CFC promoting chess in Canada ?

[Gary Hua]

I am still new in chess circle in Canada and I would like to bring up this subject for all chess lovers in Canada to discuss and especially the person in charge of CFC ( President and Governors concerned )

1. CFC as a non profit organization - A question on my mind ....why CFC does not retain the right to receive donation ie to be a charitable organization ? Am I missing something ?
2. I always feel that any organization be it profit making or non profit making must have a good internal control system and they must have their account audited on a yearly basis. Accounts must be as transparent as possible. If something bad happened in the past, the current team of CFC should make a decisive decision now and move forward to restore CFC to the right path/way. By not doing anything, nothing gets done.....
3. I feel that CFC does not have much support from the government as well as private sector. Not sure if we can do something about this so that chess in Canada will have a much bigger following and become more popular as a sport event.....
4. As compare to US, chess in Canada is so much more inferior in so many aspects.....not many tournaments/less participants/less prize $$ and so on. Something is not right.....
5. Eric Hansen and Aman Hambleton are the two notable Canadians in the world scene and are the great ambassador of Canada. They are the ones that the younger generation ie kids are looking up to.....Compare to US, you have so many of them eg Nakamura/Ray Robson and so many others....

I feel that if the govt and school will do something about chess in Canada ( with the right promotion from CFC ), I am sure the pool of players will be huge.....so far only Windsor and Quebec are doing the right thing but these are more on a personal level. I feel that there is not much of a co-operation among the PIC in CFC and the people promoting chess in Canada. These people are doing more on a personal level ( to me ) . With the new President of CFC coming from Windsor, I really hope that the future of Chess in Canada will have a new beginning and a promising one too.....

I hope the PICs in CFC and all chess lovers will respond to the above or please add if I miss anything vital to Canadian chess. It will be great if Canada can constantly produce champions in the world and remain there and not some great players who just fade out due to some factors.....

[Felix Dumont]

Re : CFC promoting chess in Canada ?

Hi Gary,
As a CFC Governor, I understand your concerns. I cannot answer your two first points, but I feel I can help for the third others.
3) CFC could have more support from the government, but I'm afraid nobody is willing to do the work. Half of the employees of the Quebec Chess Federation are paid by government subsidies (for summer students and employees with disabilities). The CFC also has access to this programs. For instance, I suggested a couple of times that we try to hire a summer student thanks to a federal program. Unfortunately, nobody really seemed interested. It might be harder for the CFC to get the money from the government, as it has no office anymore, but it would certainly be worth trying. No need to say that an extra employee for three months would help a lot. The private sector has pretty much no interest in investing into chess. It's expensive, and it won't generate much revenues. The only way to get major sponsors is to have contacts in the private sector who are ready to give away money. There are obviously some local or small sponsors, but these aren't the kind of sponsors that will change Canadian chess. I'm not sure how many revenues in sponsorship the CFC had this year (I know it was about $60 000 in Quebec), but some provinces like Alberta seem to do quite well.

4) It's funny, because I always thought the opposite. USA tournaments have big prizes, but also have horrible entry fees. There are obviously more players, but there is much more people in the USA. Every year, a few players from the USA come to the Quebec Open (or invitational) and are extremely glad to be invited, as they can't find many tournaments with such playing conditions. I've went a couple of times to major US cities in the East coast (Boston, New York...) and managed to talk to club directors. They kept complaining that chess there was extremely disorganized in comparison with Canada.

5) It's again a problem with population. There's 6 GMs living in the region of Montreal, for a population of about 3 millions. If you would extrapolate that for the whole USA, it would make 600 GMs! Obviously, what is shows is that we can't compare Canada and the USA. It works the same for tournaments. 300 players in a city like Montreal (or 180 in Ottawa) might not seem much compared to the USA, but for the population, it's actually pretty good.

In any case, there's still a lot to do in Canada. But there's no need to be overly pessimistic when comparing us to the USA. I also hope that things will get better with the new president (even though the last one did a great job also)!

[Nigel Hanrahan]

Re: Re : CFC promoting chess in Canada ?

The only way to get major sponsors is to have contacts in the private sector who are ready to give away money. There are obviously some local or small sponsors, but these aren't the kind of sponsors that will change Canadian chess. I'm not sure how many revenues in sponsorship the CFC had this year (I know it was about $60 000 in Quebec), but some provinces like Alberta seem to do quite well.

Irina Lymar, a lawyer who knows about chess, was interviewed recently in ChessBase News. She was discussing the case of Borislav Ivanov who is (allegedly) cheating in chess tournaments. Irina made some related comments about private-sector fund-raising in chess. She was talking about the whole world, not just one country like Canada ...

Comparing chess to other sports, she says ...

Originally Posted by Irina Lymar
the entire sports world has long been living under the fair play rules; it is a world providing for unified norms of behavior for all sportsmen, while the relations between them are based on ethical principles and mutual respect. And there are tough penalties for those who breach the rules, right up to lifetime disqualification. So why are chess players unable to put things in order in their own sector? Thousands of lawyers, one way or another, work in the field of sports technologies, helping sportsmen competently prepare their personal contracts, representing and protecting their interests during negotiations or when brought to arbitrage, etc.

Businesses expect some kind of sense or "rule of law" (e.g., that contracts are honoured) before they invest. They see that chess players can't even apprehend one of their own who is a cheat and, probably rightly, say thanks but no thanks.

Here is another interesting bit ...

Originally Posted by Irina Lymar
Summing it up, I can say that if compared to other kinds of sports, chess remains an amateur one, where a legal chaos reigns and everyone is by himself only. Chess has not become a professional sport yet, with all the rights and obligations clearly specified in contracts and protected by the law or regulations, or by arbitrage. I believe the time has come to change that situation.

It's a kind of stupid legal libertarianism, the result of which is no right-minded private donor wants to touch chess with a barge pole. (Except for those who, as Felix says, want to "give' money away.) Ideology trumps common sense. We're a bunch of disorganized idiots.

Chess relies upon an enormous army of volunteers to make it successful, mostly. I know, I'm one of them. These volunteers run and organize tournaments, devote countless hours creating archives of games, teach chess (maybe in schools in which governments make extra-curricular activities less and less worthwhile) , run clubs, promote the game where they can, etc., etc., and, by and large, the more professional ones are the chess-related businesses that, somewhat understandably, might be inclined to pay attention to their own bottom line more than the long-term well-being of chess. Can you blame them?

Chess in schools has had some success around the world and in Canada. It is NOT for every student. However, for those who could benefit from being exposed to chess in schools, a great deal more could be done. This is the way to grow chess for me. That, and the growth of chess clubs that promote skillful play. Produce a huge pool of talented players and you will have those champions.

[Nigel Hanrahan]

Re: Re : CFC promoting chess in Canada ?

Incidentally Gary, your profile reads like one of those created by web robots. They all have "GM" in one of the fields ("Do you play chess?", etc.)

[Gary Hua]

Re: Re : CFC promoting chess in Canada ?

Incidentally Gary, your profile reads like one of those created by web robots. They all have "GM" in one of the fields ("Do you play chess?", etc.)

Hi Nigel, I am not sure what you meant ! Can you be clearer ?

[Hugh Brodie]

Re: CFC promoting chess in Canada ?

The US tournaments that Felix has experienced are most likely "Goichberg" tournaments (Continental Chess), which tend to cut expenses to a minimum - i.e. no equipment, few TD's, no invited players, etc. The entry fees are only large for those with large prize funds (e.g. World Open - $300+ entry fee). Most others are in the $50-$100 range.

Then there are "other" US tournaments such as the National Open (Las Vegas), or the US Open (this year in Madison Wisconsin). Entry fees below $150; $100k+ in prizes; first class tournament halls; boards/sets/some (maybe most or all) clocks supplied.

[Nigel Hanrahan]

Re: Re : CFC promoting chess in Canada ?

In your profile, in response to the question "Do you play chess" it says, "GM".

Pretty well every single web robot/spammer has the same entry. And no one else. Is that clear enough?

[Hugh Brodie]

Re: CFC promoting chess in Canada ?

Where in your/my/anyone's profile is the question "Do you play chess?"? I can't find it on mine, nor Gary's, nor anyone else's I looked at.

[Gary Ruben]

Re: CFC promoting chess in Canada ?

Settings, edit profile and it should be on the page.

[Felix Dumont]

Re : Re: Re : CFC promoting chess in Canada ?

In your profile, in response to the question "Do you play chess" it says, "GM".

Pretty well every single web robot/spammer has the same entry. And no one else. Is that clear enough?

---
Do you play Chess?:

Type the two-letter shortform for "GrandMaster" in the box.

---
I don't think it's very surprising if many people say ''GM''. That said, I'm not sure this question was there when I registered a few years ago (maybe it's recent?).

[Nigel Hanrahan]

Re: Re : Re: Re : CFC promoting chess in Canada ?

I checked that out just now and ... you're right! It might even be an anti-bot measure.

Oh well. That idea down the drain. Apologies to Gary Hua!

[Hugh Brodie]

Re: CFC promoting chess in Canada ?

My "do you play chess?" answer is blank - possibly if my profile was imported from a previous version of this board.

[Nigel Hanrahan]

Re: CFC promoting chess in Canada ?

I thought we all registered anew here and were supposed to use our real names, etc., back in May 2008 or thereabouts.

[William Yuan]

Re: Re : CFC promoting chess in Canada ?

In your profile, in response to the question "Do you play chess" it says, "GM".

Pretty well every single web robot/spammer has the same entry. And no one else. Is that clear enough?

Hi Nigel,

I think Gary plays chess and he has a talented son is Under 10 section also plays chess well, whose rating is around 1800+.

William

[Nigel Hanrahan]

Re: Re : CFC promoting chess in Canada ?

HI William:

Thanks. yes, Felix has pointed out that what seemed to me like a signature for a bot may have actually been an anti-bot measure. Shoulda read the fine print more carefully, or something. Cheers.