Congress Report
Congress began in the usual
manner with greetings, a moment of silence
for those players who were lost in the last year, including
our 2 Canadian friends. André DeVriendt and William
Roach. We were entertained in the
traditional early Spanish or Phoenician style.
A special award was given to
Gian-Maria Tani for 30
years service. Bertel von Massow
awards were given for 15 and 10 years service, including
one to yours truly.
The elections were held for
the new Executive Board positions, Med Samraoui,
Pedro Hegoburo, Hans-Jügen Isigkeit, and Frank Geider, were
all reelected. Note that Pedro is now “General Secretary,” rather than
“Membership and Services Director.”
Michael Blake and Gino Figlio filled the new positions, Marketing
Director and Services Director, respectively.
Congress then started with
the real work, the Finance Report and the Auditor's report. Details will be in
the Congress Minutes. Henk Sarink
stated he wished to retire as Auditor, Carlos Flores G was asked to be the next
Auditor.
Sunday afternoon was used as
a Working Group or Committee as the whole.
World Final problem: Hours
were spent on discussing the next World Final. It was felt that last year's
decision was not workable. Also, neither
software for Silli system nor Rules for nodes were
ready. 36 of 70+ qualifiers had accepted the questionnaire
sent by Marco, but this announcement did not include all the facts needed.
There was no agreement on "big final," no agreement on starting
multiple finals, no agreement on Silli nor round
robin. Finally voted for round robin for all WC's. The plan to start 2 sections
on server in 2008, and announce that another will be started with nodes when
Rules are developed.
Whenever we discussed the
World Championship, GM Annemarie Burghoff, (GER)
asked about the Ladies Championship. All qualifiers were by post or email, why
should they be told to use webserver?
A report was made on the
progress concerning the Diamond book, the 60th Anniversary book.
Fritz Baumbach
reported on the "Champion of Champions book." This started with the
Champion's Jubilee section and has been expanded to include all current
champions.
The Tuesday morning Title
Awards ceremony is always one of the Congress highlights. It was my honor and
pleasure to pick up titles for our Zone. Two Japanese players received their GM
title: Sakae Ohtake and Kiyotaka
Sakai. Jocelyn Cote, Canada, received the IM and SIM titles. The new
Money Prize tournaments were
approved at least on a provisional basis. These will be 9 player tournaments,
rated with norms available. This will be under the NTTC probably. Unrated
players will be given a default of 2200. Play will
be at 10/30.
The schools prototype will
start on Oct. 29, 2007. The first tournament will be for schools in the
northern hemisphere. The TD will be Andrew Dearnley
of
WTD Report:
3rd Webchess Open-approved. CL-Working group formed
with Figlio, Demian,
Millstone, Rawlings, and possibly Bielecki. Approvals
were given to the
Congress
approved the continuation thru 2008 of the 1 free tournament of up to 105 games
to each NF.
It was agreed
to discontinue GMN's by post. Invitationals and other
events were approved.
Zonal Reports
- Afro-Asia Zone is very active and growing in spite of the inconvenience and
cost of playing thru Internet cafes. The zone is in need of books and
chessboards. Contact Ole Jacobsen if you can donate chess materials. EU has an
active program. CADAP has started several Invitationals and events.
Our Zone has
had almost no activity other than to find players for some team events. I hope
that the next Zonal Director is able to stimulate interest in Zonal events.
Playing Rules
- Congress showed positive interest in the doubling of days suggestion. As this
is not a "Rules" Congress, and the time needed to program the server
hasn't been allocated or determined, it was decided not to pass this change at
this Congress.
A
"Working Group" is to be formed to consider all forms of CC at fast
play and to report to the next Congress.
Regarding time
control issues, we must also decide on whether faster tournaments should be
rated. The idea must be coordinated with the Tournament Rules and TD/Arbiter
manual. A minimum number of days is
required to have a tournament rated. Do NF's want their electronic tournaments
rated at speeds less than 30? This 30 day minimum was passed. For post, OK’d
for 10 in 20.
The Rules
Comm. was asked to report in the future on all topics discussed by the Comm.
and not just the ones that they decide to recommend for approval. For example,
some players have suggested that leave be based from tournament start date
rather than calendar basis. The Comm. had rejected this because a player should
take leave in all games at same time.
Tournament Rules-Suggestion
to amend 1.0.7 was passed regarding the use of certain qualifications being
only used once per year.
The proposal
regarding deferrals of WC F qualifications was withdrawn due to this week's
discussions of the WC F problems.
The "overscore" exception was deferred until next Congress,
as the QC had not been included in the discussion process. Both Eric Ruch and Prior QC, George Pyrich,
said their initial impression was that they would be against it.
Ratings
Rules-changes relate to Webserver. The Ratings Rules have not changed since
they were developed 20 years ago. These
will be considered in the next year. Webserver makes it possible to produce 4
lists per year in the future.
Some NF's want
to discontinue their own systems and use ICCF's-should this be allowed. Yes. RC
will determine details as needed.
Alan Rawlings
will Chair Other Rules. John Knudsen is also on that Commission.
Remuneration
idea as proposed by Josef M. was adopted.
The ACO had
not made a report. This Committee needs new instructions from the EB to meet
the goals set in Angostura. Anyone interested in polishing up the manual and
seeing that its provisions are carried out should apply to help. See the 2005
Minutes on the Arbiter Committee.
The EB met on
Tuesday to come up with a contingency plan to cover the unforeseen absence of
Med Samraoui. As we still by Wednesday afternoon, did
not have any update on the President's situation, it was proposed under the
Statutes that Mr. Pyrich as DP&DD deputize as
President until year end and after, or until we hear from Mr. Samraoui. Should we find out that Mr. Samraoui
must or does resign, permission was requested for Mr. Pyrich
to continue deputizing past year-end, then an email election would be held per
the Statutes and Election Regulations. Approved unanimously.
The next
Congress will be in
You will be
notified by Pedro Hegoburo regarding the election for the NAPZ Director
shortly. I have been happy to serve you in this position for the last 4 years,
but if is now time for someone new.
Ruth Ann Fay
NAPZ Director