Why was Nigel Short selected for the Olympiad team? He has been rested for 5 of the 10 rounds, which has meant that the other team members have played perhaps too often. It looks like his campaigning for the Kasparov election bid has clearly affected his level of play. Seems like a poor choice to select him knowing his other distraction.
Yes, I agree on Short. In a rational world the ECF should be doing some soul searching over their complete inability to read the situation. It seems to me Andrew Paulson had some kind of sound strategy, and the ECF would now have real influence in FIDE and get events etc. Now they don't even have a President. When you look at the Board who turned against him (ie exclude Phil Ehr) not one of them has achieved a thing in the real world and it sadly shows.
Led an organisation, created something, showed an ounce of commercial sense. Steve Giddins used to say Sean Hewitt was the only one with any commercial sense, which I don't know about (retrospectively changing a prize fund and depriving the forum's most verbose poster of a prize does not seem great business acumen to me). But what is looking increasingly evident is Paulson read the FIDE situation perfectly, and was positioning himself appropriately.
Yeah, but the problem is that a lot of people who lead organisations aren't to be trusted in any sense (I usually cite football club chairmen in this context) and Paulson in particular had no knowledge at all of the organisation he was seeking to lead, no particular capacity for working with other people and very little capacity to tell the truth. (As for commercial sense, we don't really know very much about Paulson's record in that area, because we don't really know much about him before he turned up suddenly.)
Paulson may have read the FIDE situation well, but failed to read the ECF one, which was that English players, not just the ECF directors were and are hostile to a continuing Kirsan presidency. Also that the views of players do have some limited influence over ECF decision making.
and the ECF would now have real influence in FIDE and get events etc.
Something of a poisoned chalice. There are two approaches to running events. One is that you have a sponsor or sponsors willing to finance the event. Olympiads are the model for this.
The other is that you buy accommodation and meals at out of season prices and sell them on to participants at high season premium prices. Greece and Turkey are particular experts at this. Comparing prices, if it was possible to get a couple of weeks at 4NCL or e2e4 prices, then if passed on at near cost, England could be competitive. Two weeks in Daventry or Hinckley might not have major appeal for those of a more tourist orientation.
The BCF got its fingers burnt on this. Having, it thought, been awarded the 1999 European Championships in Torquay, it found out in Elista 1998 that there had been complaints about the potential costs of an English venue and that the Championships had been awarded to Batumi.
9 comments:
Shame about VK's play since that game, though.
Indeed. Although I imagine he’d take 1/10 as long as the one came at the expense of Toppy.
Why was Nigel Short selected for the Olympiad team? He has been rested for 5 of the 10 rounds, which has meant that the other team members have played perhaps too often. It looks like his campaigning for the Kasparov election bid has clearly affected his level of play. Seems like a poor choice to select him knowing his other distraction.
Yes, I agree on Short. In a rational world the ECF should be doing some soul searching over their complete inability to read the situation. It seems to me Andrew Paulson had some kind of sound strategy, and the ECF would now have real influence in FIDE and get events etc. Now they don't even have a President. When you look at the Board who turned against him (ie exclude Phil Ehr) not one of them has achieved a thing in the real world and it sadly shows.
not one of them has achieved a thing in the real world
I do wish people who use that phrase would spell out what they mean by it.
Led an organisation, created something, showed an ounce of commercial sense. Steve Giddins used to say Sean Hewitt was the only one with any commercial sense, which I don't know about (retrospectively changing a prize fund and depriving the forum's most verbose poster of a prize does not seem great business acumen to me). But what is looking increasingly evident is Paulson read the FIDE situation perfectly, and was positioning himself appropriately.
Yeah, but the problem is that a lot of people who lead organisations aren't to be trusted in any sense (I usually cite football club chairmen in this context) and Paulson in particular had no knowledge at all of the organisation he was seeking to lead, no particular capacity for working with other people and very little capacity to tell the truth. (As for commercial sense, we don't really know very much about Paulson's record in that area, because we don't really know much about him before he turned up suddenly.)
Paulson may have read the FIDE situation well, but failed to read the ECF one, which was that English players, not just the ECF directors were and are hostile to a continuing Kirsan presidency. Also that the views of players do have some limited influence over ECF decision making.
RdC
and the ECF would now have real influence in FIDE and get events etc.
Something of a poisoned chalice. There are two approaches to running events. One is that you have a sponsor or sponsors willing to finance the event. Olympiads are the model for this.
The other is that you buy accommodation and meals at out of season prices and sell them on to participants at high season premium prices. Greece and Turkey are particular experts at this. Comparing prices, if it was possible to get a couple of weeks at 4NCL or e2e4 prices, then if passed on at near cost, England could be competitive. Two weeks in Daventry or Hinckley might not have major appeal for those of a more tourist orientation.
The BCF got its fingers burnt on this. Having, it thought, been awarded the 1999 European Championships in Torquay, it found out in Elista 1998 that there had been complaints about the potential costs of an English venue and that the Championships had been awarded to Batumi.
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