New (and first) Welsh Grandmaster

[Roger de Coverly]

This doesn't seem to have been newsworthy

https://ratings.fide.com/fedchange.phtml?year=2015
and
http://chessimprover.com/how-to-raise-the-finance/

Ray Keene as CEO or Commercial Director? As Nigel says, unlikely.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

GM Nigel Davies transferring from ENG to WLS (England to Wales).

In other news:

John Dempsey (formerly Scotland) transfers to Virgin Islands to become their 7th-best player.
Easwar Dhruv (formerly India) transfers to England.
Tomoki Ito (formerly England) transfers to Japan.
Philip Thomas (formerly Scotland) transfers to England.
David Tomboline (formerly England) transfers to Wales.
Three Spain players transfer to Ireland.
A Greece player transferred to Scotland.
A France player transferred to Wales.

And along with Nigel Davies, four other GMs switched allegiance:

Georgian GM Levan Aroshidze switched to Spain.
Russian GM Evgeny Bareev switched to Canada (this is genuine news - he is now the Canadian number 1 player).
Italian GM Fabiano Caruana switched to the USA (though this is old news now).
Turkish GM Mikhail Gurevich switched to Belgium (and is now the second-ranked active player).

Gurevich, to be fair, is an ex-Soviet player who lived in Belgium from 1991 to 2005.

[Michael Farthing]

I noticed the bittersweet (not sure it's quite the right word) transfer of two players from Syria to Finland.

[Mick Norris]

Bareev, after a long period of inactivity, has started playing again too

[Gareth T Ellis]

Roger de Coverly » Wed Oct 21, 2015 2:10 pm

This doesn't seem to have been newsworthy

Why should it be, until he's playing again or involved with helping to promote chess especially in Wales.

[Michael Farthing]

I've played him in the last month...

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Thread should be about Welsh chess, but having Googled some of the stuff about Bareev moving to Canada (Toronto), here is a flavour of what that sort of things can do, and the excitement it can generate:

http://chess.ca/newsfeed/node/660
http://chess.ca/newsfeed/node/530

Interesting seeing how chess is organised in Canada...

[Gareth T Ellis]

Michael Farthing » Wed Oct 21, 2015 3:02 pm

I've played him in the last month...

Was it FIDE rated ?

[Tim Harding]

GM Nigel Davies transferring from ENG to WLS (England to Wales).

In other news:

...
Three Spain players transfer to Ireland.

These are schoolkids whose family lives here and their family wanted them to go to the recent junior tournament in Croatia. I hear the Irish Chess Union had to pay FIDE loadsamoney so they could switch.

[Michael Farthing]

[In answer to Gareth}

I think not.. [There was no clock handy and Nigel neglected to score the game. He was a bit distracted and kept wandering away to another 20 boards or so].

[Gareth T Ellis]

Wales is currently 84th in FIDE rankings, that should change to nearer 75th once Nigel is active in their ratings again, plus with the young up and coming players it could get even better.

Still a long way to go but heading in the right direction.

[Mick Norris]

[In answer to Gareth}

I think not.. [There was no clock handy and Nigel neglected to score the game. He was a bit distracted and kept wandering away to another 20 boards or so].

He did that when I played him too

How did you do?

[Michael Farthing]

How did you do?

Well that's a silly question. (Though two of my clubmates did draw!)

[Alistair Campbell]

There are some curiosities and confusions here.

First the (my) confusions.

As far as I can see (and I think I've commented on this before, without ever getting it straight in my head) there are 3 types of fee:

• A notification fee of €250 (presumably usually paid by the player to FIDE)
• A transfer fee (designed to accelerate full eligibility to represent the new federation – presumably payable to FIDE)
• A compensation fee (payable from the new federation to the old federation in circumstances I’m not clear about).

I get the notification fee. That is, I understand it, I don’t get any money .

The transfer fee depends on 3 things – whether the player has represented his/her old federation in a “FIDE event” (which can include continental junior tournaments, club competitions and so on) in the last 5 years, whether they are titled, and their length of residence in the new federation.

Taking John Dempsey as an example, he hasn’t represented SCO in the last 5 years so would be eligible for ISV in 12 months, sooner if he pays the transfer fee. Should I assume that the “length of residency” commences on his transfer date (i.e. is not the same as actual residency)? In other words, to be eligible for representative purposes in the first year of the waiting period higher payments apply (regardless of whether it is a one or two year waiting period). For the Spanish/Irish kids, it looks like €1500 is the cost of allowing them to participate in Croatia this year rather than next.

Does the compensation fee apply over and above the transfer fee? (I realise that it can be waived). Does this apply to all transfers, or only those where accelerated eligibility is sought? The rules refer to residence (which must make it awkward if the player is not actually resident in the new federation). Also, FIDE Rule B.04.6.4 seems to reset the two year clock to the last date of representation of the old federation (which is reasonable) but it states this in the context of the application (and regardless of whether the player was actually resident in the new federation at that time).

Having said that, I appear to understand the rules better than when I last looked – have they been rewritten?

Anyway, enough pedantry (if such a thing were possible ).

Going back to John, I see he must be in with a shout of going to the next Olympiad especially since Master Ghazarian has no sooner switched from USA to ISV than he’s switched back again. Good luck to John, but his citizenship is classified as “ENG”. I know there are several classes of UK Citizenship but English is not one of them AFAIK. Perhaps “UK” as applied to GM Davies would be more appropriate.

I note (without further comment) that Phil Thomas has become “ENG”

The Greek lad has been in Edinburgh for a few years – presumably a Scot moving to the Edinburgh of the South may not be due the notification fee to change federations as there would be a fair chance that they hadn’t played any FIDE rated games in the first place…

[Tim Harding]

As far as I can see (and I think I've commented on this before, without ever getting it straight in my head) there are 3 types of fee:

• A notification fee of €250 (presumably usually paid by the player to FIDE)
• A transfer fee (designed to accelerate full eligibility to represent the new federation – presumably payable to FIDE)
• A compensation fee (payable from the new federation to the old federation in circumstances I’m not clear about).

How much of this cash goes into Kirsan's numbered Swiss slush fund?

Does Michel Platini get any of it?