The 37th Chess Olympiad will be held from 20th May to 4th June 2006
at Torino, Italy.
On 13th December 2005 we received an email from Pedro Hegoburu which indicated that ICCF will form a team to participate in the FIDE Olympiad 2006 in Torino, Italy.
CC players the world over were over joyous to receive this good news that at last there would be a desirable overlap between the OTB and CC world.
The next email from Pedro Hegoburu came on 1st March 2005. A team had been selected. Players: GM Tunc Hamarat (AUT), GM Gert-Jan Timmerman (NED), GM Fritz Baumbach (GER), GM Jean Hebert (CAN), GM Dmitry Lybin (BLR) and GM Marc Geenen (BEL). Team Captain: GM John Timm (USA). Reserve: GM Roman Chytilek (CZE).
But by 20th March it became clear that there was something clearly amiss. Good things don't happen so easily. Apparently it turns out that FIDE never really paved the way for ICCF to send a team to the FIDE Olympiad. They had not come up with a definite decision and they just left it up to the local organisers. The 10th October 2005 invitation from the Italian organisers upon which ICCF had acted and selected a team was not upheld by FIDE. FIDE's position has not been properly clarified to date and they are silent in acknowledging or replying to letters sent by ICCF.
The first reaction of CC players when we got wind of the refusal of FIDE to allow ICCF to participate in the Olympiad was not only disappointment but strong indignation. It was looking like a long standing war of OTB vs. CC. CC was being looked down upon and shut out.
But we should not be so hasty in forming such an opinion. CC players have a great deal of respect for chess players who push wood instead of letters, emails or virtual web-server pieces. Why should OTB players lack respect for us? After all we belong the same brand of slightly esoteric people who set about using their grey matter in the world of 64 squares outside the real world of politics, strife, unemployment and what have you.
Apparently the official stand taken by ICCF is that according IOC regulations, the Olympiad, like the Olympic games, is open to federations, representing countries only. ICCF or any other organization cannot take part in the Olympiad. There were three exceptions in the past but these are to be taken as mistakes.
If this really is the situation, then we should not assume that there is any malice between OTB and CC players. FIDE is not trying to shut out the CC players. Its just that the Olympiad is not an event that they can open to federations that don’t represent a nation. The Olympiad is a competition between countries. If per chance ICCF were to win the Olympiad, which country would you say had won the Chess Olympiad this year?
We should not take to heart this unfortunate event of ICCF first being invited to participate and then being denied a place. And what of FIDE’s behaviour in not replying to ICCF, not even acknowledging the letters? Does this not smack of an utter disrespect for CC?
Actually no. Its just that with a big establishment like FIDE they are not coordinated enough to know what do and how to reply correctly to issues like this. They have much to do and many things to look after. When a matter comes up about which they themselves do not know the answer the only thing which happens is inaction.
FIDE is surprised that the official stand taken by them (that only federations representing countries can participate in the Olympiad) is not known to ICCF. It transpires that what FIDE did was to send an email to the Italian organisers, as they were the ones who sent the invitation to ICCF. It didn’t occur to them to mark a copy to ICCF –maybe they didn’t have that email address handy. The local organisers of the Torino Olympiad having their hands full anyway, perhaps did not see fit to inform ICCF either. They just took note of the fact that ICCF was not participating. After all the reasons behind it were not their ambit, but that of FIDE.
As CC players we are upset that an ICCF team is not allowed to participate in the Olympiad. We are upset that the official stand taken by FIDE was not communicated to ICCF but came through an announcement in Chess Today, March 11, 2006, published by GM Alex Baburin. But at the root of all this is not a feud between OTB players and CC players. Its simply a bit of bad management and miscommunication.
Instead of worrying about this, the right thing to do is ... organise another tournament. That is what is being done by the Czech CC Association. They have announced an International Over the Board Chess Tournament for Correspondence Chess Players. It will be held from 1st - 9th July at Karvina, Silesian University, Universitni namesti 1934/3, Czech Republic. The Tournament Director is Dr. Med. Jaromír Canibal,