Report on the FIDE PB meeting, 16-17 June, 2009, in Krakow, Poland

The ACP Board decided to send its representative to the FIDE Presidential Board meeting in Krakow in June 2009 in order to observe the on-going discussions and decision taken. It was also important to review at the Presidential Board the cooperation between FIDE and the Association of Chess Professionals and to understand the possibility for further development of the cooperation.

The ACP General Secretary Olena Boytsun made a presentation on the subject “Five years of the ACP: past and development” and answered a number of questions from the Presidential Board members on the activities of the ACP.

Conclusions from the participation at the PB meeting can be divided into two groups. The first part refers to the general impressions and the main point is the following. The reason why in many cases FIDE is criticized is to the greatest extend not because of the activities. There is a hard work on voluntary basis behind many of reforms and suggestions. The problem is with communication of decisions and\or suggestions to different target audiences, where chess players of any level are one of the most important groups. Implementation of any reforms cannot be seen as successful without proper informational campaign, and this is exactly what is missing in many cases. When there is an informational gap, it tends to be filled not by official explanations, but more by confusions of target audiences, which results in public discontent.

The second part of conclusions is connected with the further activities of the Association of Chess Professionals. The participation at the FIDE Presidential meeting helped to widen the understanding of the on-going processes at the FIDE as well as of possibilities on strengthening cooperation between FIDE and the ACP. Deeper understanding of the informational mechanism inside the organization will assist the ACP Board in developing and submitting recommendations and suggestions on the chess management issue, while raising the level of participation of the ACP in the current chess processes.

The FIDE Presidential Board meeting that took place June 16-17, 2009, in Krakow, Poland, was the second of year 2009. The agenda of the meeting included about 70 points, which were discussed in two day period. The meeting was organized by Malopolska Chess Association in cooperation with the City Council of Krakow.

As for the discussions during the PB meeting, the following issues were in the agenda.

The Presidential Board meeting was opened at 9am of June 16, 2009, by the welcoming speeches of the organizers. The FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov reported on the main activities since the last Presidential Board meeting. The FIDE President announced that it was decided to establish FIDE Branch Office in the Russian Federation (Moscow) that would be responsible for the development of chess in Russia.
After the report of the FIDE President there was a closed part for members of the Presidential Board only, during which discussions on the contract with Chess Lane company took place. The official FIDE press-release describes the conclusions in the following way: “The PB acknowledged and discussed the proposal of David Kaplan, FIDE Development CEO, about the establishment of a new Internet portal centered around chess activities and the creation of a Chess News Agency. In relation to these developments, FIDE will enter into negotiation with Chess Lane company.”
The organizational aspects of official FIDE events in 2009 and 2010 were under consideration, in particular World Cup in Khanty-Mansijsk (20.11-14.12.2009), Grand Prix tournaments 2009, World Chess Olympiad 2010 in Khanty-Mansijsk.
The problem with the event calendar planning was widely discussed. The special attention was devoted to the establishment of effective and stable system of calendar development in such a possible way that Calendar Administrator would work out a 4-year cycle for the FIDE calendar upon consultation with the Events Commission and the Commission for World Championships and Olympiads. Thus, bids for organization any FIDE event would be based on the assigned month and dates.
As it was mentioned at the official ACP website before, the K-factor change was frozen for the moment and the suggestion was returned to the Commission for the further investigation.

Results of European Individual Championship 2009 were confirmed by the Presidential Board. As it was known, the dispute between the President of the Turkish Chess Federation Ali Nihat Yazici and ECU President Boris Kutin concerning the organization of European events lead to the court in Lausanne. As the result, in April 2009 the court annulated the ECU Board decisions regarding the venues of 2009 European Individual Championships (men and women), European Youth Championships and European Club Cup. The European Individual Championships were held already in 2009 – the men championship in Montenegro, and the women one in Russia, and so there were discussions, whether the results of the events are legitimate. European Youth Championships and European Club Cup are still to be held further in 2009, and therefore on July 11, 2009, it is planned to hold an extraordinary ECU General Assembly in Kallithea Halkidiki, where the current venues of the events 2009 will be clarified.
In the Agenda of the meetings was also a report from Medical Commission concerning the relations with World Anti-doping Agency. The report from WADA as of 31 December 2008 concerned the compliance with the World Anti-doping code entered in force on 1 January 2004. According to the report, “none of the Summer and Winter Olympic Ifs, IOC recognized Ifs and GAISF Ifs without IOC Recognition stutus had major problems in implementing the Code into their rules”.
The special part of the meeting was devoted to the administrative issues and reforms with the aim to raise the effectiveness of FIDE bodies’ cooperation, such as the stability in the meetings of Executive and Presidential Board, and FIDE Congresses. There was also discussion on the development of specific requirements for positions of the following FIDE officials: Commercial Affairs CEO, PR & Marketing Director, Commercial Director, Development CEO. The description would include job specification, essential and desirable requirements etc. Such standardization would increase the efficiency of work as well as the transparency of the selection processes, and so the requirements will be further developed.
The report of Marketing and PR director was another issue for discussion. As it was said in the official press-release, “The PB decided that beyond the regular activities, FIDE Public Relations should be conducted more by the implementation of target-oriented projects in the future”.

The FIDE Presidential Board is “the managing organization of FIDE and is in charge with the day-to-day management of FIDE” (according to the FIDE Handbook, part A “Administrative subjects”). The FIDE Presidential Board consists of the President, the Honorary President, the Deputy President, the General Secretary, the Treasurer, the Vice Presidents, the four Continental Presidents, World Champion, Women`s World Champion and the Honorary Vice-Presidents. The Presidential Board meetings are to take place at least once every three months.