ECF Vacancies

[LawrenceCooper]

Vacancies

The English Chess Federation (ECF) is seeking to appoint a number of officers as shown below. Reasonable expenses incurred in fulfilling the duties of the post will be reimbursed. Anyone wishing to discuss these posts should contact the ECF Office or the listed contact.

International Ratings Officer (IRO)

Applications are sought for this important post, to start immediately. Applications should be made by 18th March 2012 to: Chris Majer, Manager of Grading and Rating –
[email protected]

General view of the work involved for the ECF IRO

Each Federation is expected to nominate a person who is the go-between for the Federation and FIDE in relation to rating and related matters. These “related matters” include:
• All work associated with preparation and submission of FIDE title claims; this includes the checking of validity of the title norm certificates.
• Advising players, arbiters, organisers and others concerned of their target performances required by FIDE regulations to achieve title norms and titles.
• Advising players and organisers on rating enquiries: dealing with such enquiries that arise; this will require a thorough understanding of the operation of the FIDE Rating System.
• The maintenance of a schedule of events run under the auspices of ECF and registered as FIDE rated events: notification of registered events to FIDE following event organisers’ requests.
• The drafting of all invoices for ECF Secretariat to send to event organisers showing the extent of their liability for rating fees.
• The maintenance of part rating lists publishing this list on the web and the distribution of this information and its implications to event organisers on request.
• The submission of rating reports and any title norm certificates to FIDE for every rated event under the umbrella of the ECF.
• Liaising with events to enforce that they enforce the regulation that all players in FIDE rated events are members of a national federation.

Further details of FIDE rating and title regulations can be found at: http://www.fide.com/info/handbook?id=10&view=category

The IRO reports to the ECF Manager of Grading and Rating and should keep him informed of progress, issues, etc. The IRO will also be required to liaise with the International Director on title and rating aspects and consideration of any proposed changes.

Controller, Counties Rapidplay Championships

The ECF is looking for an ambitious organiser who would like to take on the Counties Rapidplay Championships and reinvent them from 2012-13 onwards. (The 2011-12 event is being organised by the SCCU)

Proposals should be sent to the Director of Home Chess on [email protected]

Strategic Planning Officer (SPO)

The tasks of the SPO are to draft an annual Business Plan, Long-Term Strategic Plan and Achievement Report. In practice, when I carried out the role, I had an open invitation to attend Board and Council meetings as part of the process of understanding what the Federation was trying to achieve and the issues confronting it. It was excellent preparation for my current role. If you have an interest in shaping the future of English chess and can produce clear, well thought-out documents, this may be the role for you. Reports to the Chief Executive. Email enquiries may be addressed to – [email protected]

Alternate Directors

The Board considers that it is desirable for each executive director to have a named “Alternate”. These persons are kept informed of Board developments, with a particular eye to being able to stand in for their respective director in the event of illness or absence (e.g. holidays). In the absence of the main director, the Alternate is entitled to attend Board meetings and vote on behalf of the main director. Currently, Alternate Directors are sought in the following areas:

• Chief Executive
• International Chess
• Marketing
• Finance

Email enquiries may be addressed to – [email protected]

[John Upham]

The web site lists the following positions as being vacant:

Patrons – no current appointments
Basic Junior Member Rep
Manager of Coaches (International)
Manager of Prisons Chess
Manager of Arbiters
Manager of ICT (this is normally vacant)
Editor, Yearbook
Editor, ChessMoves
Strategic Planning Officer
International Rating Officer
Controller, Counties Rapidplay Championships
Rapidplay
The ICT Committee

Is the board seeking persons for all of these or just a select few?

[LawrenceCooper]

The web site lists the following positions as being vacant:

Patrons – no current appointments
Basic Junior Member Rep
Manager of Coaches (International)
Manager of Prisons Chess
Manager of Arbiters
Manager of ICT (this is normally vacant)
Editor, Yearbook
Editor, ChessMoves
Strategic Planning Officer
International Rating Officer
Controller, Counties Rapidplay Championships
Rapidplay
The ICT Committee

Is the board seeking persons for all of these or just a select few?

All of them as far as I know. The IRO vacancy has some urgency as there is an event outstanding that needs to be submitted for rating as well as events in the near future.

[Roger de Coverly]

The IRO vacancy has some urgency as there is an event outstanding that needs to be submitted for rating as well as events in the near future.

Has there been another internal row? It would be normal for an office holder with a key function to continue until either there was no outstanding work, or an agreed handover point to a successor. Andrew Martin, for example, continued his coaching position between declaring a desire to stand down and his successor taking over.

[John Upham]

I am confident all will be revealed in the fullness of time.

Was there a disagreement between the IRO and any organisers of FIDE rated events?

[Ian Thompson]

The web site lists the following positions as being vacant:
...
Editor, Yearbook

What does this mean for production of the 2012 Yearbook? Should it not have been published by now?

[John Upham]

The web site lists the following positions as being vacant:
...
Editor, Yearbook

What does this mean for production of the 2012 Yearbook? Should it not have been published by now?

I doubt if it is significant. As far as I know, the Office staff ghost the bulk of the yearbook.

[Roger de Coverly]

Was there a disagreement between the IRO and any organisers of FIDE rated events?

We could recall the row between e2e4 and the ECF about whether a player cross-paired between two FIDE rated sections should count as one person or two for the billing of the ECF to the event of the ECF's charges for international rating. But that one was resolved eighteen months ago.

http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php ... O&start=25

(edit)

Here's FIDE's list of expected submissions from the ECF for the 1st May list. You can deduce the outstanding ones from whether the event has taken place yet.
http://ratings.fide.com/tournament_list ... ountry=ENG

One of the Brighton tournaments has been left stranded, all the others were included in the March list. (/edit)

[Jonathan Bryant]

The web site lists the following positions as being vacant:

...
Manager of Prisons Chess
....

Is this position really vacant? I recall it being reported that it had been filled.

[Ernie Lazenby]

Perhaps the reason why our President appears to be unavailable to make any public comments is because hes taken on all the vacant positions Is the board now irrelevant?

[Roger de Coverly]

A well known blogger, who wrote a promotional article for ChessBase about e2e4 and the Brighton event now comments:-
http://stevegiddinschessblog.blogspot.c ... -gets.html

[IM Jack Rudd]

A well known blogger, who wrote a promotional article for ChessBase about e2e4 and the Brighton event now comments:-
http://stevegiddinschessblog.blogspot.c ... -gets.html

...and follows this up with a rather more detailed post.

[Roger de Coverly]

I am confident all will be revealed in the fullness of time.

Was there a disagreement between the IRO and any organisers of FIDE rated events?

Steve Giddins now reveals the story
http://stevegiddinschessblog.blogspot.c ... ation.html

Whilst he says

I will not bore you with the technical details of the dispute, but in essence, the issue is whether Hewitt's interpretation of the rating rules is correct or not. The rules are silent on the specific issue concerned, so Hewitt chose an interpretation which looks plausible, and which also has the side-effect of saving him a small amount of money (barely £30), since it results in the rating fees paid to FIDE for the events being lower than they would otherwise be.

The Brighton events were nominally ten player all play alls. It appears they had a few more players than they needed but not enough to run an extra section. So at least one of the sections was upgraded to have 12 players. You could risk running this as a Swiss, but they didn't. In some manner, they pre-announced pairings, but you only played 9 of the possible 11 opponents. Is it an All Play All or a Swiss? For reasons best known to FIDE, it makes a difference to the amount you have to pay FIDE to get it rated, the APA costing more. In turn this affects, in theory at least, the amount which the ECF will charge an English organiser to recoup its costs.

Oddly enough, one of the events with 12 players, which was won by a club colleague, has already been rated by FIDE, but a conventional 10 player APA hasn't.

The Major B with twelve players has been rated, the Challengers B with ten has not.

The players in Major B have marginally been affected by rating it as a Swiss. The usual rule for a Swiss that only games against rated players count has been applied, whereas in an APA, all games count provided the players without ratings make at least 1/9. I suspect there were at most, only two or perhaps three players in the twelve player events without ratings, so they could have been paired against nine rated opponents.

(edit)
The Brighton tournaments already rated are here
http://ratings.fide.com/tournament_list ... 2012-03-01

The Challengers A, Major A and Major B have been classified as Swiss. In the case of Challengers A, it would be because someone withdrew. FIDE's interpretation appears the very reasonable one that it's only a "Round Robin" if everyone plays everyone else. So if someone withdraws or if you only play 9 rounds of a possible 11, then it's a Swiss by default as the only other option. Whilst there's a financial difference, there's a rating process difference as well, that the Round Robin approach includes games between unrated players and between rated and unrated in the rating calculations. (/edit)

[David Sedgwick]

FIDE's interpretation appears the very reasonable one that it's only a "Round Robin" if everyone plays everyone else. So if someone withdraws or if you only play 9 rounds of a possible 11, then it's a Swiss by default as the only other option. Whilst there's a financial difference, there's a rating process difference as well, that the Round Robin approach includes games between unrated players and between rated and unrated in the rating calculations.

The problem is that the financial difference can be very considerable, thus making it attractive to organisers for a game or games to be defaulted.

Kramnik was ill for the last round of the 2010 London Chess Classic, but managed to play Anand nonetheless. The ECF charge to the Classic was £300, of which €300 was actually payable to FIDE.

Had Kramnik not risen from his sickbed, the ECF charge would have been £12, of which €8 would have been payable to FIDE.

[Roger de Coverly]

The problem is that the financial difference can be very considerable, thus making it attractive to organisers for a game or games to be defaulted.

Regulation 12.2

12.2

The registration fee is calculated on the following basis:
Tournaments of an average rating of up to 2300 50 Euro
Tournaments of an average rating of 2301 - 2400 100 Euro
Tournaments of an average rating of 2401 - 2500 150 Euro
Tournaments of an average rating of 2501 - 2600:200 Euro
Tournaments of an average rating above 2601 300 Euro

Swiss Tournaments: Number of players multiplied by 1 Euro
Team Tournaments: 1 Euro per player, no maximum
Matches: according to category above.
Scheveningen Tournaments: shall be charged as team event.

So the 12 player "Swiss" would have been 50 Euros v 12 Euros.

There's an issue for the ECF Council. What can it do to prevent disputes over 38 Euros rampaging out of control?