Chess and other trivia
SPRAGGETT ON CHESS
Worried that the CFC might go bankrupt paying FIDE fees before the merry band of CFC elected-leaders manage to ‘TRILLIUMIZE’ the CHESS FOUNDATION’S 250,000 dollars?? There may be something to it…
Boyle has made it no secret that the West End icon, who has appeared in shows including Evita, Cats, Hair, Chess and Grease, is her idol. Paige even made a guest appearance on the documentary about Boyle, I Dreamed A Dream, performing a duet with her.
”Your highness, when I said that you are like a stream of bat’s piss, I only mean that you shine out like a shaft of gold when all around it is dark” –Monty Python
”Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it.”
George Bernard Shaw
The cost of being on the Fide rating list.
Friday January 29, 2010
By QUAH SENG SUN
”HEY, Greg,” I asked the Malaysian Chess Federation’s secretary when I bumped into him in Kuala Lumpur recently, “what’s become of our standing with the World Chess Federation (Fide)?”
In case you are not aware, Malaysia’s name had been missing from Fide’s list of member countries since the beginning of the year. Our Fide-rated players suddenly found themselves delisted from the Fide rating list. Gregory Lau, the MCF secretary, would be the best person to bring me up to date on this matter.
“Oh, don’t you know,” he replied almost casually, “we are back on board Fide since last Friday at about 9pm. If you check the Fide website, all our players are back in the rating list.”
That was quite a relief to hear. We are again a member in benefit. At first, I wanted to say that MCF should shoulder the full blame for letting our membership lapse but on second thoughts, was it really MCF’s fault?
I don’t think so. In fact, MCF’s position is beyond envy. The federation receives so little or no funding from the Government and whatever little financial resources it has goes back to cover its administrative costs.
From what I know, Fide was owed in excess of €2,000. At today’s exchange rates, that’s at least RM10,000. While a chunk of it went towards settling the membership dues, there are also other obligations towards Fide.
For example, it costs €270 to register a team for the Chess Olympiad. If we send both the men’s and women’s teams, the cost is doubled. Then there are also the rating fees for our players. As long as a player is registered with Fide and he is in their “active” list, the federation is required to pay 1 euro for that player.
Getting a chess title confirmed is also not cheap. For instance, an application for an international master title will cost the federation €165 and in the past year, we had two new international masters. Fide has the right to increase the fee by 50% to 100% if title applications are made after their deadline for submission.
And finally, if you want to organise a Fide-rated round-robin tournament, be prepared to pay the registration fee, too. It’s calculated based on the strength of the tournament. For Swiss tournaments, the fee is €1 per player. On top of that, if the organiser fails to submit the results to Fide, a penalty fee kicks in.
All in all, these fees simply add up to a lot of money. For voluntary organisations like the MCF, it digs a deep hole in the pocket. And this is just fees due to Fide alone. What about participation in regional events? They cost money, too, but only this time, the Asian Chess Federation is the beneficiary of the fees.
So don’t think that chess is a cheap game. If a federation is not careful, one fine day it will find itself temporarily excluded from Fide until the arrears are settled. That’s what happened to MCF. The big fear is this: okay, so our arrears have been settled for now but what will happen in the next one or two years? Nobody knows.
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You have to be careful who you talk to these days…there are so many paparazzi around with hidden cameras! Elaine Paige got caught in her own mess …. and has had to back track since!
Elaine Paige Slams SusanBoyle
Elaine Paige upstaged by YouTube virus?
Elaine Paige has likened Britain’s Got Talent star Susan Boyle to a virus, suggesting that all her success is down to YouTube.
But at this week’s South Bank Show Awards, Paige commented: “She is doing terribly well considering she literally came to the attention of the world overnight with the advent of YouTube.
“She was like a virus really that spread across the world in a nanosecond. She is a major star because of YouTube. Longevity is gained through knowledge, experience and effort so it will remain to be seen I don’t particularly feel any pride for her – I’m sure she is proud of what she has done.”
This created quite a scandal in the English tabloid media, and so Elaine Paige had to back track very carefully!
Paige then elaborated on her statement in the Daily Mail, claiming that “she is a girl with no experience of anything to do with theatrics, the music business, or art in any way” and that she doesn’t “particularly feel any pride for her – I’m sure she is proud of what she has done.”
Says Paige in response of the Daily Mail article:
“I was dismayed to read the remarks attributed to me today in the Daily Mail which were incomplete and misinterpreted.”
”I am a huge supporter of Susan Boyle and admire what she has achieved; she has handled the extraordinary situation of being catapulted to worldwide stardom with tremendous strength, charm and dignity and I thoroughly enjoyed working with her on the ITV special we recorded together only last month.”
”I have always said it’s very hard for someone to be fast-tracked to stardom without any prior experience – I know this as it happened to me when ‘Evita’ opened and I found it extremely difficult in the beginning; today, of course, it’s much harder with the phenomenon of the internet – Facebook, YouTube etc – it seems it only takes minutes for fame to spread around the world – and that’s why I used the word ‘virus’! I wasn’t referring to Susan herself; I was referring to the speed of her fame spreading as fast as a worldwide viral marketing campaign.”
All this sort of reminds me of a Monty Python joke:
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Finally, on growing old and having the extraordinarily good luck to reach 101 years! What advice would you offer to the world?
101-year-old shares advice for good life
LONGVIEW, TX (KLTV) – An East Texas man who has rubbed elbows with the likes of Frank Sinatra and Johnny Carson celebrated his second triple-digit birthday Monday.
Eddie Halliday, 101, lives in Longview now, but spent more than 20 years in Las Vegas selling condos, and hobnobbing with celebrities.
As an avid chess player, he has spent years playing a game based on hiding your intentions, but says telling the truth is the key to long life.
“If you don’t lie about things, you’re truthful, you can get by with a bad memory,” said Halliday. “You’ve got to have an awfully good memory if you tell a bunch of lies because you’ve got to remember the lies.”
Halliday earned the nickname “Fast Eddie” during his time in Vegas, and in addition to his chess skills was also a great pool player.
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