Consultation on the upcoming ECU and FIDE elections

[Roger de Coverly]

The number signed up is zero, because no such program has been introduced.

Is sm.fide.com a spoof site introduced by the evil Kasparov? It pre-dates the announcement of his campaign by several months.
http://sm.fide.com/site
http://sm.fide.com/site/regform/
http://sm.fide.com/site/information/

from which I read

The first step is to register as a member. Basic membership is free, but …

FIDE Premium Student Membership gives you a rating. It puts you on the same ladder as the World Champion and more than 150,000 competition players. You will also get all the help and advice you need to improve and win more games. As you play games and improve, your rating will increase. Watch the gap narrow between you and the World Champion. Perhaps, one day, you could make that title your own.

Gens Una Sumus
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov
FIDE President

Also

Information - Application Process & Guide

Application Process

To become a Student Member, you (or a parent) must fill in the registration form.

At the end of the registration form, you have a choice:
- to click "submit" and become a basic member, or
- to continue on to the payment page to become a Premium Member.

What are the differences between Premium and Basic membership?

Premium Members receive:

a FIDE Student Rating - this puts you on the same ladder as World Champion Anand
a proper membership card (with your photo if you wish)
a free gift - this varies according to where you live but is at least an e-book

a welcome letter from the President of FIDE, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov
a weekly newsletter with tips on improving and some puzzles (email)
unlimited access to the Premium web site (psm.fide.com)

Basic Members receive

a basic membership 'card' (pdf format) sent by email
a welcome letter from the President of FIDE, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov (email)
a monthly newsletter with a small taste of what you are missing by not being a Premium member.
Premium Membership costs just 10 euro a year and takes effect as soon as receipt of your payment is confirmed.
Guide
There is some material here at sm.fide.com that you are most welcome to use, even if you choose not to join.
You will find them if you Click on the Free Downloads button.

The psm site appears to be live
http://www.psm.fide.com/main/login

[NickFaulks]

If they were sufficiently motivated to travel to Bermuda, they either were serious players or had ambitions that way.

You're missing the point. These two young men had already gone from inner city high schools, from which few graduated with the equivalent of a CSE, to Ivy League colleges. In those days that wasn't unusual, it was impossible. The only proximate cause was chess. I'm not saying that nothing else would have worked, but chess did. This is all very well documented. By the way, I have seen similar stories about junior golf in rural areas, but that is not so accessible in Manhattan.

[Roger de Coverly]

You're missing the point. These two young men had already gone from inner city high schools, from which few graduated with the equivalent of a CSE, to Ivy League colleges. In those days that wasn't unusual, it was impossible. The only proximate cause was chess.

I had presumed that the point was that they had become moderately decent players as well as gaining academic success. My suspicion of the Chess in Schools initiatives is that they couldn't care less if those they teach chess only play for a couple of years and then give up. Given the hostility of some of the teaching profession to the whole concept of winners and losers, it remains a surprise that chess even gets a look in.

[NickFaulks]

http://www.psm.fide.com/main/login

Thanks, this is interesting. I just signed up a junior, and he got a FIDE ID I don't recognise. I don't know what a Student Rating is, but it isn't a FIDE rating, so anyone who thinks it is ( as you might ) has possibly been defrauded. I shall discover more.

[NickFaulks]

I had presumed that the point was that they had become moderately decent players as well as gaining academic success.

No, the point is that they achieved academic success as a result of their taking up chess. Of course, you can never prove causation, but it would be an extraordinary coincidence otherwise.

[JustinHorton]

These two young men had already gone from inner city high schools, from which few graduated with the equivalent of a CSE, to Ivy League colleges. In those days that wasn't unusual, it was impossible.

You sure about that?

[John McKenna]

I had presumed that the point was that they had become moderately decent players as well as gaining academic success.

No, the point is that they achieved academic success as a result of their taking up chess. Of course, you can never prove causation, but it would be an extraordinary coincidence otherwise.

Sorry Nick but, in addition to what Justin asks above, are you sure of the logic of your statements in the quote above? (Some would call them emotional rather than logical.)

You seem to be using logic as in the following example -

Swallows migrate here in summer.

It must be summer here because I've just seen a swallow, else it must be an extraordinary coincidence of a swallow and not summer.

Which of the two alternatives is more likely? Your conclusion seems to be that it must be summer. Mine is that it's not.
(Living in Bermuda may have given you the impression that it is almost always summer but living in England has clouded mine, perhaps.)

Of course, Nick, what you have described is the case of two visitors to Bermuda. Is that simply an example of the old saying - one swallow does not a summer make (attributed to that father of logic Aristotle) or are you trying to tell us that sighting a single pair of swallows does make a summer?

[Perhaps it does, but you know that many more examples are required so that causation can be established (or not) statistically rather than 'proved' (or disproved). I think you even alluded to that previously.]

[Stewart Reuben]

There can be no doubt that learning and playing chess provides some players with intellectual skills that are transferable. Whether that is superior to bridge, go or so doku, or tennis or golf is a matter of conjecture. But there is no doubt chess is cheaper, it can be played over a wider age range and provides benefits against the effects of aging on the brain.

Nick asked earlier about simplified forms of chess. We can compare any such initiative with Bridge where they have recently introduced such a game. It was tried for tennis, called 'short tennis', but it didn't catch on.

A simplified version of chess could be introduced.
Capturing the king , not checkmate.
No en passant rule.
No castling.
No two moves for the pawn on their first move.
No promotion.
and so on.
But I have never heard of any appetite for this in Britain. If you have a captive audience, then initially the Dutch System does introduce simplified rules. Richard James believes in this. But in England, when children come to chess clubs, they have usually already been taught the Laws badly and incorrectly.

[NickFaulks]

These two young men had already gone from inner city high schools, from which few graduated with the equivalent of a CSE, to Ivy League colleges. In those days that wasn't unusual, it was impossible.

You sure about that?

Which half? In each case, yes.

[JustinHorton]

You got a specific time period in mind?

[NickFaulks]

Late Nineties as I remember, it was all written up in the WSJ. Maurice took a big pack of information to the Minister of Education, Dave Norwood came along. Got nowhere, the man was clueless ( though I'm told he was a competent dentist ).

[JustinHorton]

Ok. So the proposition before us is that in the late Nineties, it was impossible for somebody to go from an inner city high school to an Ivy League college. yes?

[David Sedgwick]

http://www.psm.fide.com/main/login

Thanks, this is interesting. I just signed up a junior, and he got a FIDE ID I don't recognise. I don't know what a Student Rating is, but it isn't a FIDE rating, so anyone who thinks it is ( as you might ) has possibly been defrauded. I shall discover more.

You might indeed think it was a FIDE rating.

http://sm.fide.com/site/premium_membership/

From which I quote: "Premium Membership provides ... a FIDE rating".

[Kevin Thurlow]

"You might indeed think it was a FIDE rating.

http://sm.fide.com/site/premium_membership/

From which I quote: "Premium Membership provides ... a FIDE rating"."

And if you explore that site, you will find if you comment on it, you get a bonus of 5 rating points!

http://psm.demo.fide.com/site/rating

A particularly loquacious junior could become a GM in no time.

[Andrew Martin]

Does anyone know how the meeting with Azmaiparashvili went?

The silence is deafening.