The ECF President

[Geoff Chandler]

And a really good 5 page interview with C.J. in the latest CHESS.

(no 4NCL games - I've won!)

[Alan Ruffle]

Dear All

I am pleased to endorse everything Ernie has said about Cjdemooi but I suggest that the role of President should be limited to one year.

CJ has led English chess magnificently during his tenure travelling many miles and meeting some high profile people in his quest, this should be recognised in some way and he should be allowed to step down with out suffering burn out and someone new allowed to take over.

I refer to the conversational exchange between Ernie Lazenby and John Paines I am concerned that Ernie has been to polite to make the point that its not personalities that are the problem its the slow conduct of Management and Council meetings that are the bain of progress within our game.

This forum is the place for on going democratic debate, except for the AGM, with special strings for management board members with special resposibilities, OMOV should be employed and our professional colleagues should be clearly invited to become members of the ECF if they aren't already i.e. ECF office staff, coaches, junior organisers, bookstall proprietors, newspaper columnists,grading officers, and proffesional players further invited to attend the AGM

During casual conversations along these lines one name keeps coming up as a recommendation for the Presidency i.e. Mr. Malcolm Pein.

Alan Ruffle

[Michele Clack]

I am pleased to endorse everything Ernie has said about Cjdemooi but I suggest that the role of President should be limited to one year.

I don't agree with this at all CJ has put in all the groundwork and no doubt now has a good idea of the current state of the ECF and Chess in general. I think he has a lot more to give, especially in terms of publicity, and it would be a terrible waste to lose him now. One year is nowhere near enough to master a brief let alone make all the contribution that a talented individual like CJ is capable of. I am sure that there will be plenty of people willing to propose him.

[johnmcbride]

I agree, if you do a good job, why get replaced with someone who may, or not be any better.

Can you imagine saying that a Prime Minister has one year and having a general election every year. Or a company had to have a new boss each year.

One year is not enough time to even get your feet under the table. Time would be wasted each year while the new person gets to grips with the job and you would lose talent just for the sake of it.

[Alan Ruffle]

Noted Ernie - Likewise

Professional and amateur players rub shoulders at all levels of our game, I can not see why a player with declared professional interests can not be President, a year is ample time for an individual to hold such a high profile position seeking to raise the image of chess in their own personal way.

Throughout the 'How am I doing thread' there is lots of advice about what CJ can do for us but only one response to CJ's suggestion that this is a team effort.

Thank you to Cynthia for all her years of dedication to the office and to 'Chess Moves' is this an opportunity to replace her with someone like Mr. Pein who is a proven manager, chess player and writer.

With regard to CJ's visit to Blackpool, I accept all the valuable points made, I suggest however that it might be more convenient and practical to CJ to arrange a time and place for people to meet him at a congress, this could be advertised on the entry form and all other chess outlets, direct invitations could be sent to all the local leagues and chess officials in the area, questions could be asked in advance and they and the answers could be shown on a dedicated thread on this forum.

Cheers

Alan Ruffle

[Malcolm Pein]

Hi Alan

I feel, irrespective of my attributes for the job or any other, that 1 year is not enough for anyone to achieve all they would want to.
Furthermore having a President with both a public profile as well a love of chess is the best possible combination. I'd be minded to let CJ carry on for as long as he feels motivated. There is 10+ years of stagnation to be overcome and he is making excellent progress although more dead wood needs to be cleared and restructuring undertaken.

Ernie's point re conflicts of interest (like nearly all his contributions) is sound and well made. One can always walk out of the room or otherwise be excluded from the discussion but I would never want to allow someone to even make the accusation. Hence I would only ever consider a non executive role if time ever permitted. Currently I have the new charity, Chess and Bridge, the chess column, CHESS Magazine, London Chess Classic 2010 and the WCC final 2012 on my plate. It's quite enuff.

Cheers

Malcolm

[Alan Ruffle]

Dear Malcolm

I wish to emphasize that I am only reporting what I have found, my concern is that the excellent CJ could suffer from burn out and I thought it best that you knew you had a ground swell of support, I believe a regular turnover of such a high profile position is best for all.

With regard to 2012, I have read some where about the current FIDE President being misquoted in that he wants the World Championship to be played at the same time as the Olympic games, I think he is correct and there is no misquote, this is a splendid opportunity to show our game off on the Olympic stage and in particular to show that not only should we be recognized as an Olympic game but that we deserve government recognition as a sport.

Why London ? Birmingham is seeking to become recognized as a city of culture, home of the National Exhibition Centre, National Indoor arena, The worlds best symphony hall it has hosted a G8 conference and been visited by President Clinton. The American and the Jamaican Olympic teams will be camped here. The Town Hall having been closed for the last fourty years has been completely revamped at a cost of millions of pounds it has hosted some very serious sporting and cultural events, It would be an ideal venue for the World Chess Championships. Birmingham would love it and in view of that and wearing my ECF hat you might get it cheap.

Cheers

Alan Ruffle

[Alex Holowczak]

Why London ? Birmingham is seeking to become recognized as a city of culture, home of the National Exhibition Centre, National Indoor arena, The worlds best symphony hall it has hosted a G8 conference and been visited by President Clinton. The American and the Jamaican Olympic teams will be camped here. The Town Hall having been closed for the last fourty years has been completely revamped at a cost of millions of pounds it has hosted some very serious sporting and cultural events, It would be an ideal venue for the World Chess Championships. Birmingham would love it and in view of that and wearing my ECF hat you might get it cheap.

The Birmingham Town Hall is a very impressive venue, and would be ideal for something like the World Championship. As would its neighbours, the Symphony Hall and ICC. The NEC would be convenient given Birmingham International Airport and Birmingham International railway station (which has services to London Euston, and has a direct link to the nationwide services provided at Birmingham New Street) are just over the road.

However, what does Birmingham have to offer on a chess level? Birmingham doesn't have a Congress specifically in its own name (the League has a Rapidplay and that's it). I gather there used to be a Birmingham Open, which no longer exists. It has no FIDE-rated events at all (not even the wider Midlands area can boast FIDE-rated chess until you get to Leicester). The second city is lagging way behind its English rivals in terms of the range, quantity and quality of events it hosts.

Birmingham would love it? Citation needed!

Rather like the Olympics, the World Championship will probably always be a London-only thing in the UK. But holding a FIDE-rated event in a similar vein to the London Chess Classic somewhere around here would be a major improvement.

[David Pardoe]

I`ve returned this comment because it does address multiple points raised in this thread....
CJ rules ok...hopefully well supported by the ECF/BCF team. It might be helpful to keep a good arms length from the web side. This can be a very demanding media, and maybe not a bad idea to keep a moderately lowish profile, least you get bombarded with all sorts of demands, which can be bamboozling. But maybe we need the ECF office to take a role in monitoring that and responding to any comments as appropriate. Maybe also better not to go for `instant response` approach. Lets have some considered reflection, where we take time to reach the correct decisions. Less knee jerk politics.

Re the Olympics....not sure that running this in parallel with the World Chess Olympiads would be good. It might get eclipsed by the main Olympic coverage.
Birmingham...fine, I suppose. Holding everything in London is probably not good. Lets share things around.

Also, whats the big deal about FIDE rating. Im not convinced we need to chase that `prize`. So long as a reasonable conversion formula exists with the ECF ratings, that seems fine.


Please note... the last comment can be addressed on the `FIDE Ratings` thread....
The first comment tries to address Ernie`s original question.. ie, we dont need to keep switching our President, thats bad administration if he`s doing ok (which he seems to). But anything to stop potential `burnout` we need to be wary of.
Although maybe CJ is not an overkill webman.... and maybe some of the issues in chess are not exactly straightforward to either understand or resolve.
One case in point was raised by AR recently, namely updating and improving the County competitions.
Rome was not built in a day.

[Carl Hibbard]

I`ve returned this comment because it does address multiple points raised in this thread....

Yes that was me, sorry David your post should have been split 50/50 on this one

[Roger de Coverly]

Re the Olympics....not sure that running this in parallel with the World Chess Olympiads would be good. It might get eclipsed by the main Olympic coverage.

As regards the chess Olympiad, this is determined four years before the event. The 2012 event is going to be in Istanbul. Contenders for 2014 are Tromso in Norway and Varna in Bulgaria. You also need sponsors to cover the million pounds or more needed to stage this event.

[Alan Ruffle]

Dear All

I do not know and I have never met Mr. Malcolm Pein, I hope I have not embarrassed him in any way by my use of his name, I am pleased and grateful that he is at the forefront of the organisation of the World Chess Championships in 2012 in London just prior to the Olympic games.

Have we given up on our quest to have chess recognised as a sport, is FIDE interested in having chess recognised as an Olympic game ?

Can we not unilaterally organise a tournament to clash with the Olympic games, I wonder if Gary Kasparov would be interested in being President of an Olympic Games Chess Committee, he might even be interested in coming out of retirement to play on the grounds that it is the only title he has not got and of course it all helps with his political ambitions.

A city like Birmingham side lined because of London bias might be seriously interested in hosting such a World class event and it is a formula that could be used at any other Olympic games, recognised as a sport or not.

Alan Ruffle

[Roger de Coverly]

Can we not unilaterally organise a tournament to clash with the Olympic games, I wonder if Gary Kasparov would be interested in being President of an Olympic Games Chess Committee,

I think you will find there's a law against it. The IOC insists that host nations set up laws which prevent ambush marketing. In other words events or businesses with olympic in their title are given a hard time by lawyers.

[Sean Hewitt]

Can we not unilaterally organise a tournament to clash with the Olympic games, I wonder if Gary Kasparov would be interested in being President of an Olympic Games Chess Committee,

I think you will find there's a law against it. The IOC insists that host nations set up laws which prevent ambush marketing. In other words events or businesses with olympic in their title are given a hard time by lawyers.

A minor obstacle is that you would need to lay your hands on a couple of million quid to pull it off.

[Gareth Harley-Yeo]

Middlesbrough congress 16-18th July 2010. CJ arrived Sunday morning , spoke to the competitors before round 5 and left mid afternoon. He spent quite a bit of time being photographed with the juniors, engaged in conversation and took an interest in games being played.
Our President certainly moves around the country supporting congress's and in this case a new congress on the circuit. His presence was well received by the organisers and competitiors.

On behalf of the organiser I thank CJ for giving of his time to attend the congress.

That explains why he wasnt in Chepstow Congress to hand me my winner's cheque!