Registration with FIDE

[Alex Holowczak]

I suspect David's point was that with no FIDE rated chess activity in England, players would only need to sign up for Bronze membership (or Silver once the ECF gets round to treating the 4NCL and e2e4 as congresses) rather than Gold. So the ECF would be losing the difference between the two membership categories.

The difference between the two membership categories is the same amount of money as the amount of money the ECF will be spending on various internationally-rated charges though, isn't it? (OK, it won't be exact, but it'll be the same sort of ballpark with a degree of conservatism on the ECF's part to make sure it doesn't lose money.)

e2e4 are congresses, but 4NCL is a league. So e2e4 would be silver, but 4NCL bronze if neither were FIDE-rated.

[Mike Truran]

If e2e4 and the 4NCL fell into different membership categories, then surely the answer to your question has to be 'no', doesn't it?

[Roger de Coverly]

The difference between the two membership categories is the same amount of money as the amount of money the ECF will be spending on various internationally-rated charges though, isn't it?

£ 9 per head per English FIDE rated player raises around £ 7,000. I thought at the moment that direct FIDE costs and related ones like the IRO are met mostly from rating fees.

I'm not sure I see a difference in principle between FIDE demanding € 30 a year for a place in the International rating list and the ECF demanding £ 27 for the same thing. Obviously it gets very expensive if both want their cut.

At about 83,000 internationally active rated players in the world, that's around € 2.4 million a year to FIDE. Nice for FIDE, bad news for federations like France, Germany and Russia who would have to raise something like 30% of it.

[David Sedgwick]

I suspect David's point was that with no FIDE rated chess activity in England, players would only need to sign up for Bronze membership (or Silver once the ECF gets round to treating the 4NCL and e2e4 as congresses) rather than Gold. So the ECF would be losing the difference between the two membership categories.

The difference between the two membership categories is the same amount of money as the amount of money the ECF will be spending on various internationally-rated charges though, isn't it? (OK, it won't be exact, but it'll be the same sort of ballpark with a degree of conservatism on the ECF's part to make sure it doesn't lose money.)

e2e4 are congresses, but 4NCL is a league. So e2e4 would be silver, but 4NCL bronze if neither were FIDE-rated.

If e2e4 and the 4NCL fell into different membership categories, then surely the answer to your question has to be 'no', doesn't it?

This discussion seems to me to be somewhat esoteric and rather premature.

In a situation where the ECF had de facto or de jure withdrawn from FIDE, different membership rates and / or a different membership structure would almost certainly be necessary.

However, I would have thought the ECF's immediate objective should be to work with other like minded Federations to stress the highly damaging nature of these proposals, with a view to seeking to ensure that they don't come into being.

[Matt Harrison]

Well FIDE have to cover their legal bills somehow. I note from their 2010 accounts that they spent 900,000 euros out of total turnover of 2.4 million (38% of income) on legal bills last year, presumably mostly relating to the presidential election.

[Ian Thompson]

The Gold membership price effectively covers the cost of any FIDE-rated activity in this country, doesn't it? If there is no FIDE-rated chess activity, the ECF has no costs to FIDE.

I don't think so. The ECF will have to pay FIDE €1 per annum for players with active FIDE ratings. The ECF wants any English player who plays FIDE rated chess anywhere to be an ECF Gold member, otherwise the player will lose their FIDE rating. If there are no are FIDE rated events in England then the ECF makes a profit on the membership (compared to Silver) of £9 - €1.

But equally, it doesn't need an honorarium for an International Rating Officer.

The IRO is still needed for Direct Members who play outside England and want their games ECF graded. For example, I played in Wales earlier this year and submitted those games for grading. The tournament was not FIDE rated.

[Stewart Reuben]

There was a previous post about representation for the ECF at the FIDE Congress, which starts the day after the ECF AGM.
Nobody from England has a vote on the Executive Board. Dr Jana Bellin will presumably attend for a couple of days as Chairman of the Medical Commission. I shall attend for the whole period as Secretary of the Rules and a Councillor of the Qualification Commissions and as a tourist in Krakow. The costs of neither of us will be any burden on the ECF.
Although one has no vote it is very easy to speak at the Executive Board, or any other FIDE Meeting. One simply raises one's hand and then the chairman calls upon the person.

Somewhere else in the agenda there is a statement about NOT making radical changes! Many of these suggestions are just ideas being floated, just like our politicians do.

Stewart Reuben

[Alex Holowczak]

Many of these suggestions are just ideas being floated, just like our politicians do.

If you're there, can you ask which problem the proposals are trying to solve? (Specifically, the principled issue of payment going back to the national federation.) At which point, if the answer is unsatisfactory, tell them not to bother, and ask them to move on to next business.

[E Michael White]

Although one has no vote it is very easy to speak at the Executive Board, or any other FIDE Meeting. One simply raises one's hand and then the chairman calls upon the person.

Just one small detail. At what point do they switch the microhones off; is it before or after being called by the chairman ?

[Stewart Reuben]

Neither Alex nor E Michael has attended a FIDE Meeting. The first is much too optimistic and the second much too pessimistic.
Stewart Reuben

[Mike Truran]

If the ECF has agreed its position on how it is going to approach the issue both before and at the FIDE meeting, might it be worth it publishing something either here or on the ECF website? Raising the matter at the ECF AGM would probably be counter-productive given the lack of air time it is likely to get compared with other items and is too close to the FIDE meeting anyway.

[Stewart Reuben]

I did ask for a lead from the officers involved so that I could try to represent their views. But I received no response. By the time of the actual FIDE Metings I will no longer be an ECF Director.
Stewart Reuben

[Roger de Coverly]

If you're there, can you ask which problem the proposals are trying to solve?

Isn't it obvious? Some in FIDE would like to have an individual international membership scheme. They have called it registration rather than membership to avoid the question of voting rights.

(edit)

The KNSB (Dutch) are willing to speak out even if the ECF isn't

http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/dutch ... threatened

(/edit)

[Matthew Turner]

A very interesting comment on the chessvibes report

Kirsan already has 4 new votes coming in!
http://www.fide.com/images/stories/NEWS ... cation.pdf
http://www.fide.com/images/stories/NEWS ... cation.pdf
http://www.fide.com/images/stories/NEWS ... sation.pdf
http://www.fide.com/images/stories/NEWS ... cation.pdf

When will this travesty end?

[andrew martin]

Matt, your links don't work.

Cheers, Andrew