Wednesday 30 January 2013

New Player Licensing Regulations

The FIDE Qualification Commission has introduced new regulations for the licensing of players. I've posted my initial thoughts on this over on my Chess Rules blog.

4 comments:

Pete (Ireland) said...

Hi Shaun,

Thanks (as always) for this info. The player licensing idea sounds appalling. (I had been thinking of switching our Galway weekender to be FIDE-rated, but I won't if this idea goes ahead - we couldn't afford the fines, since we actually welcome new players.) Could you give some idea of how we can add our voices to the campaign against this nonsense, please? At the very least, it should be postponed to allow adequate discussion. And it doesn't seem very consistent with FIDE's trend to lower the rating floor to try to include everybody who plays chess.

All the best,

Pete

chris (london) said...

Pete. I love galway and was looking for an excuse to go back sometime. When is your big weekender usually run?

Shaun Press said...

The key thing is to contact the right people. In most organisation I have been involved with (not just chess ones), the major reasons why unpopular decisions get passed is no one speaks up. FIDE list the contact details of all members of the various FIDE committees, so writing to the Chairman and Secretary of QC is the best thing to do (I have already done so, although only clarify some details of the regulations). Given the feeback I've seen, hi-lighting the added difficulty in organising FIDE rated events (with the possibility of not organising them at all) might be the best message to get across. (Loss of potential income will hurt any business)

Pete (Ireland) said...

Thanks Shaun. Since contacting you, I have heard that the Dutch Chess Federation are writing to the Presidential Board in opposition to this move (and saying they will not co-operate with it) and inviting other federations to sign their letter. The version I have seen lists ten countries in support (including some major ones), and I am sure that more will join in the next few days. That might get this decision reversed, perhaps.

If I may abuse your space to answer Chris: we don’t have a date yet for 2013, but it will probably be in late September or early October. See our web-site (www.galwaychess.com/) or contact us (address given there) and we’ll put you on our mailing list. Whilst I’m plugging the event: all are welcome! We even had one entrant who came all the way from Canberra last October.