2017 Grand Prix, Geneva

I added the crosstable and PGN for the third leg of FIDE's Grand Prix to my World Chess Championship page 2017 Grand Prix. For the schedule of the last event, see my previous post, 2017 Grand Prix, Moscow (May 2017).

Since my crosstables are always built from the corresponding PGN file, one of the steps I go through is to compare my final version against the official version. For the FIDE Grand Prix, there are no official crosstables; there are just final totals for the players.

For the Geneva event I noticed mismatches for two players and, thanks to Chessgames.com, discovered the reason. In Ernesto Inarkiev vs A R Saleh Salem; FIDE Grand Prix Geneva (2017), two CG members mentioned,

Jul-10-17 Willber G: The score is wrong, black resigned at this point. 1-0.

Jul-10-17 tamar: DGT gremlins took away 1/2 point from Inarkiev because King on e5 signals draw once arbiter puts White King on e4.

I corrected the PGN, rebuilt the crosstable, and compared the results again. Although everything matches, my experience with this sort of glitch is that there are always consequences downstream.

FIDE Congresses

Every year on this blog I prepare a post titled 'Whither the World Championship?', where the most recent was 2016 FIDE Congress : Whither the World Championship? (January 2017). It's one of a series of posts stemming from minutes of the FIDE Congress, mostly on my main blog, 'Chess for All Ages'.

A few days ago FIDE published an article, Interview with FIDE Administrative Manager Polina Tsedenova, with some useful background on the organization of the FIDE Congresses. Here are some excerpts.

Q: How many Congresses have you organized so far?

A: I started officially working for FIDE in 1997 and my first Congress was in Chisinau (Moldova) in September 1997. Of course I very clearly remember that one because we did it with a previous administration jointly. Their experience was very helpful but I`m sure we improved a lot. Since 1997 we had annual Congresses which mean there have been 20 Congresses already.

[...]

Q: How difficult is it to organize such an event as FIDE Congress?

A: We have clear guidelines which we share with the organizers. We try to do it well in advance. First of all the organizers get pointed with the guidelines, second, they find a proper Congress manager, third, they find the adequate number of volunteers and fine facilities. I usually travel before any Congress for an inspection to see what they propose to us and they cooperate and collaborate in 95% of the guesses let’s say.

Neither chess players nor organizers really understand what kind of event is the Congress and many people mix FIDE Congress and let’s say a General Assembly or an Executive Board. Congress is the general term for the whole globe of the meetings which are under this umbrella. FIDE Congress today consists of several parts: General Assembly, Executive Board, commissions’ meetings, continental meetings and other meetings.

We have 188 national federations’ members of FIDE, who can delegate one person to represent their federation and vote on behalf of a federation and the meeting of these delegates we call a General Assembly. This meeting is organized every two years and it occupies the last three days of the FIDE Congress.

The Congress starts with the meetings of FIDE commissions. FIDE has more than 20 commissions and we separate the meetings during the duration of 4 days from morning till evening. When I started working we used to have a Central Committee of FIDE which was about 50-60 people and it was very bulky and it was not very convenient to have both the central committee meeting and the General Assembly. In 1999 it was decided to abolish it.

[...]

Q: What are the common problems which appear in the process of the preparation and organization of FIDE Congresses?

A: We try to put strict deadlines according to the FIDE Statutes but many federations don’t follow the terms. In several federations the administrative problems exist. People don’t read FIDE Statutes, people don`t follow the information we sent them. We send them all the information on the deadlines on the specific dates when they have to provide something. I don`t know why it`s happening, maybe because some federations are relaxed or have lack of the personnel or staff but then we have to deal with it.

More information on the Congresses can be found in 'Handbook :: A. Administrative Subjects :: 07. FIDE Congress Regulations' (fide.com). Thanks, FIDE!