English Chess Forum

I'm now a FIDE Online Arena member (Premium) that means I get extras on the Arena online server and can compete for grades and titles given by FIDE for Online Arena. The membership fees are significant compared to ECF membership fees.

https://arena.myfide.net/registration-a ... emberships

€25 for Fide Member and €50 for Premium Member, for premium membership you are given a official FIDE national rating.

Why should I pay FIDE €50 a year than have to pay the ECF an extra £60 fee for platinum membership with no discount for the fact I'm already paying FIDE? Or put another way why does FIDE give me a National online grade on behalf of the ECF but the ECF still require me to pay the full amount of membership as if I never paid anything to FIDE. Afterall the ECF gives the membership money to FIDE. Why should I pay the full fees twice, one to FIDE and the other to FIDE via the ECF?

Michael Mkpadi wrote: Why should I pay the full fees twice, one to FIDE and the other to FIDE via the ECF?

Why do you assume that any of your ECF Membership Fee goes to FIDE? It does, but it was 1 Euro per year per rated person when I last investigated.

The ECF charges more to give you permission to play in FIDE rated tournaments, but that's the ECF's fund raising. You should compare Arena to membership costs at ICC, which has been around for twenty years and is independent of national chess federations.

Correction of fact: You don't need platinum membership to play in FIDE events - it's the considerably cheaper gold membership. Platinum is a membership level designed to give keen members the opportunity to pay extra out of goodwill and for a bit of added status and a few freebies.

Whether or not premium arena membership should give you direct membership of FIDE by-passing the national federations is, I believe, something of an issue at present.

Michael Farthing wrote: Whether or not premium arena membership should give you direct membership of FIDE by-passing the national federations is, I believe, something of an issue at present.

Rather like the ECF, they won't give a vote, even if they will happily take the money. To be fair on the ECF, they do give Platinum members a very diluted vote via the Platinum members representatives.

Michael Farthing wrote:Correction of fact: You don't need platinum membership to play in FIDE events - it's the considerably cheaper gold membership. Platinum is a membership level designed to give keen members the opportunity to pay extra out of goodwill and for a bit of added status and a few freebies.

Whether or not premium arena membership should give you direct membership of FIDE by-passing the national federations is, I believe, something of an issue at present.

Correction noted but Michael I never said Platinium membership was needed to play in FIDE events. I pay for Premium FIDE Arena membership which I consider to be equivalent to Platinum membership. But regardless of what level of membership I decide to take from the ECF why should I pay all of it. I wouldn't mind a £1 discount (Roger made the point that was all that went to FIDE).

It's about fairness and value for money. I'm not against the ECF raising funds.

Roger de Coverly wrote:

Michael Mkpadi wrote: Why should I pay the full fees twice, one to FIDE and the other to FIDE via the ECF?

Why do you assume that any of your ECF Membership Fee goes to FIDE? It does, but it was 1 Euro per year per rated person when I last investigated.

The ECF charges more to give you permission to play in FIDE rated tournaments, but that's the ECF's fund raising. You should compare Arena to membership costs at ICC, which has been around for twenty years and is independent of national chess federations.

Roger why do you assume I assume membership costs go to FIDE. FIDE setup National Federations have used them to subsidise the cost of running FIDE for many years now. We all know about the seperate issue of FIDE licencing and how the Federations are expected to pass on the fees from each player registered. This came to the fore recently when some federations refused to pay or were in arrears and FIDE named and shamed them on their website.

Anyway coming back to ECF Membership I would expect my overall contribution to the FIDE organisation to be recognised as ECF is part of FIDE. That is my point.

Michael Mkpadi wrote: Anyway coming back to ECF Membership I would expect my overall contribution to the FIDE organisation to be recognised as ECF is part of FIDE. That is my point.

The ECF is NOT part of FIDE in the way that you imply and there is no sharing of financial resources. As the national Federation for English chess, it is a member of FIDE along with the other national federations. FIDE only allows one member federation per country, but it would be plausible for another national chess body to be set up, gain the support of most of England's chess players and some sort of Government recognition and persuade FIDE to allow it to replace the ECF as the recognised national body for England.

FIDE Arena is basically an Italian online server using the name of FIDE to promote itself.

Roger de Coverly wrote: The ECF is NOT part of FIDE in the way that you imply and there is no sharing of financial resources. As the national Federation for English chess, it is a member of FIDE along with the other national federations. FIDE only allows one member federation per country, but it would be plausible for another national chess body to be set up, gain the support of most of England's chess players and some sort of Government recognition and persuade FIDE to allow it to replace the ECF as the recognised national body for England..

I did not say ECF shares financial resources with FIDE give me some credit, however they are part of the structure of FIDE as a national federation and participate in FIDE National Federation matters and abide by the rules and regulations FIDE sets out for such National Federations. The fact they can be replaced or chose to walk away from FIDE is not the point here.

Michael Mkpadi wrote: €25 for Fide Member and €50 for Premium Member, for premium membership you are given a official FIDE national rating.

This official FIDE national rating, with associated national titles, is the source of some confusion. It applies only in countries whose federations have officially signed up to use the FOA platform for rated games. I do not believe that any such yet exist.

"National (**) Online official rating

(**) The mentioned Status and Services are available for the Nationional Chess Federations which have already adopted the same Chess Platform adopted by FOA."

NickFaulks wrote: This official FIDE national rating, with associated national titles, is the source of some confusion. It applies only in countries whose federations have officially signed up to use the FOA platform for rated games. I do not believe that any such yet exist.

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Arena in its current form is a bit of a con trick really with far fewer participants than it would like to give the impression. I doubt many national federations, or those with a sizeable over the board playing base want very much to do with it.

NickFaulks wrote:

Michael Mkpadi wrote: €25 for Fide Member and €50 for Premium Member, for premium membership you are given a official FIDE national rating.

This official FIDE national rating, with associated national titles, is the source of some confusion. It applies only in countries whose federations have officially signed up to use the FOA platform for rated games. I do not believe that any such yet exist.

"National (**) Online official rating

(**) The mentioned Status and Services are available for the Nationional Chess Federations which have already adopted the same Chess Platform adopted by FOA."

Thank you Nick, you have brought clarity to my confusion. I assumed wrong. Thanks