Emergency Board Meeting - Draft Minutes

[JustinHorton]

Quite possibly. But it might also assist the straw-from-chaff brigade a little.

[Paul McKeown]

Of which you are champion in chief, I take it?

[JustinHorton]

A mere footsoldier, Paul. But with a field marshal's baton in my knapsack.

[John McKenna]

If there are too many fruit loops in this particular serial for Paul's taste why not bin the box.
By that I mean - really follow Andrew Camp's graphic example in true Themroc style. Then they can rent a cave together somewhere in North Wales - like Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble, but more regressive. I am sure that Wilma and Betty are sorely in need of some respite.

[David Sedgwick]

Perhaps David would at least admit to being a shade more exotic for his time served on Devil's Island.
Did he ever feel outnumbered and alone there I wonder. How and why did he escape?

Purely for the record, I was not reappointed to the Arbiters' Commission for the 2010-2014 term.

I was unable to attend the 2010 FIDE Congress in Khanty-Mansisyk. I imagine that that played a part in the decision.

[Paolo Casaschi]

Do not underestimate the depth of feeling built up against the FIDE establishment and some of its proposals over the last 20 years amongst those in the UK who actually play or are arbiters for semi-international chess.

You should not assume that everyone shares your opinion either. Most likely I'd say the majority of chess players in UK are completely indifferent to FIDE and their issues.

[Paul McKeown]

If there are too many fruit loops in this particular serial for Paul's taste why not bin the box.

There are issues of grave importance to chess-players in England being discussed. However several parties with no actual information to impart are causing interference in the transmission. I realise that that might well include my own exhortation to a couple of non-contributors to shut up. Ultimately, of course, it might be best to bin the box, if the medium ends up overwhelmed by a deluge of pish.

[John McKenna]

Paul, it's been known since Marshal McLuhan that "the medium IS the message" so why not sit back and enjoy the ride.

Edit: I'd wager that even Paul, at some point in his regression, sat eating his breakfast while reading the messages on the cereal box.

[John McKenna]

Purely for the record, I was not reappointed to the Arbiters' Commission for the 2010-2014 term.

I was unable to attend the 2010 FIDE Congress in Khanty-Mansisyk. I imagine that that played a part in the decision.

Thanks for going on the record with those revelations, David.

Now I am led to enquire if the reason(s) for your non-attendance have ever been made public. If they are too personal just reply - goalkeep's fear of penalty.

[John McKenna]

Do not underestimate the depth of feeling built up against the FIDE establishment and some of its proposals over the last 20 years amongst those in the UK who actually play or are arbiters for semi-international chess.

You should not assume that everyone shares your opinion either. Most likely I'd say the majority of chess players in UK are completely indifferent to FIDE and their issues.

Aye, there's the rub...
And nub of the whole matter.

Hi, Paolo please have patience, I am just filling in until Roger arrives and replies in reiterative fashion - absolutely correctly so in the circular argument concerning ordinary Englishmen's relationships to foreign entities. Namely, they don't much like them if at all until they have been thoroughly introduced. Who has ever introduced FIDE to the English? They did try to introduce themselves to the wider English chess public at the London Candidates (having deliberately neglected to do so at their earlier London Grand Prix). The impression I got at the Candidates was that the majority of visitors were foreign. I may be mistaken, of course. I am sometimes, but then aren't we all.

[David Sedgwick]

Purely for the record, I was not reappointed to the Arbiters' Commission for the 2010-2014 term.

I was unable to attend the 2010 FIDE Congress in Khanty-Mansisyk. I imagine that that played a part in the decision.

Thanks for going on the record with those revelations, David.

Now I am led to enquire if the reason(s) for your non-attendance have ever been made public. If they are too personal just reply - goalkeep's fear of penalty.

I have no idea whether the reason has been made public previously or not. However, there is nothing out of the ordinary about it.

At the relevant time I was an arbiter at the Isle of Man Chess Congress.

[John McKenna]

Thanks for that, David.
I don't want to press you - in the manner of an iinquizition - so I make this my last in this series.
Are you sure you got your public/private priorities right when it came to IoM/Khanty - how did you decide, was it by the toss of a coin, perchance?

[Paolo Casaschi]

Hi, Paolo please have patience, I am just filling in until Roger arrives and replies in reiterative fashion - absolutely correctly so in the circular argument concerning ordinary Englishmen's relationships to foreign entities. Namely, they don't much like them if at all until they have been thoroughly introduced. Who has ever introduced FIDE to the English? They did try to introduce themselves to the wider English chess public at the London Candidates (having deliberately neglected to do so at their earlier London Grand Prix). The impression I got at the Candidates was that the majority of visitors were foreign. I may be mistaken, of course. I am sometimes, but then aren't we all.

My key point is that I dislike very much anyone pretending to act on my behalf (I'm not English but I'm a member of the ECF) without ever bothering to ask for my actual opinion. This goes for Roger claiming to know the feelings of UK chess players towards FIDE, for the ECF claiming to represent their members but denying them a vote and so on...

[David Sedgwick]

Thanks for that, David.
I don't want to press you - in the manner of an iinquizition - so I make this my last in this series.
Are you sure you got your public/private priorities right when it came to IoM/Khanty - how did you decide, was it by the toss of a coin, perchance?

As you've said it will be your last question in the series, I'll answer it.

I don't much like travelling long distances, so I found a trip to the Isle of Man more appealing than one to Khanty-Mansisyk.

[Roger de Coverly]

You should not assume that everyone shares your opinion either. Most likely I'd say the majority of chess players in UK are completely indifferent to FIDE and their issues.

If FIDE was a sensible organisation, a dubious personal reputation of a President could and probably would be ignored. There was little or no support back in 1998 for a boycott of the Elista Olympiad. But it isn't a sensible organisation and leading the nonsense is frequently the President. Just taking one obvious example, I don't think you could run amateur chess with a zero time default, yet the President advocated this until some of his colleagues realised the damage it could cause to FIDE, got it postponed and then confined only to FIDE branded events. Just think about it, every time you play chess at a competitive level, you will lose unless you are seated at the board exactly at the time the arbiter says "start the clocks". It didn't happen, but the FIDE President wanted it to.

The ECF has a FIDE Delegate to specialise in issues involving FIDE and ECU. The public position of the ECF since at least 2006 has been that it opposes the continued re-election of Kirsan as FIDE President. This has not until recently become an issue of dispute. The new President wished to change this long standing policy. It would seem a fairly obvious point that ECF policy towards the FIDE election should be discussed at Board level and a vote taken as to whether to move it to a more neutral position. Nigel may well disagree with this but he would be going against the Board if that's was what a majority had decided. Equally if a majority of the Board has a whole wished to maintain the previous policy, then the President should abide by this and if this conflicts with his political ambitions to gain favour with FIDE establishment figures, then so be it. He cannot say he wasn't warned that attitudes towards FIDE could be an election issue, hence the questioning to find out what his was and the closeness of relationships with FIDE figures.

Even before news of the special Board meeting was released, a statement was placed on this forum in the name of AP, that he would be taking whatever steps were needed to remove Nigel from office as FIDE Delegate, Nigel being presumed responsible in some way for the signed draft Agon-Kirsan contract becoming public.