Andrew Paulson -- Candidacy for ECF President

Debate directly related to English Chess Federation matters.
Roger de Coverly
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Re: Andrew Paulson -- Candidacy for ECF President

Post by Roger de Coverly » Fri Sep 20, 2013 3:55 pm

Mick Norris wrote: The ECF proposition, therefore, would be for ECF events - the national teams, including juniors and seniors, the Grand Prix, the County Championships, National Club etc - even the British would be problematic, although you could argue it should be replaced by an English Championship
But if you read the AP election address, the word ALL is shouted. It's not qualified that the sale of rights relates only to ECF property.

Roger de Coverly
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Re: Andrew Paulson -- Candidacy for ECF President

Post by Roger de Coverly » Fri Sep 20, 2013 4:03 pm

Mick Norris wrote:The ECF can't force any events to take an overall sponsor
I think they can. A ruthlessly commercial ECF would insist that all events scheduled to be graded or rated should pre-register with the ECF. Part of the conditions for event registration would be that certain rights are signed over to the ECF.

In the unlikely event that the ECF raises any money in this manner, distribution of the proceeds gives power of patronage to those making those decisions, particularly if voting rights remain in the hands of organisations.

Richard Bates
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Re: Andrew Paulson -- Candidacy for ECF President

Post by Richard Bates » Fri Sep 20, 2013 6:45 pm

To be fair i specifically raised this issue directly yesterday in my post (10.28pm) when i questioned:
Do you actually mean English chess in it's totality, or is that just an ideal when what you really mean is "English chess, restricted to that part of it that has decided to sign up"?
Which i think Mr Paulson indirectly replied to when responding to Roger elsewhere when he wrote:
My position, which is a theory to be proven, is that by aggregating the entire (willing to be aggregated) chess world in England, one achieves significant audience numbers which make an 'investment' in sponsorship by a brand profitable.
So he is aiming to offer a bit more than existing events under the ECF control, but recognises that this will require willing partners from outside. Of course many will take the view that gaining these willing partners to the extent that they form a critical mass to make the theory remotely possible for testing, let alone proving, is somewhat optimistic. Not least because the vast bulk of English chess is not particularly in need of cash to fulfill their (amateur) purposes. That is not the same as saying that injections of cash wouldn't significantly enhance English chess, but rather that the enhancement would be in areas which currently barely exist eg. International tournaments etc.

PeterFarr
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Re: Andrew Paulson -- Candidacy for ECF President

Post by PeterFarr » Fri Sep 20, 2013 7:10 pm

Agree with that. Also the LTA (tennis) model with Aegon that Andrew mentioned as a model does allow room for other sponsors / "partners" behind the lead partner - e.g. BNP Paribas Classic, and Wimbledon, obviously.

Frankly, if English chess ever has the problem of competing sponsors clashing, we should all declare happy days.

Stewart Reuben
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Re: Andrew Paulson -- Candidacy for ECF President

Post by Stewart Reuben » Fri Sep 20, 2013 9:59 pm

I am in Minsk and only came across this interest string this evening.

Did anybody do anything about contacting Makro and Nigel Freeman for their take on the quality of the bid by Andrew Paulson to become ECF President? Nigel is a particularly good choice as he was born and bred in England.
Makro never responds to emails. But the FIDE Congress finishes before the ECF AGM.
Another person might be Israel Gelfer. I don't know how much, if at all, he has been involved with Agon. He spends quite a lot of time in Engand.
I wouldn't expect a valuable response from Kirsan; that is neither a reflection on the value of the query, nor on him.
If David Jarrett is at all involved, he would have a very valuable opinion.

Have no doubt. There is no way anybody could have imitated so accurately the style of the responses from Andrew Paulson.

I think (but could be wrong) this is the first time Council have ever been offered the choice of two candidates for President. The BCF certainly shopped around for candidates before I became Chairman. Eventually Steve Davis became President.
So it is refreshing that we have a choice bteween two such different candidates.

Jonathan Rogers
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Re: Andrew Paulson -- Candidacy for ECF President

Post by Jonathan Rogers » Fri Sep 20, 2013 10:33 pm

It is far from unknown to have a Presidential election. Gerry Walsh beat some Northern guy put up by Martin Regan in 2006 (I think) and CJ had to beat an unknown candidate in 2009, who was (fairly or not) seen to be a member of the ruling clique who stepped forward when Gerry Walsh stepped down.

Stewart is the first to have shown the slightest interest in approaching anyone from FIDE to talk about AGON's performance (note, not about the quality of AP's bid in general). I will only do it if there is a significant level of interest - I won't waste anyone's time if the election is clearly to be decided on AP's vision (or delusion, depending on one's perspective) for English chess rather than his broader track record in delivering on promises.

John Philpott

Re: Andrew Paulson -- Candidacy for ECF President

Post by John Philpott » Fri Sep 20, 2013 11:17 pm

Jonathan Rogers wrote:
Gerry Walsh beat some Northern guy put up by Martin Regan in 2006 (I think) and CJ had to beat an "unknown candidate" in 2009, who was (fairly or not) seen to be a member of the ruling clique who stepped forward when Gerry Walsh stepped down.
The "Northern Guy" was Brian Driscoll (Walsh 145, Driscoll 79, none of the above 7) and the unknown candidate Jon Paines (de Mooi 164, Paines 34) who was a member of the Governance Committee and subsequently became the first Non-Executive Chairman. On the basis of nominations at the deadline there should, of course, also have been a contested election for President in 2012.

In the BCF days I can remember Alan Martin as the incumbent President being challenged by Bruce Birchall.

David Robertson

Re: Andrew Paulson -- Candidacy for ECF President

Post by David Robertson » Fri Sep 20, 2013 11:30 pm

Andrew Poulson v. Bruce Birchall? Now that's a show worth buying tickets for.

John McKenna

Re: Andrew Paulson -- Candidacy for ECF President

Post by John McKenna » Fri Sep 20, 2013 11:39 pm

This morning I posted the text below -
John McKenna >I am assuming that you are both 'Republicans'.<

Andrew Paulson >Are you kidding? In U.S. elections, I have only voted for Clinton and Obama. Have donated tons of money to Obama's campaigns. I left the U.S. in 1981 because Reagan had just been elected. You cut me to the quick.<

Thanks for your forthright answers to my questions above.

You may feel "cut to the quick" (a term that may arise from fencing) but you said "no holds barred" when you entered the ring.
Are we wrestling or boxing? On this forum I have likened you to World Heavy Champ James J. Braddock - the Cinderella Man.
Nobody expected him to challenge for the title let alone win it but he did and he was a real champion of the common man.

To be honest I am not a great fan of America - I agree with Freud, who said it is a great mistake - it hung Great Britain out to dry in two World Wars until it became convenient to "enter the fray(s)" and it made us pay (in war loans) for the privilege. I am not against individual Americans but your culture is no longer compatible with European ones, and perhaps never really was, since you are all emigrants (edit: apologies to the few native North Americans still living and not to forget those South Americans who have entered the US) from this continent and left in order to have a different way of life. Now America is all powerful and is exporting its culture around the globe. It is open season in the ECF elections (and this country in general is wide open to the world) and you have thrown your hat into the ring. I have no vote but I do have Gold membership and hence two representatives who have. I should probably ask what they are thinking of doing with those votes as this election could be close.

Got your question Ben. My answer is - I care.
I stand by everything I wrote, it is my person opinion.
But, my references to the World Wars and emigrants, etc. were a bit below the belt. For those I apologise.

There are a couple of other points I would like to try to clarify -

I used 'Republican' and 'Democrat' in an earlier post to differentiate between those officials in the ECF and members of Council who are there in a kind of Senatorial patrician sense (e.g. they may be/have been instrumental in setting up and running large prestigious chess events) and those there in a kind of Tribune of the plebs sense (e.g. they may have risen to office through the club/league/union route). Of course, Andrew Paulson (and Ben Purton) did not know that and took it to be a direct reference to American politics, which it was not intended to be. (My bad, as they say in the US these days.) To make Mr. Paulson declare his party-political affiliations was not what I was seeking but he did so and I don't see that there is any harm done - apart from the 'cut' he felt due to misunderstanding that I was actually assuming that he and Phil Ehr were real Republicans. I was, however, happy to hear that Mr. Paulson is a Democrat supporter, though I wonder if he quite appreciates that places him somewhere to the right of many mainstream centre-right British and European political party supporters.

That leads to my other point - an incompatibility, as I see it, between American and European culture and values. Perhaps I can best illustrate this with the word socialism - a word that in America seems to have replaced the word communism as a lesser of two evils - since the fall of one evil empire, namely, the Soviet Union and the conversion of another, the communist People's Republic of China into the proto-capitalist PRC. Naturally, the UK is probably now the least 'socialist' state in Western Europe (though still not without large bits of socialist infrastructure left in place since Margaret Thatcher began to dismantle it). We all know that Mr Paulson has done business in Russia so he must be familiar with 'communism' or the remnants of it there. A great many American businesses and businessmen went there, and to other Eastern European countries after the collapse of communism, like missionaries preaching the benefits of individualism and private capitalism. (They are doing the same in China, too, and if they could get into Cuba & North Korea they'd complete their world crusade against communism. Maybe that will be a good thing in many respects but the people of those countries will pay a price - some will gain, but many will lose as ordinary Russians did. Any form of militant Islamic Republic is already on the list for toppling or converting as we have already seen. And, European socialism - the lesser evil - is being culturally subverted and economically undermined. The UK is quite safe though in its role as Airstrip 3, having been replaced by South Korea as Airstrip 1 and Japan as Airstrip 2.)

Now all that may not seem to have much to do with the ECF but I don't think you can separate chess from life. Of course, chess and its 'political' side can be used by some to escape from the real world for a while but there is no avoiding reality for most of us. I have nothing against Mr Paulson the man, or any other individual man, woman or child, but I am, sorry to say, somewhat wary of American businessmen. I am suddenly reminded of the Quiet American by Graham Greene, but recall that both its American and British protagonist behaved badly (in the context of a third country racked by civil war). I don't need to be reminded that Great Britain tried to strangle the American Republic with the umbilical cord when the colonists had the termerity to cut it and that GB burned the Whitehouse and other public buildings of Washington in 1812.

Finally, I wish Mr Paulson well (I also quite understand that there are people like Ben Purton who have chosen to embrace Americanism and wish him well also) and hope he returns to answer other people's questions. I am satisfied with his answers to mine and will not be asking him any more.

(With apologies to David Robertson above for dumping this so soon after his terse and enigmatic post.)
Last edited by John McKenna on Fri Sep 20, 2013 11:56 pm, edited 3 times in total.

Richard James
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Re: Andrew Paulson -- Candidacy for ECF President

Post by Richard James » Fri Sep 20, 2013 11:42 pm

David Robertson wrote:Andrew Poulson v. Bruce Birchall? Now that's a show worth buying tickets for.
Sadly it's not an option. It certainly would have been worth buying tickets for, though. Anyone who knew Bruce would understand why.

Roger de Coverly
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Re: Andrew Paulson -- Candidacy for ECF President

Post by Roger de Coverly » Sat Sep 21, 2013 12:26 am

Richard James wrote: Anyone who knew Bruce would understand why.
Bruce was someone you would least want to see on an Internet forum or discussion group. Curiously he never seemed to have mastered the technology to get involved.

Andrew Paulson
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Re: Andrew Paulson -- Candidacy for ECF President

Post by Andrew Paulson » Sat Sep 21, 2013 12:32 am

John Upham wrote:Andrew,

Welcome to the Forum/Arena!

The ECF does not currently have a Press Officer or a Director of Communications type role.

It would also appear not to have meaningful sanctions for those proven to have cheated in OTB chess sanctioned by itself.

Do you feel these omissions (IMHO) deserve to be addressed?

J.
John, happy to try to answer your question, but give me more context. In the case of the first, I think that professional PR support would be very valuable for ECF to offer to chess events in England. In the case of the second, I know that this is an active topic inside FIDE, that it requires conformity with the European Human Rights Law, and I believe that to the extent possible there should be zero tolerance on cheating among adults, and some sort of rehabilitative course for a junior who cheats. Did you expect some sort of other answer? However, the reality is that my position on this is a personal one and has very little relevance to the Presidency of the ECF. It is a technical decision that must be made corporately.

Andrew Paulson
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Re: Andrew Paulson -- Candidacy for ECF President

Post by Andrew Paulson » Sat Sep 21, 2013 12:34 am

Roger de Coverly wrote:
Mick Norris wrote: The ECF proposition, therefore, would be for ECF events - the national teams, including juniors and seniors, the Grand Prix, the County Championships, National Club etc - even the British would be problematic, although you could argue it should be replaced by an English Championship
But if you read the AP election address, the word ALL is shouted. It's not qualified that the sale of rights relates only to ECF property.
You're right that I shouted 'all'. But I would underline that this is an ideal. The plan would be entirely opt-in!

Roger de Coverly
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Re: Andrew Paulson -- Candidacy for ECF President

Post by Roger de Coverly » Sat Sep 21, 2013 12:41 am

Jonathan Rogers wrote:It is far from unknown to have a Presidential election.
Last year was arguably a contested election. You had the 4NCL voter and the e2e4 voter combining to express dissatisfaction with elements of the Roger Edwards proposals and putting a motion to the meeting to that effect.
There was a former CEO who after years of inactivity chose to mount a personal attack based on historic shortcomings in the grading system. There was also a notorious blogger who mounted a personal attack based on Wikipedia entries.


By contrast the campaigns by "who" against Gerry Walsh and by "who" against CJ were relatively civilised. It has to be said that the credibility of the opposition in the case of Gerry and the establishment in the case of CJ would have been higher if they had been known as players, organisers or arbiters outside of meetings.

John McKenna

Re: Andrew Paulson -- Candidacy for ECF President

Post by John McKenna » Sat Sep 21, 2013 8:20 am

Andrew Paulson wrote:
John Upham wrote:Andrew,

Welcome to the Forum/Arena!

The ECF does not currently have a Press Officer or a Director of Communications type role.

It would also appear not to have meaningful sanctions for those proven to have cheated in OTB chess sanctioned by itself.

Do you feel these omissions (IMHO) deserve to be addressed?

J.
John, happy to try to answer your question...
Welcome back.