Circular Letter 2 / 2003

Written by Heinz Herzog, WebAdmin

Monday, 24 December 2007, id:335 Article cached on Saturday, 05 July 2008 02:33:25

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To:

All European Federations

Associated members, Board members,

FIDE and FIDE Zonal Presidents

20 February 2003

Dear Friends,

On 15 and 16 February 2003 the ECU Board met in St. Vincent/Italy. We would like to thank the Comité Valdôtain d´Echecs and the Casino of St. Vincent for hosting this meeting.

According to art. 5.2 of the ECU Statutes the Board has appointed Evgeny Eletsky/Russia as Deputy President.

In the opinion of the Swiss Chess Federation the ECU Statutes were violated at the General Assembly in Bled. The changes concerning the additional Vice President had not been announced before as a motion in the agenda. Therefore the Swiss Chess Federation took legal action in order to suspend these changes. Meanwhile the District Court of Lausanne has summoned ECU to a trial on 7 April 2003.

The General Assembly in Bled approved to set up an Ad-hoc Committee for a general review of the statutes. The Board has nominated Peter Rajcsanyi/Hungary (chairman), Boris Kutin and Ali Nihat Yazici as members of this committee.

The this year´s European Individual Championship should be organized in the region of ancient Olympia/Greece between 25 May and 20 June. It was the wish of the Intellectual and Cultural Bankers Club of Patras and the Bankers Sports Club of Patras to organize the most important European event. Unfortunately, they could not manage to find a suitable tournament hall for two weeks. In agreement with the Greek Chess Federation it was then proposed to hold this championship in Patras or Kos. Regrettably the sponsors did not give their consent, estimating that their promotion in Patras or Kos would be far below the standards. The Board finally decided to authorize President Boris Kutin to enter into negotiations with respective organizers in order to guarantee the holding of the European Individual Championship as a qualification for the World Championship 2003.

The Board resolved that 10 players of the European Individual Championship 2004 will qualify to the World Championship 2005. Furthermore it has been stipulated that 12 players of the European Individual Women´s Championship 2004 will qualify for the World Championship 2005.

We had received three very good bids for the European Club Cup 2003. The Board finally decided to grant the Men´s and the Women´s Club Cup to the Kydon Sports Club. Both events will take place in Retymno/Crete (Greece) from 27 September (arrival) until 5 October 2003 (departure).

The European Youth Championships are now scheduled in Budva/Montenegro for the period of 12 September (arrival) to 24 September 2003 (departure). As soon as we have received the official announcement all federations will be informed accordingly.

Upon the proposal of the Polish Chess Federation a European Youth Club Cup can be held under the auspices of ECU. Further details will be announced by them later on.

The St. Vincent Open was the final tournament of the European Grand Prix 2002. The final Grand Prix standing (with 11 joint tournaments) is the following:

1. Boris Chatalbashev, Bulgaria

2. Alexander Graf, Germany

3. Mikhail Gurevich, Belgium

We would like to remind you once more that 1st March 2003 is the deadline for bids for all official European Championships 2004 and for the European Team Championship 2005.

The next Board meeting is scheduled for 24 to 27 April 2003 in Gothenburg/Sweden.

Best regards,

Horst Metzing

Secretary General