Right In Istanbul I didn't know which system it will be because two proposal were on the table but since Teheran things are more clear and this week end I was in Athens to finalize it. It shall be published very soon. Zonal are not abolished but will not counted for WC qualification anymore. Only Continentals shall do. Continents will have more power and more qualifiers i.e Americas will have 19 players who could come from one country. Continents shall also have financial support from FIDE. However for 2001 zonal already finished will be counted.
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From: "Willy Iclicki" iclicki@netvision.net.il
To: "Sam Sloan" sloan@ishipress.com
Subject: Re: Was Jim Eade Drunk in Istanbul?
Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2001 01:06:57 +0200
I could not remember this man in my meeting but very well your President as took and publish the minutes. A gentleman. As for what Eade said I wish to know on which base he said this. I was told it was the most exciting meeting as the subject was very hot. By the way I'm Belgian and living in Israel but travel all the time here or there.
Regards
Willy Iclicki
From: "Willy Iclicki"
Thanks Sam for the photo. Regulations are finished now with a little modifications on what I said at the time. Those shall be published after approval by the FIDE PB.
Best from Willy Iclicki
----- Original Message -----
Was Jim Eade Drunk in Istanbul?
During the last few days, Jim Eade has taken to making all kinds of abusive and factually untrue statements about people. There is nothing new about this. He has been doing it for a long time.
What makes it different now is that he has been attacking people for their performance during meetings of the FIDE General Assembly in Istanbul. In other words, he has been attacking foreigners.
Somehow, it seems OK for Eade to be attacking his fellow Americans. We are used to it and can judge for ourselves. However, for Eade to attack the representative of a foreign country seems out of bounds.
For example, Eade has said that the World Championship Committee, the WCC, failed to prepare for the FIDE meetings and did not do a good job. As far as I know, there are no Americans on the World Championship Committee. I know that Willie Iclicki is the Chairman and Stewart Reuben is one of the members. Reuben is from England. I do not know where Iclicki is from. Iclicki is one of those people who likes to change countries all the time.
Eade has also made some very stupid statements about the Continental Championships which are to take place in the new World Chess Championship cycle. Eade has been stating on the Internet that the new system will be just as good for Americans as the old. Apparently, Eade must think that only the USA and Canada are members of our continent. Eade should know better, because his title is Zone President.
I have the minutes if the Continental Meeting - America. The minutes show that Eade was present. The following countries were represented at the meeting: CAN USA MEX GUA ESA HON NIC CRC COL VEN SUR BRA PAR ARG CHI PER ECU BOL BAR TRI JAM CUB BER.
Note that the countries are first listed in North-South order, not in alphabetical order. There were 23 counties present at the meeting. Therefore, Eade should know that representatives of all these countries will be contesting any Continental Championship for America.
I was not going to say this. I was going to keep quiet about it, but I feel that now I must reveal: Eade probably does not remember this because he was drunk at the meetings.
Here is the photo I took of Eade at the meeting of the FIDE General Assembly in Istanbul. Take a look at this photo and come to your own conclusion.
I think it should be noted that on the chess newsgroups Eade has been attacking Beatriz Marinello, the former USCF Scholastic Director, who has every right to be offended. Eade has also made a lot of ridiculous statements, such as his repeated claim that the Schultz Administration lost one million dollars, when this is obviously not true because there was never one million dollars to lose. The balance sheets and consolidated financial statements do not show any such loss. I doubt that they show any loss at all. To that, Eade says that the financial statements were fraudulent, but he has failed to provide any evidence to support this claim.
Anyway, take a look at this picture of Eade and tell me if you think that Jim Eade was drunk or not.
And remember, I supported Jim Eade for zone president. I thought he would do a good job. Go back and take a look at my Internet postings from that time and you will see that I was in his favor.
Sam Sloan http://www.anusha.com/jimdrunk.htm
----- Original Message -----
> Actually, the new proposal will almost certainly benefit US players. Tim> Redman checked with Yaz and Yvette while we were still in Istanbul, when this> proposal was being floated, and they informed him that the US Championship> would be just fine either way.
> US players will now have more opportunity. It should be noted that these gains> will likely come at the expense of other players from the Americas. I want to> see the details before I pass judgment. How is this true? I have just read and read the minutes of the meetings in Istanbul and it was clear that there would be no more Zonal Tournaments, only Continental Championships. How will the US players have more opportunity? Under the new system I imagine that the top players in the US Championship will qualify to a Continental Championship. There, the US players will have to compete against a large number of players from small Central and South American Countries, plus a few big countries such as Argentina and Brazil. > From there the winners will qualify to the World Cup, which will have 64 players. Among those, 16 will qualify to the Grand Prix. The top four in the Grand Prix will qualify to the World Championship. Did you read annex 45 which was passed out to the delegates? It makes this all rather clear. Or were you drunk that day? (Remember, I have your picture.) > > The USCF has since religiously protected this> >single FIDE Zonal status. They have, that is, until now.> >
> This is incorrect. We are still a single FIDE Zone. Sheesh.
Right, but the zones no longer have any significance. > >As reported by FIDE and condemned by major national chess federations, the> >FIDE> >Presidential Board, at its December Board meeting in Teheran, arbitrarily> >abolished the existing world championship cycle format.
> This is false. FIDE's General assembly delegated the authority to decide these> matters to the Presidential Board. The proposals were discussed many times in> many forums. Anyone who attended the Istanbul meetings cannot pretend to be> surprised by these changes.
I have the minutes. Do you? Where in the minutes does it say this? > It is my opinion that the focus on the Presidential Board as bad guys here is> wrong. The breakdown occurred earlier.
> There is a World Championship Committee, which should've brought detailed> proposals to Istanbul in order to have them fully discussed in workshops and> then voted on in the Assembly. This did not happen.
They did. My friend Stewart Reuben is on that committee. However, they did not know until the FIDE Commerce Deal was presented and passed. Do you remember in the FIDE General Assembly, Willy Iclicki, who was sitting in the audience, raised his hand and asked Makropoulos what the format of the next World Championship cycle was going to be. But, Willy Iclicki was the Chairman of the World Championship Committee. It was surprising that he of all people would ask such a question. > The General Assembly (which I attended, but did not have a vote in) had little> choice but to delegate authority to the Presidential Board. The proper thing> to do now, in my opinion, is to help the WCC do a better job next time around.> That is one place where our focus should be and was one of my recommendations> in my report to the USCF's EB.
How are they going to do a better job when FIDE Commerce now controls the World Championship. The Golden Rule: He who has the gold makes the rules. > The is also the problem of sub-optimal communication from FIDE. This has> allowed people to assume the worst and don the mask of outrage, however> inappropriate it may be to do so.
> As a first time observer, those are two aspects to the organization with clear> room for improvement. Still, it is wrong to write that the Presidential Board> acted arbitrarily. The likelihood of accelerated time controls was clearly> signaled to the delegates, and the possibility of changing from Zonal to> Continental qualifying tournaments was also most certainly discussed.
> The Presidential Board had the clear authority to act as they did. That> doesn't mean we have to like all of the decisions, but it does mean that> Schultz's remarks are out of line.
> >>Despite recommendations to send more chess-savvy representatives to the FIDE> Board meeting, the USCF EB opted to send Executive Director George DeFeis to a> preliminary FIDE discussion meeting in India.<<
> The original date for the meeting was over the Christmas Holidays in Iran. You> can understand why Steve gave it a pass. We then had about two weeks of notice> that FIDE "might" pay for someone to go to India. Personally, I think flying to> India on two weeks notice is a lot to ask of our volunteers.
> I did suggest on the conference call held to discuss this, that one of two> Board members should go, but they, quite naturally, also had conflicts. No one> thought that George would have input, but there was a case that he could make> an informed report about what happened at the meeting.
> >>Hopefully, by acting in concert with other sympathetic national federations> these arbitrary decisions by the FIDE Board can be undone or at least> moderated.<<
I do not see how they can be changed. It seems to be too late for change. > Again these were not arbitrary decisions. What should be undone or moderated?> The Continental system might be an improvement. How knows? We haven't seen> the details. The accelerated time controls are quite likely to be a boon.> Certainly they deserve to be tried. I spoke with our team captain, Larry> Christiansen, while we were in Istanbul, and he thought accelerated time> controls were the way to go.
> Where's the beef?
I do not see how the Continental system can possibly be an improvement for America. Under the system used in the 2000 World Championship, the USA got to send about seven players directly to the World Championship. However, under the new system, the USA will send presumably about the same number of players to a Continental Championship probably held in South America somewhere. The USCF will presumably have to pay those players the same amount. I find no provision for payment by FIDE Commerce for prizes in the Continental Championships. FIDE Commerce will pay prizes in the Grand Prix and the World Cup, provided that any of our players get that far.
> >> But that won't solve the fundamental root cause of what happened.> The EB must use the most qualified the best person for the job period. In this> case there were qualified USCF leaders who could have gone to Teheran not India> and represented us effectively; they should have been sent instead of DeFeis.<<
> This is, of course, not the root problem. As I wrote earlier, the root problem> was the lack of preparation by the WCC, so that the GA could not fully debate> and decide on these issue. If we want to improve the process, that's where we> must make the effort.
It appears that you do not know anything about the preparations which the WCC actually made. Also, you were not there. Kelleher was there from the beginning. (Of course, I was the very first to arrive. I walked into the tournament hall with my computer on October 28 at before 7:00 AM on the first day, before even the security guards had arrived.) A day or two later, Kelleher arrived. You came several days after that. Redman was the last to arrive and the first to leave. > After carefully discussing some of these proposals with our top players, I> don't see what there is to complain about. However, I haven't seen the final> details and there are questions of some ambiguity remaining to be resolved.
The reason you have not seen the final details is that obviously you have not read the handouts which were given at Istanbul. By the way, on this point, I credit Steve Doyle. He clearly did read the material. Also, when Polina, Kirsan's right hand woman, refused to give me the agenda, Steve Doyle got one for me and for that I am thankful. > In short, contrary to what Schultz implied, we are still a single Zone in FIDE,> which gives us representation on the Executive Board, the changes are neutral> regarding the US Championship, according to the best sources we had, Yaz and> Yvette, the US players will get more not less opportunity to participate in the> World Championships, and the top players can live with accelerated time> controls.
You obviously do not know what you are talking about. > Schultz misdefined the problem, so it is no surprise that he doesn't understand> the solution.
James Eade> Remove the Sheesh to respond. Don't worry. Talk happy. Next time the USCF pays you to go to a FIDE meeting, you should at least read the material. I have been holding back on this but now I am going to post the photograph I took of you drunk as a skunk at the FIDE General Assembly meeting. http://www.anusha.com/jimdrunk.jpg Sam Sloan
To:
Subject: Re: Photo of Willy Iclicki, Chairman, FIDE World Championship Cycle Committee
Date: Sat, 24 Feb 2001 19:03:24 +0200
From: "Sam Sloan" sloan@ishipress.com
To: chess-l@nic.surfnet.nl
Sent: Sunday, January 28, 2001 10:00 PM
Subject: Was Jim Eade Drunk in Istanbul?
From: sloan@ishipress.com
To: jimeade@aol.com
Sent: Saturday, January 27, 2001 10:43 PM
Subject: Re: Is the US Championship no longer a Qualifying event for the W.C.?
> On 27 Jan 2001 19:01:59 GMT, jimeade@aol.com (JimEade) wrote: > The USA, as one of three single-country Zones, was allowed to use its> >national championship as its Zonal tournament. This added prestige to the US> >Championship, saved the USCF considerable money and served as a great> >convenience to our players.
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