Assaubayeva



Personal - in February of 2017 I attended an FIDE arbiter's seminar organized by Hal Bond in Toronto. One of the subjects was cheating. It was still quite fresh thing, iirc FIDE just released how to deal with it, also what kind of complains shall be written, otherwise arbiters can ignore or keep an eye on them. It is a really complicated thing if the complain is an "anonymous" type. We had a good discussion about it. Seems that Hal was ready and used that in his own practice later in September.

[Victor Plotkin]

Actually, it was a well-known conflict Assaubaeva-Solozhenkin. This story became really famous in 2017. I have my personal opinion, but maybe I am just biased, because I know GM Solozhenkin for last 40+ years.

Interestingly, that current FIDE Legal Advisor Alexandr Martynov worked for this case (as a lawyer of GM Solozhenkin) in Russian Civil Court.