2013 North American Youth Championship

[Pierre Denommee]

Re: 2013 North American Youth Championship

What is the next step after the withdrawal? How will it help Chess?

FIDE is recognized by the IOC. For us, it does means little, but many countries do not have the equivalent of Sports Canada. Money flows to Federations through the National Olympic Committee. This means that if a Federation leaves FIDE, the money goes out.

Do not blame FIDE for Harper's Government failures. If it has invested in Chess the same kind of money that it has invested to get the gold medals in Vancouver, Chess would be thriving.

Chess is not a sport and it will not be one until we get rid of this Government. For sports, the Government pays for international events. Sports Canada should be proud that NYCC comes to Canada and it should support it. Unfortunately, Sports Canada budget would not go up if Chess was recognized as a sport. Our money would be have to be taken from all the other Federations' budget. As long as they fear that, the only way to have Chess recognized is through political action. The Minister has to order Sports Canada to recognize Chess. We have up to 2015 to find the Minister that will support us and vote for his party.

This is the sort of event that FIDE should be sponsoring - not milking for money!
This crap will only end when Federations begin withdrawing from FIDE.

[Gary Ruben]

Re: 2013 North American Youth Championship

Chess is not a sport and it will not be one until we get rid of this Government.

Yes, Pierre. We can see what a fine job the Liberals in Quebec and Ontario have done. Why should Quebec and Ontario be special. The entire nation deserves the same, I suppose.

Why wasn't chess a sport under the many Quebec Prime Ministers?

[Felix Dumont]

Re : Re: 2013 North American Youth Championship

I don't think any party would be interested in chess...

Chess has already a special status in Quebec (which makes it elligible for government subsidies), which is probably why there are nearly as many chess players in Quebec as in the rest of Canada. However, it took a tremendous amount of work, and recognition as a sport is definitely not about to happen. The FQE executive met with the Minister of education in the past (for chess lessons in schools), and I imagine the CFC executive took the time to do the same... However, it doesn't seem to have changed much and politicians are obviously not interested in chess.

[Zeljko Kitich]

Re: Re : Re: 2013 North American Youth Championship

I don't think any party would be interested in chess...

Chess has already a special status in Quebec (which makes it elligible for government subsidies), which is probably why there are nearly as many chess players in Quebec as in the rest of Canada. However, it took a tremendous amount of work, and recognition as a sport is definitely not about to happen. The FQE executive met with the Minister of education in the past (for chess lessons in schools), and I imagine the CFC executive took the time to do the same... However, it doesn't seem to have changed much and politicians are obviously not interested in chess.

Why on earth would they be interested in something that half the population doesn't even contemplate playing?

[Gary Ruben]

Re: Re : Re: 2013 North American Youth Championship

Probably about 35% of the membership of the Canadian Correspondence Chess Association in the mid 70's to 80's were Quebecers. Many not CFC rated but many strong players. Back then the membership got up to around 700 which isn't bad for correspondence chess.

[Pierre Denommee]

Re: 2013 North American Youth Championship

Chess as a sport is fairly new, There is more registered chess players in Alsace then in Canada. Canada is a small chess country. I have never expected that we would lead. Now that Chess is a medal sport in Asian Games and in the African Games and that a lot of countries recognize chess as a sport, Canada should follow suite. It should be obvious to any intelligent politician that chess is a sport. Conservatives were there in the last 10 years, so please don't blame any other political party.

Yes, Pierre. We can see what a fine job the Liberals in Quebec and Ontario have done. Why should Quebec and Ontario be special. The entire nation deserves the same, I suppose.

Why wasn't chess a sport under the many Quebec Prime Ministers?

[Pierre Denommee]

Chess as a sport

Félix, it doesn't take a party, it takes a single person. Chess in Quebec was not supported at all in the beginning. The courageous actions of a single MPP made it supported.

Off course, all CFC Governors should publicly state that they believe in it. Did you know that the chief opponent to Chess as a sport in Quebec was a former FQE president? Do you think that the Government will consider Chess as a sport if the FQE president is openly against it?

The FQE is too timid in schools. Only RSEQ Montreal has a chess league. There should be such league in all regions. Such a League should also be in Colleges and Universities. I ran a League in Colleges for two years without any RSEQ backing. So it can be done.

I don't think any party would be interested in chess...

Chess has already a special status in Quebec (which makes it elligible for government subsidies), which is probably why there are nearly as many chess players in Quebec as in the rest of Canada. However, it took a tremendous amount of work, and recognition as a sport is definitely not about to happen. The FQE executive met with the Minister of education in the past (for chess lessons in schools), and I imagine the CFC executive took the time to do the same... However, it doesn't seem to have changed much and politicians are obviously not interested in chess.

[Kevin Pacey]

Re: Chess as a sport

Félix, it doesn't take a party, it takes a single person. Chess in Quebec was not supported at all in the beginning. The courageous actions of a single MPP made it supported.
...

I alluded to this a long time ago on this message board and some rabid type was all over me.

[Tom O'Donnell]

Re: 2013 North American Youth Championship

Which countries are eligible to compete?

[Gary Ruben]

Re: 2013 North American Youth Championship

Chess as a sport is fairly new, There is more registered chess players in Alsace then in Canada. Canada is a small chess country. I have never expected that we would lead. Now that Chess is a medal sport in Asian Games and in the African Games and that a lot of countries recognize chess as a sport, Canada should follow suite. It should be obvious to any intelligent politician that chess is a sport. Conservatives were there in the last 10 years, so please don't blame any other political party.

How about Trudeau or Chretien or Martin Liberals? Did they make chess a sport? They were all Quebec Prime Ministers.

I can see your point if you want to blame all of them but simply blaming Harper's Conservatives is a political agenda. Very obvious.

[Vlad Dobrich]

Re: 2013 North American Youth Championship

This thread appeared to be dead when I posted a comment>>>>>

"This is the sort of event that FIDE should be sponsoring - not milking for money!
This crap will only end when Federations begin withdrawing from FIDE."

For some reason the answer to my post was that some politicians in Canada were responsible for chess not being declared a sport.

The fact that FIDE is sucking money from something they should be sponsoring with a cash influx received no comment! Oh well, that's ChessTalk.

[Hal Bond]

Re: 2013 North American Youth Championship

FIDE does't work that way Vlad. Where would this money come from? FIDE America, who is the skimmer in this case, struggles financially like most of its member Federations. The calendar of events is their primary source of revenue.

[Vlad Drkulec]

Re: Chess as a sport

The FQE is too timid in schools. Only RSEQ Montreal has a chess league. There should be such league in all regions. Such a League should also be in Colleges and Universities. I ran a League in Colleges for two years without any RSEQ backing. So it can be done.

A high school chess league in every city across Canada would be a good long term goal. That and the Detroit Metro League were a large impetus to the development of Windsor chess from the 1970s and into the early 2000s.

[Felix Dumont]

Re : Chess as a sport

The FQE is too timid in schools. Only RSEQ Montreal has a chess league. There should be such league in all regions. Such a League should also be in Colleges and Universities. I ran a League in Colleges for two years without any RSEQ backing. So it can be done.

It's hard to have a league in a region where high schools are separated by 50+ km... The Montreal high school chess league also includes schools from suburbs (so basically it covers half of the population of Quebec).

Everything seems so easy when you speak, but the truth is you didn't manage to have a single person (besides you) in any of your activities/meetings/elections... We are quite far from having a chess league that regroups every high school in the country ;)

It's great to have provincial scholastic chess recognized as a sport (or at least treated as a sport) by the RSEQ, but they are not the one organizing the league. What we need is people like Marc Poulin, who spent lots of time organizing this, and more players in high school that can go see their administration (like I did), show them the results of chess players in school and convince them to invest money in teaching chess. In our high school alone we had 30 people playing chess every day in the chess club.

Vlad Dobrich : I didn't answer because I couldn't say it better. No doubt FIDE is only looking for ways to get more money in permanence.

[Pierre Denommee]

Re: 2013 North American Youth Championship

Conservative have been there for the last years. Chess became a sport in 1999 when FIDE has been recognised the IOC. Or you may say that it became a sport in 2001 when FIDE complied with the IOC anti-doping code.

Trudeau could not have done it. Nobody expected that Canada would be among the first Countries to recognized Chess as a sport. A wait and see approach was correct at the beginning. Even the IOC was surprised by the number of national chess Federations who became member of their national Olympic Committee. When Harper arrived, chess was recognized as a sport in many places. Canada did not have to take the risk to lead, it only has to follow. This failure to follow the word is inexcusable.

How about Trudeau or Chretien or Martin Liberals? Did they make chess a sport? They were all Quebec Prime Ministers.

I can see your point if you want to blame all of them but simply blaming Harper's Conservatives is a political agenda. Very obvious.