ECU Secretary General, Mr. Theodoros Tsorbatzoglou attended the meeting
Zone President Mr. Paris Klerides welcomed the delegates of ESNA and congratulated the chess federation of San Marino for the excellent organization of the 6th ESNA team chess championship. He accentuated the importance of Zone 1.10. It was appreciated that most teams respected the dress code in ESNA events. Actually, there is no need to change or to tighten the dress code for ESNA tournaments. Moreover, FIDE and ECU are elaborating dress codes that can be adopted for ESNA as well.
It was decided that the ESNA website should run under an own domain in order to be able to post articles independently. The domain fee has to be paid by ESNA. Every country can post (or send to the webmaster) articles about actual issues like national championships, important open tournaments, various activities etc. The member federations should send their general contact information and the link of their homepage to Mr. Paris Klerides.
ESNA Financial Support
Actually ECU supports ESNA events with an amount of €40.000 for a 2 year period (€25.000 for the team championship and €15.000 for the individual championship). Delegates accentuated that this support is important in order to be able to organize the events in the future. The competitively (contrary to the European team championship) and the familiar atmosphere are few of the main reasons to continue this way. Not only the team championship but also the individual one should be maintained because an individual championship should be organized in an official FIDE Zone and it gives an ESNA player the possibility to participate in the World Cup.
Mr. Finnborn Vang explained that between 2014 and 2018, two members of ESNA federations were part of the ECU Board and that this presence is important to guarantee the support of ECU for ESNA. Unfortunately, no member of an ESNA federation is a member of ECU Board after the last elections in Batumi.
Mr. Theodoros Tsorbatzoglou (ECU General Secretary) joined the meeting and made excuses for ECU President, Mr. Zurab Azmaiparashvili who could not come to San Marino because of the closing ceremony of the European individual championship. He explained that the ECU budget will grow thanks to new sponsors but the criteria of the support for developing countries should be changed and be relied on targets. ECU board prefers that more ESNA countries would participate in the European team championship and suggests redistributing the support in that way like free accommodation (two double rooms) for ESNA federations in the European team championship. Moreover, ECU wants to offer free seminars for teachers, arbiters and trainers for all ESNA federations. ESNA delegates explained the importance of the ESNA tournaments and that actually ECU costs are not more than €2.000 per ESNA member federation per year. Mr. Theodoros Tsorbatzoglou replied that ECU is not going to cut-off this budget and that the budget may increase if every ESNA member federation participates in the European team championship. ESNA delegates promised to make efforts to participate in the European team championship if the tournaments gets more attractive and motivate ESNA teams.
Mr Tsorbatzoglou assured that ECU support for ESNA individual championship in Monaco next year is guaranteed and If Liechtenstein gets no other financial support from FIDE regarding the team championship in 2021, then ECU will guarantee the support. Mr. Theodoros Tsorbatzoglou also mentioned that its preferable if the tournament can take place early in the year so that ESNA member federations will be able to participate in the European team championship later in 2021. He floated the option that a part of the ECU support could be used for the best 3 or 4 teams to cover the expenses for the European team championship.
Various Topics
Before the end of the meeting, Mr. Patrick Van Hooland informed that the European Blitz and Rapid Chess Championship for women will take place in Monaco from 28th of November to 2nd of December 2019. The federation of Monaco offers to one player of every ESNA federation free accommodation (single room in a double apartment).
The ESNA individual championship will take place in Monaco from 25th of October to 2nd of November 2020. Players will be accommodated in single rooms with breakfast and they will receive allowance €20 per meal. The tournament will be played in the venue of Monaco Chess Club. Parallel to this tournament, the federation of Monaco organizes from 30th of October to 2nd of November 2020 a rapid chess youth tournament with ten teams that are composed of two boys and two girls. Every team will get three rooms.
Moreover, the federation of Monaco made a bid for the Women European Club Cup 2021. Teams of ESNA federation will get a discount of 30%.
