COMMUNIQUE OF THE ECU BOARD MEETING – CL No1/2021

The first ECU Board meeting in 2021 took place on Saturday 16^th of January 2021 through teleconference. The main areas under discussion and decisions were the following:

European Championship/World Championship Qualifications

1. The European Open Championship in Reykjavik, Iceland is rescheduled for 22^nd May to 2^nd June 2021 as the final dates to be held to be included in the current FIDE cycle. 
   The final decision about its conduct will be taken within February 2021, according to the deadlines set by the FIDE World Cup 2021 regulations
2. If the pandemic conditions will not allow the organizers to issue an invitation by February or/and the situation in whole Europe will maintain restrictions to players travel, and so to postpone the EOC on a later period, the WC qualification stage will be organized in a hybrid-type rated event by May 2021 as was foreseen by the regulations for the FIDE World Cup 2021. ECU has already started the procedure to prepare the conditions and special regulations for such a competition if needed. 
3. Parallel, ECU and Icelandic Chess Federation examine the possibility the European Championship 2021 in Reykjavik to be held in later dates in August/September 2021 and be included in the next FIDE WC cycle.
4. The European Women’s Chess Championship 2021 in Mamaia, Romania is scheduled for 31^st May-13^th June 2021 but in the case of a postponement, is a part of the next Women’s World Championship Cycle. 

ECU notes that by the new system of World Cup as was announced by FIDE, forty (40) additional spots were set for the European players. ECU Board on its meeting on January 2020 in Larnaca, Cyprus decided not to keep 50% of these additional spots for the European qualification stages but to be distributed to forty (40) European federations. This decision ensured the wide geographical\federations representation to FIDE World Cup. For the rest qualification spots the priority is to give equal chances to all European top and strong players to qualify, competing in a chess tournament. 

Online and Hybrid Championships

1. ECU has adopted the FIDE Online Regulations with few specifications for the European Championships that will be published.
2. ECU Board approved the following European Online/Hybrid competitions for the 1^st half of 2021 while is expected to be possible more “over the board” championships to be held in the 2^nd half of 2021 according to the ECU official calendar:
   
   A. The 1st European Online Open Club Cup will be organized in March 2021 in co-operation with Monaco Chess Federation from 27^th to 31^st March 2021.
   B. The 2^nd European Online Rapid #Chess Championship in multiple rating categories and qualifications from one rating level to the next will be organized in April 2021. 
   C. The 2^nd European Youth Online/Hybrid Rapid Championship will be organized by ECU in May 2021.
   D. ECU will host the 1st European Online Parliamentary Championship March or April 2021.

Educational and Training Programs

1. The ECU Arbiters Council organizes two Arbiter Online Certification Courses for titled Arbiters.
2. The European Chess Academy will organize the 3rd part of the program “Improve Your Chess” starting on the 22nd of February.
3. A partnership three-years was signed between ECU and the C.S.E.N. for the project “Chess: A game to spread at school” as a joint Erasmus+ Project.
4. A program of webinars will be scheduled and announced including the special info-webinar for Erasmus+ program.

Sincerely,

Theodoros Tsorbatzoglou
ECU Secretary-General

Communique of the ECU Board Meeting CL No1/2021