What do you want/expect from your national chess federation?

These questions are aimed mainly at people who play over the board or are considering doing so, but views from anyone are of course welcome!

What do you want/expect of a national chess federation?

What does your federation do right and wrong?

Does your federation take in to account your views and, if so, how?

I have a serious reason for asking these questions so I would really appreciate srious and constructive replies.

I've been at University for 4 years and during that time my playing strength increased from 1600 to 1863 (ECF 125 to 152). Welsh Chess Union (WCU) allowed me to convert my ECF rating to a Welsh grade when I went over there but ECF won't let me convert my new (and improved) Welsh grade back to an English grade. This means I'm forced to start over from 125 (because that was my last grade before I left). I would expect ECF to take into account my situation and allow me the new converted grade of 152.

Finnish Chess Federation should :

- publish all played rated games in Finland

- have better web-sites

- support more the junior activities

http://www.shakkiliitto.net/

Wishes,

Lauri Aikio

http://www.shakki.net/cgi-bin/selo?do=pelaaja&pelaaja_id=130

- handle the rating system

- organize league competitions

- provide support to chess clubs, especially those that help beginners (young & adults)

- ban cheaters for life

Do they do these things now or are these things you would like them to do?

They do 1 and 2, some of 3, but unfortunately not 4 yet.

I think 4 is required in these troubled times...

Mmm... I think there should be a life ban but not perhaps for a first offence when you're dealing with a junior or, perhaps, a novice player. I'm also not sure if the framework is in place to fairly judge all instances of cheating and I can imagine legal challenges if a ban affects the livlihood of a professional player if they have any defence against the charge. Also what is cheating? Is accusing someone else of cheating because they are doing particularly well in a tournament, perhaps on inedequate or spurious grounds, a form of cheating too? Maybe there should be a gradation of penalties culminating in a life ban but with a clearer and well defined process for making such judgements.

I agree that junior players shouldn't be life banned on the first occasion. Adult novices, I don't know... do we really want to keep a guy who cheats during his very first tournaments ? I'm not sure...

I won't deal with the legal mixup, but clearcut cases should be adressed strongly.

I understand you're more on the soft side on this issue, but keep in mind that cheating is extremely easy and will become widespread and kill OTB chess if it's not adressed properly

From this perspective, online long chess is already dead.

I'm not sure I'm "soft" on this as I too think that clear-cut cases should be dealt with severely. I'm more concerned that the procedures in place are robust enough both to reach definitive decisions and to avoid injustice. Arbiters can vary in quality and need clear guidance and training too.  I certainly agree it's going to become a big problem unless a very strong line is taken.  

Certainly a lot of work is required to deal with this issue in a correct and fair way. Still, what's missing at the moment is simply a strong stance by federations, that could signal the start of the groundwork.

You're probably familiar with our French cheating case. Despite clear evidence, Sebastien Feller is still playing in FIDE events, and Hauchard and Marcelin are still happily playing and training people in clubs.

Well, I would rather have people with better ethics take their place.

Before the proper procedures are set, and the arbiters are trained, it would be good if federations say "in two years, people found guilty of cheating will be exposed to <insert sanctions here>, and we'll start preparing the scene right now..."

Chess tournaments

I had, of course, been aware of this case, but I hadn't seen the details; so thanks for sending me the link. The evidence does sound pretty damning though the handling of the issue could certainly have been better. I had some sympathy for Feller at the time due to his age - thinking he had acted under an unscrupulous trainers influence - but his denials and attempts to avoid the guilty verdict through technicalities show his conduct in a very different light. 

I want cheating to be taken seriously, but I want the standard of proof to be high.  Chess tournaments shouldn't be witch hunts where anyone who is having a good performance can be accused of cheating and strip searched by some fat man with greasy fingers.  There should be a penalty if you accuse someone and nothing is found.

Clearly a lot of people are concerned to deal with cheating and I agree with them. How about a few other things that you would want/expect of a national federation that they do or do not do.

I would worry that calums concern re WCF grade and the 125 grade ECF have has not been addressed i know that manchester university had grafed elo not ecf grade whilst been active in the leagues (good team too)

4 NCL seems well run and fair if tough but enjoy when called up

lol in our local league our dedicated youth team regularly win many trophies almost suggest nicking their sweeties lol but admire the work 3cs do

tournaments and congresses are well attended but i may have 1 issue there

these tend to be 3 day things accomodation is a big cost factor especially if unwaged would like to see some form of price reduction for those on benefits to be able to access these regularly possibly scholarships for promising plyers could go some of the way

would love to see baker st chess shop branch out to other cities ,

one that is essential though and fits educational and leisure , commitments of schools is after school chess clubs , i believe ECF and the department of education could find a way to fund this and schools i think would back it

calum , talk to your club chairman about your grade , captain of team that covers your real grade ECF 150+ , about this , if you play in a 125&< league you could forfeit a board just by moving 1 e4 for example if the other team captain raises this as the reason

although ecf say 125 you are not barred from playing even kasparov but you may be barred fom playing me , a shame id love a game , im ecf 114

Thank you for this. Many of the the things you mention are privately run, such as the Baker Street shop and most of the tournaments and, therefore, ECF does not have any control over them except through the Grading system in the case of the tournaments. Chess in Schools is doing quite a lot for Juniors but, again, isn't controlled by ECF although I know they cooperate on a number of issues. I certainly agree there are some issues with the Grading system!  

maybe im an idealist but its not impossible for multi agency to pull together cos they will all gain , lol rant over

Certainly cooperation is very useful and if national federations can work with private initiatives and each other and be able to provide useful help and advice we'd certainly be better off! It probably doesn't happen enough though! 

Anarchos61, you are English as am I. I would like the ECF to introduce a rating system for blitz and for the grading database to work correctly all of the time.

The blitz grading system would be good and I think ECF may well have that in mind. It may take a while though as it involves quite a lot of work all carried out by volunteers. You want the database to work correctly all the time: can you be more specific and give a few examples of where you have encountered problems?