The problem with some chess federations…
SPRAGGETT ON CHESS
The ”What is in it for me?” syndrome
My blog readers are by now quite aware of the recurring episodes of rampant corruption and blatant constitutional-infidelities amongst many of Canada’s top chess officials and organizers in recent times. There has been a huge price to pay for such behaviour, and the fact that the CFC membership has declined by close to 33% in as many years is only one of the condemning reactions by our little community. Canadian chess players are voting with their feet. But that is not all: the Government has recently stripped the CFC of its charity status. Today chess in Canada is at a all-time low and neither sponsors nor the media want to hear about it…
But Canada is not the only country that is in the dog-house! Numerous national federations have ALSO attracted the wrong type of people and are suffering as a result. Case in point is the Argentine Chess Federation (FADA) which was constantly in the news during the last FIDE elections. I believe that even the Argentine government intervened in the affairs of FADA, trying to settle some outstanding problems with the federation’s controvertial president….
ChessBase today carried an interesting bit on Uruguay’s GM Andres Rodriguez, who helped organize the recently held Continental in Mar Del Plata (Argentina). He had this to say of FADA:
”…it is impossible. Though it is not the only Latin American federation in this situation, the Argentine Chess Federation has more or less become embodied by a single person, whose goal is to get something from chess, as opposed to giving something to it.
It is pretty much all negatives and no positives. If you request help for something that might improve a tournament you never get anything, however they are always pressuring you to pay them something. It needn’t be like this though.
The Uruguayan Chess Federation used to be like this, but in the last 3-4 years since IM Roselli took over the presidency, the difference is night and day. Now, the federation fulfills its purpose and obligations. If you present a chess project to the federation, the first reply is always a yes, what can we do to help? If I present the same project to the Argentine Federation the first reply will be, “What’s in it for us?”, and this isn’t the way we want to work.”
If pricks could fly, then the CFC would have been airborne years ago!