Planning to Play in the FIDE 2017 Grand Prix? It Will Cost You 100K Euros to Enter

Per the email sent out by Agon, Ltd. to grandmasters today.

We are delighted to invite you to join the 2017 Grand Prix series

One of the reasons we increased the number of players for the Grand Prix Series is to increase the earnings potential for the world’s elite players.

One of the ways we have done this is to give brand owners the opportunity to directly sponsor players.

World Chess has built a custom package for companies to become a player sponsor, which delivers a real return on investment.

Please see a presentation detailing the sponsor package.

Players’ sponsors receive the following benefits:

— The sponsor’s logo on the player’s jacket

— The branded player’s page on worldchess.com

— The sponsor’s logo on the player’s table placard

— The opportunity for the sponsor to create a hospitality program at each of the four Grand Prix events

Sponsorship cost

The one year sponsor package costs € 100,000 (15% goes to the Federation and 20% to the player). In addition, we encourage sponsors to build custom programs with players (which means additional revenue for the player and a stronger sponsorship network).

In addition, if the player goes on to compete in the Candidates Tournament, the sponsorship activation remains in place.

 THESE INCLUDES

The 2017 Grand Prix Series

Event length: 11 days

Instead of a round robin format, each Grand Prix will consist of a 9 round Swiss, with one rest day and a single one day for arrivals and the opening ceremony. As a result each Grand Prix is one week shorter.

Number of players: 24

24 top players will be selected in accordance with FIDE regulations to compete in the 2017 Grand Prix Series. Each player agrees to participate in three of the four tournaments. Each tournament will have 18 players.

Players selection

FIDE has announced the first qualifiers for the Grand-Prix 2017. The remaining nine places are yet to be filled.

Dates and venue cities:

Grand Prix I: February 17-28, Sharjah, UAE

Grand Prix II: May 11-22, Moscow, Russia

Grand Prix III: July 5-16, Geneva, Switzerland

Grand Prix IV: November 15-26, Palma De Mallorca, Spain

Prize Fund and other technical issues

The prize fund for each Grand Prix is 130,000 euros. All the relevant details are available in the Regulations for the 2017 Grand Prix Cycle.

Please check the players’ presentation.

Please get in touch with us to develop a custom sponsorship program.

We are looking forward to working with you!

Kind regards, World Chess team.

Contact information

Polina Ostasheva, City Relations Manager

World Chess by Agon Limited

ostasheva@agonlimited.com

+7 (985) 625 42 85

Ilya Merenzon, CEO

World Chess by Agon Limited

merenzon@agonlimited.com

[emphasis added] 

Kingdom Chess Association, Ltd. Danville Chess Cancelled for Tonight

There is a snow and ice storm predicted for tonight with the heaviest part during our playing time. Snow is OK, but ice just isn't nice. We'll pick up play again next week on 1/24 from 6PM to 9:30PM.

Portsmouth, NH Open Report

The Portsmouth Open was great fun. Saw old friends and made a few new ones. 
GM Alexander Ivanov lost to our own Vermont National Master, David Carter. I ran into Alexander later that evening and he said, "I blundered a piece. Now I have to win both my games tomorrow." I told him to not feel baldly and that I blunder away pieces all the time. He got a twinkle in his eyes, grinned and said, "I blunder too...........sometimes." The former Soviet Grandmaster living in the US since the early 1990's has an interesting story to tell post-USSR. More on that at a later date.

The tournament venue at the Holiday Inn. Standing against the wall, left, is Assistant TD Paul Kolojeski, a really nice guy.

IM David Vigorito and Vermont's only National Master, David Carter, in Rd 3. They drew this game and both finished ahead of Ivanov with 3.5.

US Chess Promoter of the Year, Alex Relyea. Another beautifully run event from the Master.

Yours truly ready to start the losing streak on his new DGT eBoard. All blunders duly recorded.

Grandmaster Alexander Ivanov in the 1st Round against Erin Dame

Icelandic Compassion and Neo-Soviet Revisionism--Fischer as A Snowden or Wikileaks?

A Pravda opinion piece makes this and other delusional comparisons. 

"On camera, he was adjudged not just paranoid nor a man afflicted with schizophrenia. Oh no! He was worse than that. In their eyes, Bobby Fischer had gone rogue. Fischer was un-American as Benedict Arnold was earlier. They implied Fischer had defected. He had committed the unpardonable act: he had gone over to the other side. To many, Fischer was essentially a bona fide Soviet agent."

Fanciful at best.

"True enough, Fischer early in his adult life felt he was 'followed'. He often complained about his frequent 'tails'. In his travels Fischer always searched his apartment for the 'bugs' or electronic listening devices. When it came to revealing the source about his suspicions that others were spying on his 'activism' and looking into his personal 'beliefs', Fischer offered his candor freely. He did not suspect the Soviets. That meant only the opposite side of the equation was true: his own government did not trust him." 

He of course was followed, but only because his mother was considered suspect during the hightend period of anti-Soviet feeling in the US. Fischer himself hated the Soviets. Eventually, he hated mst everyone and everything as his illness progressed. 

"He stayed resolute in his search for the truth. Rather than cave to his critics and accept that he was 'sick', Fischer found absolution: he renounced his U.S. citizenship. After seeking political asylum, Iceland, the host country of his most famous achievement granted Fischer full citizenship. It was a fitting tribute."

Truth? Poor Bobby was taken in by Iceland in appreciation of who he had been and what he had accomplished. It was not a tribute to Fischer to give him citizenship, IMO. Rather, it was an act of compassion by a country known for its egalitarianism and rationality.


Read the complete opinion piece here:
http://www.pravdareport.com/opinion/columnists/08-01-2017/136579-bobby_fischer-0/

Rebranded US Chess, New 501(c)3 Status and That Old Vision Thing Again

Looking at the organization's present status, all is not as well as it might and/or hopefully could be. Membership is not growing by leaps and bounds. The retention rates are generally not good, especially amongst scholastic members of a certain age. New adult memberships are about seven times smaller than new scholastic memberships. There has been a decline in the number of over the board adult chess clubs. The organization has tried and not succeeded in establishing an active chess playing web presence. Games Parlor was a fiasco and there was a roll out started with an independent partner for a USCF online playing venue in the last days of Bill Hall's ED leadership tenure that went Heaven only knows where. 

Looking at the new (c)3 mission for a moment, two things are not clear at present. First, what will be the relationship between US Chess and the US Chess Trust as it relates to US Chess fund raising down the road? 

Second, our new status is based on having educational programs that are the core of the organization's operation (assuming we want to keep our new charitable tax status and not have it revoked), but it is not clear what IRS qualifying programs US Chess is presently running and what programs are planned in the future to maintain that status. I asked one of our EB members in a recent post in the Issues Forum, for a list of educational programs being run by US Chess. No reply was forthcoming. There is no listing of programs, educational or otherwise, that I've been able to locate on the newly designed US Chess welcome web page or in the interior of the organization's web site. Regarding the latter, it may be there, but as with some other things, may not be easily discoverable. 

501(c)3 type educational programs take money to fund. Whilst US Chess' books are balanced, there appears to be little money available for new educational programs in line with our mission. There are no plans at present to hire, or employ as full-time consultants, marketing or fundraising professionals. 

Ruth Haring addressed much of this in detail in her August 2014 report to the delegates. Ruth wrote: "In looking at our membership numbers over the past year we see modest growth of 2.85%, which was concentrated in the Under 12 category. Good News, Bad News. The good news is we have growth. The bad news is that a large number of our members over 12 drop out every year."

The clear problem that US Chess still faces is that of member retention.
All is far from well in US Chessland in that regard as not much has changed since Ruth's 2014 report. 

Ruth also made the point that we were primarily a tournament based chess membership organization. Per Ruth, "During the last year, the IRS approved the long awaited change in the USCF tax status. The new 501(c) 3 tax status marks an important business shift to a social benefit organization with tax deductible contributions. USCF is at a new milestone and the tax status change also implies a change in the culture of the organization........We learned from the results of the survey [conducted by the ED] that almost 70% of players responding, let their membership lapse because they no longer play in USCF rated tournaments. This fits right in with the information we have about why people visit the website: To look up their rating and find a tournament to play in. It's all about tournaments and ratings." We are still primarily a tournament based organization. 


Despite our new 501(c)3 status, US Chess culture has not significantly changed. We are now approximately three years into a new organizational life as a (c)3 corporation. Where are our new (c)3 based educational programs? What has changed? Not much in a (c)3 program sense. It's that vision thing again. Instead of vision, we have present board members and a former board member going on and on about how the organization's budget is now under control, that we have membership "growth" and increases in rated tournaments. People who attempt to raise legitimate issues and suggest solutions in US Chess members only Issues Forum are treated with hostility driven by that old tournament mentality. When rational argument fails, the attacks based on member's chess ratings are used as a sophistic weapon of choice along with sarcasm and personal insult. All of this is directed at paying members of the organization. That's chess organizational culture at its worst. Past achievement, like bringing stability to the budget, is indeed laudable. However, that's the past. This is now. Leadership vision looks to the future while appreciating the positives of the past. The present board, three years into 501 (c)3 status, has yet to provide the vision needed for the future.

Younger and Younger........Grandmasters

"Replete with tradition, the Hastings congress reached age 97 this week. It has been staged almost every year since 1920, at a historic venue where 10 world champions have played. The event’s peak years are long past but it has gained a new lease of life as the backing of Tradewise Insurance has augmented funds from its loyal borough council. Hastings 2016-17, which ended on Thursday, produced an exceptional individual result.

Hastings has always been a proving ground for young talent and this year it was Ramesh Praggnanandhaa, at 11 the youngest ever international master, who claimed attention. His games were featured daily on the congress website, which was transformed and upgraded from previous years, and it made online viewing a pleasure....."

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/jan/06/ramesh-praggnanandhaa-nodirbek-abdusattorov-world-record

The Grand Chess Tour and It's New Rating System

Is there a move afoot by Rex and Gary to make FIDE irrelevant?
http://en.chessbase.com/post/grand-chess-tour-announces-universal-rating-system