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| ACP General Assembly Report by Jonathan Berry The Association of Chess Professionals held its General Assembly on October 21st in Calvia, at the Casino where the Olympiad is being played, but not today because it is the first rest day. Unlike many organizations, the ACP conducts no important business at its annual General Assembly. No elections, no motions. At the head table were board members GMs Bartek Macieja, Almira Skripchenko, Joel Lautier, Pavel Tregubov, Alexander Baburin, and Yannick Pelletier. The 70 participants, mostly GMs, were treated to a bilingual (English and Russian) presentation of reports. The ACP can declare "victory" now in its battle to allow participants in the Euro Championship to stay elsewhere than the hotel specified by the organizers. Typically, organizers would charge high-season maximum rates for events held in low or shoulder season, and the profits would reappear as sponsorship. In effect, the players were sponsoring their own tournament, under somebody else's name. While the ACP had success in dealing with the ECU (Euro Chess Union), the same could not be said for its advocacy of players in relation to FIDE. No substantive reply except from the FIDE Ethics Committee, which confirmed that some Euro nominations to the 2004 World Championship were improper. Just beginning is the case of Swiss GM Vadim Milov (who travels under an Israeli passport), which has been accepted at the Court of Sports Arbitration in Lausanne. He wants compensation from FIDE because they made it difficult or impossible for him to play in the 2004 World Championship. For money, the ACP has about 5,000 Euros in the bank, out of more than 9,000 collected mostly for 2004 dues with some 2005 dues as well. Anna Hahn and Yannick Pelletier were welcomed to the Board, with thanks to departing members Svetlana Matveeva and Viorel Bologan. The three ACP Internet tournaments were a great success. The ACP Tour is going ahead, with 35 of 38 tournaments contacted reacting positively. There are plans for another series and for a women's grandmaster series. ACP Prez. Joel Lautier discussed a possible Euro Super-League, a 8-team RR with 7 coming from the Euro Club Cup and 1 nominated by the sponsor. They will propose this to the ECU. Although I wonder what they need the ECU for if they have a sponsor? I guess the answer is that the ACP is trying hard to work with existing organizations, realizing that cooperation works better than discord. More info on these issues, and the full reports, are at the ACP website: http://www.chess-players.org/eng/ The rest of the time available, about 45 minutes, was an open discussion, mostly on the question of short draws. GM Lautier put forward the initial topic, whether it should be illegal to propose or agree to a draw before move 40. Viktor Kortchnoi said that such a proposal is too severe. How about starting with a suggestion to players that they do not make quick draws. I thought: with the FIDE Rules Commission meeting in a couple of days, what an opportunity to put this into practice! Later I thought that such a proviso might already be in the Laws, but on checking them discovered that not only was there no such provision, but the rule prohibiting draws before a real contest had begun had also been removed. Maybe it's gone to the Code of Ethics, a weapon which has been used to vilify a journalist for writing controversial articles, but which has not nabbed anybody for buying or selling points. So, yes, there is an empty spot in the Laws for Mr. Kortchnoi's proposal. Vishy Anand suggested that some positions do become dead quite early and that perhaps players who agreed to a draw before move 30 or 40 should have to explain why to the audience. This raised some laughter, but GM Lautier pointed out that at a lot of tournaments, for example these Olympiads, there is no live audience. Stewart Reuben and GM Yuri Yakovich made the same point: prohibiting draws before move x will encourage pre-arranged games in x or x+1 moves; and that the best way to avoid short draws is to invite fighting players to your tournament. GM Lautier again replied to both of these points: first, short draws do not arise from prearrangement, they happen for chessic and psychological reasons. If they were forbidden before move x, he personally would be happy, one less thing to think about. Second, not all participants are invited; they qualify or they enter. Other possibilites were mooted, such as changing the scoring system, or replaying a drawn game (with reducing time controls) until a decisive result comes out. GM Shabalov st Short draws are an impediment to sponsorship because in, say, a Swiss, you're likely to have a game in the final round on top board ("the final game" it might be called) agreed drawn in a few moves. Sponsors obviously don't like that. Knockout was put forward as the solution, but even there we saw in the 2004 World Championship where players would agree to short draws in the regular games and then shoot it out in the rapid playoffs. Maybe it's a question of adjusting the schedule. The 1992 Fischer-Spassky match had a provision that if the game was drawn quickly, the next game would start at once. I would add that the problem of short draws is increased when bodies choose inappropriate methods of competition. The Swiss System is good for determining a winner from a large pool of players. But to use it for determining dozens of qualifiers, such as the Euro Championship does to the World Championship, is asking for trouble. In my arbiter's report from the 1988 World Active (Rapid, Action ...) Championship in Mazatlan, I noted that the Swiss system was inappropriate. Players would achieve the level they needed to qualify for the playoffs, +3 or +4 or whatever, and then for the rest of the tournament agree to 12-move draws. And that was Rapid Chess! I suggested instead a 64-player knockout tournament, Wimbledon style, with seedings so that the #1 player would play #64 in the first round. This would be an added attraction for the organizer, because their nominee, likely to be #64, would be in the world spotlight, if only for that one match. FIDE eventually went the knockout route, but at first used random pairings, which did not work so well. It took about 15 years, but they finally came around. The Swiss style Continental Championships with multiple qualifiers from each are great if you like short draws. Like if you are a bulletin editor paid for every game entered. Jonathan Berry |
 Volume 3 Now shipping |
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 Game Over: Region 2 DVD. |
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 Message Board |
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 Giant Chess Sets |
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 Chess Computers |
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 Chess Assistant |
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 Books 2000/1/2/3 |
