CIRCULAR LETTER No4- 12.12.2018.- COMMUNIQUE OF THE ECU BOARD

Circular Letter No. 4/12.12.2018

Communique of the ECU Board

The European Chess Union Board meeting took place on 7^th of December in Skopje, FYR of Macedonia. The meeting was held under excellent conditions in the hotel Aleksandar Palace during the European Individual Rapid & Blitz Chess Championship 2018. The President of the National Chess Federation, Mr. Blagoja Bogoevski, opened the meeting and welcomed the ECU Board in Skopje.

The main areas under discussion and decisions made were the following:

Appointments

• Arkadij Naiditsch (AZE) is appointed as the ECU Commercial Director
• Erald Dervishi (ALB) appointed as ECU CEO and Ms. Tea Kipshidze (GEO) as ECU Marketing Director at the Board meeting in Batumi on 4^th of October 2018.
• The Chairmen of ECU Commissions appointed by the ECU President at the Board meeting in Batumi
• Educational Commission: Mr. Jesper Hall (SWE)
  Arbiters Council: Mr. Tomek Delega (POL)
  Events Commission: Mr. Blagoja Bogoevski (MKD)
  Women’s Commission: Mr. Jean Michel Rapaire (MNC)

• The ΕCU Board welcomed the expressions of interest by a large number of applicants and appointed the members for the ECU Commissions and the European representatives for the FIDE Commissions. The commissions’’ compositions will be announced in a separate press release.

Program of Support in National and European Level

It was agreed that ECU in co-operation with the National federations-members will launch a program of communication in the ministerial level with the scope to boost the National chess programs supporting where is possible the members’ budgets through the National structures. Main point is to activate all members in chess projects assisting to financially strong, independent and transparent chess institutions.

A working group was created under the supervision of the ECU Vice President Mrs. Dana Reizniece – Ozola to establish contacts with the European Union institutions and submit proposals to the EU annual funding programs. ECU Board noted that EU is already one the biggest supporters of “Chess in Schools” projects approving a number of proposals as the “Castle project” and the “Chess & Mathematics” which results already have been adopted by the ECU Educational Commission. The preliminary work and the key actions for the main project to be submitted has already completed by the ECU Educational Committee.

 

Standardization & Information Technology

 The ECU Board emphasized the significance of standardization in various areas. Proposals discussed, planned and approved on the following directions:

• The dress code for the ECU Arbiters. Scheduled to be implemented by the European Teams Chess Championships 2019 in Batumi, Georgia.

• The development of special software for the selection and evaluation of the Chess Arbiters for the European Championships.
• The development of special statistical database for the broadcasting of the European Championships.
• The standardization of the TV and online productions for the ECU major Competitions. For that purpose, ECU Board decided to make an open non-binding tender to receive proposals and offers.
• Innovative IT projects approved and will be announced on due time.

 

European Championships

• The European Senior Team Chess Championship 2020 is awarded as a sole bid to Wroclaw, Poland.
• The European Youth Team Chess Championship 2020 is awarded as a sole bid to Halkidiki, Greece.
• The option of the 2nd European Corporate Chess Championship is awarded to Minsk, Belarus to be organized from 1st to 4^th March 2019. The winner of the event may qualify (with free entry) for the European Business Gala a new event under consideration.
• The European Small Nation Teams Championship 2019 will be organized in San Marino from 23^rd to 31^st March 2019.
• Due to many requests from players the European Club Cup 2019 scheduled to start in Montenegro on 6^th November 2019, was moved for few days, in order to be enough time for convenient travel from the European Team Championship 2019 scheduled n Batumi, Georgia from 23 October to 3 November 2019. New dates for ECCC2019 are 09-17 November 2019 (Saturday to Sunday).
• ECU Board decided to qualify for the World Chess Cup 2019 both players, who tied, with all tiebreak criteria the same, on the 23^rd position of European Individual Chess Championship 2018, GM Anton Guijarro David (ESP) and GM Mircea Emilian Paligras (ROU).

 

ECU extraordinary General Assembly

With reference to the decision of the ECU General Assembly 2018 in Batumi, Georgia and the postponement of bids decisions the ECU Board confirmed the ECU extraordinary General Assembly to be held in Skopje, FYR of Macedonia, during the European Individual Championship 2019, on Saturday 23rd of March with the following three (3) items:

• Decisions on the bids for the 2020-2021 events which already have been submitted in April 2018
• Reallocation of the ECU budget 2019
• Amendments on the ECU Tournament rules

The detailed invitation and the agenda of the meeting will be sent on due time.

 

Sincerely,

Theodoros Tsorbatzoglou
ECU Secretary General