English Chess Forum

According to Chessdom:

Following the certain issues that arose during the Candidates Tournament in Moscow, the FIDE Presidential Board has placed AGON under probation until the Congress in Baku.

Anybody have any idea what this means?

(via comments here)

There's rumors about Agon failing to find sponsors for the match in New York and pressure to move the world championship to Russia. This might be the first formal step of FIDE in that direction.

JustinHorton wrote: Anybody have any idea what this means?

Perhaps FIDE Delegates under pressure from their national players are complaining bitterly about Agon's attempts to suppress discussion of games whilst in progress.

It would serve Agon and FIDE right, if those sites like chess24 who have done much to cultivate coverage of live chess and build a regular audience were to boycott the Chess Grand Prix in favour of more coverage friendly events. It would help if Agon didn't believe their own propaganda on the potential size of a live audience, or realised that the number of people who "know the rules" is not the same as might be interested in live coverage.

First I've heard about any of this. I cannot find any official reference to AGON's probation ( although you might be forgiven for regarding Chessdom as official ).

Separately, their plans for the 2016/17 Grand Prix are now formal.

http://www.fide.com/FIDE/handbook/FIDE_ ... 6_2017.pdf

We knew that PB had approved something, not that is was so radical. Eighteen player, nine round Swisses? I suppose it might work.

Roger de Coverly wrote: Perhaps FIDE Delegates under pressure from their national players are complaining bitterly

How do you think they would do that?

I'm also inclined to doubt that that's FIDE's motivation, since the previous paragraph reads:

For the first time FIDE officially claims the right to restrict games transmission, presumably under pressure from AGON: “For the avoidance of doubt, FIDE or its appointed commercial agency shall have the exclusive rights for live games on the Internet.”

NickFaulks wrote: How do you think they would do that?

The ECF have introduced a "ask the director" feature to replace their forum. I might be inclined to rattle Malcolm's cage on this. To the extent that players in other federations have the slightest influence on the policies of their federations, they could follow whatever was the equivalent national mechanism.

Roger de Coverly wrote:I might be inclined to rattle Malcolm's cage on this.

Don't let me stop you, but such comments are taken more seriously when they come from a federation rather than an individual.

NickFaulks wrote: Don't let me stop you, but such comments are taken more seriously when they come from a federation rather than an individual.

That's the point. It becomes official ECF policy to oppose attempts to rewrite the legal history that a record of moves played is a history of facts and not the property of the organiser.

Roger de Coverly wrote: That's the point. It becomes official ECF policy to oppose attempts to rewrite the legal history that a record of moves played is a history of facts and not the property of the organiser.

That's my point. As we've seen lately, having the FIDE Delegate express an opinion does not make it official ECF policy.

NickFaulks wrote: That's my point. As we've seen lately, having the FIDE Delegate express an opinion does not make it official ECF policy.

I'm waiting to see if "Ask the Director" is anything other than window dressing. If it has a value, it perhaps will be necessary to ask whether a course of action can become official ECF policy.

Let us know how you get on. Will you be ticking the box which allows them the make the Q&A public ( but anonymous )?

Roger de Coverly wrote:

NickFaulks wrote: That's my point. As we've seen lately, having the FIDE Delegate express an opinion does not make it official ECF policy.

I'm waiting to see if "Ask the Director" is anything other than window dressing. If it has a value, it perhaps will be necessary to ask whether a course of action can become official ECF policy.

If you ask a question on "Ask the Director" it will be answered within the self-imposed time-scales already publicised. If it is of general interest, and a suggestion as to a change of policy is obviously that, it'll be published on the website together with the answer and may appear again on an FAQ page once we have enough material.

We have been monitoring how it's been working and, thus far, all questions have been answered easily within 5 days. We have not been inundated, which was certainly one concern and, if anything, the volume of usage has been less than we had hoped. It's a new thing though so we expect that as people ask their questions and find them answered within the time-scale, and some of those exchanges find their way to the website, they and others will be encouraged to utilise the application more.

I last looked through the questions asked and the answers a little over a week ago and found that all were of a nature that was only relevant to the questioner and, therefore, there was nothing to share on the website. Some were so specific I'm surprised that they were not simply sent in an email to the director concerned. As soon as we get material which will interest a broad readership it'll be on the homepage and maybe in the eNewsletter too. This is not a "window-dressing" exercise but an honest attempt to receive and candidly answer questions within a specified time-frame and we hope it'll be useful to the membership and produce interesting and relevant material for the website. So please ask your question, Roger.

Mark Jordan wrote:If you ask a question on "Ask the Director" it will be answered within the self-imposed time-scales already publicised. If it is of general interest, and a suggestion as to a change of policy is obviously that, it'll be published on the website together with the answer and may appear again on an FAQ page once we have enough material.

We have been monitoring how it's been working and, thus far, all questions have been answered easily within 5 days. We have not been inundated, which was certainly one concern and, if anything, the volume of usage has been less than we had hoped.

How many questions have been asked?

Mick Norris wrote:

Mark Jordan wrote:If you ask a question on "Ask the Director" it will be answered within the self-imposed time-scales already publicised. If it is of general interest, and a suggestion as to a change of policy is obviously that, it'll be published on the website together with the answer and may appear again on an FAQ page once we have enough material.

We have been monitoring how it's been working and, thus far, all questions have been answered easily within 5 days. We have not been inundated, which was certainly one concern and, if anything, the volume of usage has been less than we had hoped.

How many questions have been asked?

When I last checked I think there were 12, but that was more than 10 days ago. It's monitored at the office, which is closed today of course, and I was intending to to ask for an up-date tomorrow in any case. I'll let you know what the new figure is when I have it.