FIDE urges the Canadian gov to speed up

[Steffen Roller]

Urgent visa appeal to the Canadian Government regarding the FIDE Candidates Tournament

The most prestigious tournament in the chess world, the FIDE Candidates, which will determine the challengers for the World Champion title in both the Open and Women’s Categories, is set to take place from April 3 – 22 in Toronto, Canada. This is the first time in the history of chess that the most prestigious tournament is due to be hosted in Canada, recognizing the country’s growing role in the chess world. Regrettably, players from various countries worldwide, who submitted their visa applications few months ago, have not yet received any updates on their status. With only a month remaining till the FIDE Candidates Tournament, there are grave concerns about the timely arrival of the players to Toronto. Recognizing the popularity of the game in the country, and its growing role in the chess world, we kindly ask the Canadian Government for support in urgently addressing this matter. Ensuring the safe and timely arrival of players is crucial for the success and integrity of the FIDE Candidates Tournament and for promoting Canada as a host of the most important chess tournament of the year, which will be followed by millions of spectators worldwide.
@CitImmCanada

@MarcMillerVM

"My contacts" in the government think this is a complete lie. Every world event has a special code which can by used for visas by the organizers. Time will tell.

[Steffen Roller]

CFC is working with Immigration Canada to solve the issue.

[Salim Belcadi]

The Toronto Star published a story with more details:

Visa snafu risks scuttling top chess tournament in Toronto (thestar.com)

[Vlad Drkulec]

FIDE has informed the CFC and members of the local organizing committee that they will need to pull the Candidates tournament from Toronto if we are not able to make substantial progress on providing the players and some key FIDE organizers visas by Friday, March 8, 2024 or some assurance that the visas are pending. Pulling the tournament will present a logistical nightmare for FIDE and the preference is that the event take place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. You can't have a Candidates tournament without the Candidates (players). So far of the officials only Vishy Anand the former world champion has been approved for a visa. On the players side only Humpy Koneru of India has been approved.

It should be noted that none of the players or officials have been refused entry to date.

Patricia Gamliel CFC director has been doing heroic work on this file.

[Steffen Roller]

I learned that the candidates tournament is not registered with Immigration Canada. Usually an organizational body can (and would) apply for a special treatment of their applicants. They can then jump the queue. The FIDE candidates tournament is not on the list for April. That might have avoided those type of problems.

[Vlad Drkulec]

I learned that the candidates tournament is not registered with Immigration Canada. Usually an organizational body can (and would) apply for a special treatment of their applicants. They can then jump the queue. The FIDE candidates tournament is not on the list for April. That might have avoided those type of problems.

Yes, the local committee was only engaged five months before the tournament was to start. In order to register your event you have to register your event six months in advance. Apparently no exceptions are allowed to this rule as the local committee was declined when they tried to register the event five months in advance.

[Neil Frarey]

CFC is working with Immigration Canada to solve the issue.

Hi Steff, why didn't you folks know about this complication from the get go???

Did not the Chess Federation of Canada make this visa complication clear to you from the start of your efforts???

[John Brown]

Sounds like the Canadian Federation may have dropped the ball on this error and they can blame no one but themselves if the Candidates does not happen.

[Peter McKillop]

Sounds like the Canadian Federation may have dropped the ball on this error and they can blame no one but themselves if the Candidates does not happen.

Hi John (and Neil). It's not clear at this point (to me at least) who is responsible for what. The CFC is the host federation (or whatever terminology they're using) but that doesn't mean necessarily that the CFC has been directly involved in the myriad of details involved in setting up an event like this. There are also organizers &/or sponsors involved, FIDE reps like arbiters, and of course FIDE itself, etc. Don't be too quick to point a finger at the CFC. AND - just my personal viewpoint - based on Vlad's track record, if he had been directly involved in the decision making for this event then everything would be running smoothly.

[Hugh Brodie]

From what I understand - the CFC has nothing to do with this event. It's organized and run by FIDE, and it should be up to them to organize visas etc.

[Erik Malmsten]

This was not a task for amateurs. Movie productions and the film festival gets people in every year on short notice. The CFC should have used their relationship with Sports Canada to hire a professional company with experience in international competitions, the fees of $100,000 to be paid by the poker sponsor. There are also Liberal party lobbyists in the chess world. Is it too late to have an email to the minister and MPs campaign? Or are the countries the players are from too much of a hot spot politically?

[Peter McKillop]

.... The CFC should have used their relationship with Sports Canada to hire a professional company with experience in international competitions, the fees of $100,000 to be paid by the poker sponsor. ......

So, Erik, are you saying that you KNOW FOR A FACT that the CFC is (supposed to be) playing a MAJOR role in the key organizational decisions with respect to this tournament?? That would surprise me greatly. If this tournament was being held in a country with a huge chess presence and decades of experience in organizing important international events then, yes, I could see the host federation having a significant role. But for a small, basically insignificant federation like Canada's, I would have expected the primary functions would be a brief welcome speech at the opening banquet and a brief farewell speech at the closing banquet. Why would FIDE leave major organizational details for one of their fixture events in the hands of a small, inexperienced federation?

[Erik Malmsten]

Peter,

Perhaps it was FIDE's responsibility to hire Canadian immigration lawyers to make the applications. Vlad stated that fide threatened the local committee with cancellation if all the visas don't get through and mentioned that the local committee started late, 5 months before the event.

I do know that the local committee is involved in organized side events during the tournament and is recruiting volunteers. I don't know the role of the poker sponsor, or the Chessbrahs who recently had a successful event with chess.com. The problem does make the Canadian bureaucracy and the CFC look bad, while we approve a world soccer event.

[Vlad Drkulec]

Hi John (and Neil). It's not clear at this point (to me at least) who is responsible for what. The CFC is the host federation (or whatever terminology they're using) but that doesn't mean necessarily that the CFC has been directly involved in the myriad of details involved in setting up an event like this. There are also organizers &/or sponsors involved, FIDE reps like arbiters, and of course FIDE itself, etc. Don't be too quick to point a finger at the CFC. AND - just my personal viewpoint - based on Vlad's track record, if he had been directly involved in the decision making for this event then everything would be running smoothly.

Thank you Peter for that vote of confidence. I did bring up the visa issue early on. The CFC is not the principal in all this. We are just doing our best to support this event. I have probably written sixty letters plus or minus a few to the visa authorities on behalf of the players, trainers, relatives of the players, FIDE officials and anyone else that FIDE has put in front of me. Gary Gladstone has been extremely helpful in getting this in front of his contacts in the government and in Parliament.

Patricia Gamliel despite being extremely busy has been helping us navigate this unfortunate situation. Getting a capable person like her on our board of directors is probably one of the smartest things that I and the voting members of the CFC have done in my time as president of the CFC.

I had an interview with Bell Media last night around 11 pm. I had an additional followup from the Toronto Star.on the article that Salim linked to earlier in the thread. The goal is to make this something that the government sees as important, something it can solve and something that they want to solve.

I am not interested in pointing fingers and saying what could have been handled better. Between now and Friday, I am interested in solving these problems which will only happen if there is the political will in our government to solve these problems. I don't have time to argue with uninformed people who will tell me that I should have done this or that. I already did this or that or suggested to the people in charge what the issues would be and here we are, those are the issues. We recognize the historical significance of this tournament and the tragedy for Canadian Chess and Canada if this has to be moved to Spain.

Further, FIDE did not threaten us. They told us clearly what the situation is. Their first responsibility is to see that the Candidates tournament takes place. They can't do it in Canada with the real threat that only a few of the players will be allowed into Canada to play. There is no Candidates tournament without the candidates (players). I have nothing but respect for everyone at FIDE that I have been dealing with on this issue. They don't want to have to organize in three weeks on another continent what we haven't been able to accomplish here.

Everyone can call me all kinds of names after Friday. I probably won't notice. If you are not part of the solution to these vexing situations, I really don't have time for you. On the current situation my conscience is totally clear as I have at every step done everything in my power to help this tournament take place in Toronto. I am not in charge. I am a resourceful person. We will see if that can have an impact on this situation.

[Vlad Drkulec]

One key point to note is that not one person has been refused entry. Two visas for individuals from India have reached the next stage. There is hope still.

To work now. We need to launch all our forces as there really is no next week. The Candidates tournament in Toronto lives or dies by the actions or inactions of the next six days.