Circular Letter 5 / 2002

Written by Heinz Herzog, WebAdmin

Monday, 24 December 2007, id:328 Article cached on Tuesday, 07 October 2008 12:21:07

Pic-Id:116

To:

All European Federations

Associated members, Board members,

FIDE and FIDE Zonal Presidents

4 June 2002

Dear friends,

the ECU Board had a meeting in Varna/Bulgaria on 26 May 2002. We would like to take the opportunity to thank the Bulgarian Chess Federation for hosting this meeting. Hence the Board members were able to participate in the opening ceremony of the 3rd European Women Individual Championship.

The Board discussed the interim statement of the ad-hoc committee generally set up by the General Assembly in Léon which was nominated by name by the Board. Chairman is Peter Rajcsanyi from Hungary. This ad-hoc committee paid special attention to the following issues:

1. The progress achived by ECU in the past four years

2. The issues and criteria of professionalism as the guideline for the activities of ECU

3. The role of chess in the world of sport activities and its role in culture, technical development, education, and mental progress of modern societies

4. Financials of the ECU and ways and means of their strengthening

5. The relationship network within ECU and the relatively low level of internal co-operation among its members

6. Chess education in schools as well as training of chess trainers and arbiters

7. Introduction of new all-European programmes under the aegis of ECU and their support from the national federations and the European Union

8. The needs of ECU in respect of its increased marketing and PR activities in the light of the potential new programme

9. The development and modernization of the relationship between FIDE and ECU

Due to the importance of the issues and the necessary time we need for discussion the Board has decided to convene an Extraordinary ECU General Assembly on the weekend 23 to 25 August 2002 in Budapest. The main topics of the agenda probably will be:

• strategic results of the discussion of the ad-hoc committee
• current tournament regulations
• qualification system for the World Championship according to the new FIDE - regulations

The official invitation with further details about the time schedule of this Extraordinary General Assembly will be distributed at the beginning of July.

The current tournament regulations of all ECU events have to be totally revised and amended. That is the reason why a new ECU Manual can not be printed for the time being. We have to finalize the regulations and have them approved by the General Assembly. Only thereafter we can print our manual. As to the addresses and statistics we can refer to our web-site www.eurochess.org where you will find all up-dated information.

The European Individual Championship in Batumi/Georgia is going to be held from 11 to 27 June 2002. Approximately 100 players from 25 federations have already registered, including 45 Grandmasters.

For the European Individual Championship 2003 we had received excellent bids from the Turkish Chess Federation (Antalya or Izmir) and Patras/Greece. Finally the Board decided in favour of Patras. Some technical details including the exact dates have to be negotiated. As soon as the contract is signed you will be informed respectively.

The Board resolved the deadline for bids for the European Team Championship 2005. All bids have to reach the ECU secretariat by 1 March 2003. The final decision about the venue has to be taken by the General Assembly in 2003 in Plovdiv/Bulgaria.

A decision about the European Youth Championship 2003 has not been made by the Board up to now. There are still ongoing negotiations with the bidders (Pardubice/Czech Republic and Budva/Montenegro, Yugoslavia). The Board will determine the venue at the next meeting in Budapest on 23 August 2003.

The first European Internet Championship should be held this year. Dirk De Ridder will act as tournament director for a transitional period and will prepare the respective regulations. The championship should be played with 64 players according to the knock-out system. The winner will be invited to the European Individual Championship 2003. Further details will be published later.

The ECU Board is looking for a tournament director for the internet championship. We therefore ask all federations to look for interested candidates and to make suggestions by 15 August 2002.

The next Board meeting will be held in connection with the Extraordinary General Assembly in Budapest on 22 August 2002. According to the FIDE timetable for the congress in Bled, the Annual ECU General Assembly is scheduled for 6 November 2002. But we still have to wait for the final conformation from FIDE.

Looking forward to meeting you at our Extraordinary General Assembly in Budapest.

Best regards

Horst Metzing

Secretary General