2009 Minutes of GTCL AGM

2009 Greater Toronto Chess League

 

Present:

Michael Barron, President

Ilia Bluvshtein, Vice-President

Erik Malmsten, Secretary

Nicholas J. Varmazis, Treasurer

Egidijus Zeromskis, Club Team Coordinator

Bob Armstrong, Scarborough CC Newsletter

David Cohen

Alex Ferreira, Hart House

Brian Fiedler, Toronto Open Organizer

John Chidley-Hill

Steve Karpik, Scarborough CC

Yuri Lebedev, Knight of Chess

Michael Sutton, City of Toronto

Barry Thorvardson, Brampton CC 

William Yuan, Director of Communications, was in Kingston. 
 

Agenda

1. Announcements
2. Toronto Open Report
3. GTCL Awards
4. Executive Reports

1. Club Team Coordinator
2. Director of Communications
3. Secretary
4. Treasurer
5. Vice-President
6. Outgoing President

5. Election of New Executive and 3 Directors at Large

6. Nominations of CFC/OCA Governors
7. 2009-10 Budget
8. 2009-10 Tournaments
9. New Items

 

1.Announcements

Later this month Toronto will host the Ontario Girls’ Championship and the Canadian Chess Challenge.  

The GTCL President encourages chess organizers to submit bids for chess tournaments this fall: Toronto Junior, Toronto Senior, Toronto Women’s and next spring the Toronto Closed and Toronto Open; Also Blitz and Active Championships. 

   

2.Toronto Open Report – Brian Fiedler

 Besides every player receiving golf shirts, around 1 in 4 received a prize. The GMs were very happy and would come back. The sponsors were very happy. The sponsors donated less than they would for a comparable event like a golf tournament. Brian lost money on the event, but within tolerance and worth it to help jump start the Toronto chess scene again. An appeals committee was formed on one judgement call. Preregistration allowed for an exact number of shirts and number and layout of tables and chairs.  

It wasn’t FIDE rated due to:

1. Maintain focus on supporting the CFC
2. Some top players don’t want to lose FIDE rating points
3. Not enough rounds for title norms.

Next year's organizer may nevertheless want to consider having it FIDE rated. 

Key Learnings:

• Participation from outside Ontario was low.
• Large sections resulted in ties for first.
• Timing after Easter (and Foxwoods and Victoria tournaments) good for families, but exam time for university students.
• Problems with phones, may want to have a mandatory phone check like a coat check.
• Preregistration wasn’t a problem, only four turned away at the door. But rush at deadline — 50% of entries — could be avoided with stratified entry fees.
• Monroi adds to the prestige but the cost/benefit of AV services needs to be assessed.
• Have TD protocol for procedure if there is a fire alarm or other disruptions re stopping or pausing of clocks.
• Too much work for one organizer, a committee is needed for an event of this scale. Needed more TDs for time scrambles. Include Erik Malmsten on your organizing committee early as he has some brilliant ideas.

 Evaluation forms were for the benefit of future organizers. Although Brian received many positive verbal comments, thirty players filled in the evaluation forms, a couple mailing them in:

• Most important factors were dates and downtown location.
• Just over half preferred the slower Classical time control of 40 in 2.
• There wasn’t strong interest in the open being FIDE rated.
• Half preferred a 5-round event over 6 or 7 rounds.
• Half felt the prize distribution should be left up to the organizer.
• Players don’t want an entry fee over $100.
• Players loved the large playing hall.
• Players would have liked the first round pairings in advance and the rounds starting on time.

 One of the successes was bringing out old guys. Of the respondents:

• 17% were over 60
• 27% were 50 to 60
• 23% were 35 to 50
• 6% were 25 to 35
• 10% were 18 to 25
• 17% were 7 to 18.

 Occupational Demographic:

• 29% professional/technical
• 25% students
• 21% retired
• 11% self-employed/ business owner
• 7% managerial
• 7% labourer.

 Also 5.5% were female. Full copies of the survey results are available on request. 

Discussion. In the U.S. they have paired late comers together, or given a first-round bye. In some events a player losing their first game can re-enter.  

The Mayor has a cultural agenda so should support something like having a civic centre as a playing location. Letter will be sent by Michael Barron. 

Chess players’ are analytical. CFC’s financial difficulties and negative discussions on Internet boards may turn off potential sponsors, why risk negative publicity. 

GTCL Awards

3.  

 Michael Barron presented Brian Fiedler with two knight bookends as an award for being the GTCL Organizer of the Year.

 
 

4.Executive Reports  

a.Club Team Coordinator – Egidijus Zeromskis

Two teams in top section, four teams in Under 2000: Knights of Chess, BOTSB and Brampton. Two teams in Cup (active): Chess Academy of Canada and Willowdale. All results are posted on the GTCL website. 

Discussion. Problem in scheduling matches. Earlier in year snow storms, now players not available because of club championship. A busy club has will have trouble scheduling in twelve nights for team chess. 

Registration could begin in June, or at least end in September rather than October. Other clubs should have enough players to field a 4-member team. The benefits are to play different players and see different clubs, open horizon beyond one’s club.  

Maybe hold an active team event on a Saturday? Brampton C. C. can host it in the Rose Theatre. Can all clubs hold their club championship at the same time? No, Scarborough moved their club championship later to escape the winter weather.    

b.Director of Communications – William Yuan, report read by Egidijus Zeromskis

Report was emailed. After lots of testing and experimenting, the GTCL website was finally able to get rid of the Beta version. With php and XML technology, many large search engines such as Google and Yahoo would be able to search for us easily. On Alexa.com our 3-month global average ranking of 2,022,722 is above most of the provincial chess sites in Canada. 

My goal is to help the GTCL website reach a 3-month average ranking of 1,000,000 or higher next year. More and more people are visiting the site everyday so therefore I believe that there is a very good possibility that we can achieve this goal. 

Comparing most popular reads last year had counts of only hundreds, this year ten times more:

2,547 reads 2009 Chess Calendar

2,075 reads 2009 PwC Toronto Open

1,726 reads 2009 Toronto Closed

1,021 reads 2008/9 Club Competition 

As the GTCL website gets better, I hope it will bring more players into the chess community and also satisfy the needs of current chess players in the Greater Toronto area. 

3. Secretary – Erik Malmsten

Worked with Egis on putting a history of the Toronto Closed on the GTCL website and helped out with the Toronto Open. Due to a change in work, didn’t have time to compile a report on the amount of CFC activity in 2008. 

4. Treasurer – Nicholas Varmazis

Report was emailed. Total expenses were $1,367 and present funds available $995. We haven’t yet received the 2008 CFC rebate from the OCA. The Toronto Open donated $500 for the rights to the tournament.  

5. Vice-President – Ilia Bluvshtein

Assisted the President in his activities. Lively discussions over the year. Also was Olympic Coordinator. 

6. President – Michael Barron

Report was emailed and published in the Scarborough C. C. newsletter. We’re living during interesting time for Canadian chess! I would call the past year “a year of hope.” 

Thanks to our most experienced TD Bryan Lamb and new organizers Liam Henry, Alex Ferreira and Brian Fiedler we saw significant increase in chess activity since last April. We hosted Canadian Junior Championship, completed the Greater Toronto Chess League Team competitions, had our annual Toronto Junior, Senior, Women’s and Closed Championships, and a series of weekend Opens. A high point was the excellently organized and ran PricewaterhouseCoopers Toronto Open with a very strong field and international coverage. 

I should mention as well the Grassroots’ Campaign – the initiative of ordinary CFC members willing to help the CFC to restructure its operations to bring a real benefit for Canadian chess. 

We could conclude that chess in Toronto is on the rise – thanks to our dedicated organizers and tournament directors. We need more people willing to put their skills, knowledge and time to get momentum and establish Toronto as a Canadian chess capital.   

5.Election of New Executive

Club/Team Coordinator Egidijus Zeromskis

Director of Communications William Yuan

Secretary Erik Malmsten

Treasurer Nicholas J. Varmazis

Vice-President Ilia Bluvshtein

President Michael Barron  

Directors at Large

They contribute ideas in executive discussions.

Alex Ferreira

Yuri Lebedev

John Chidley-Hill

  6.Nominations of CFC/OCA Governors

 CFC Governors

CFC has 61 Governors. All of the GTCL Governors were active in voting. Until the OCA changes policy at its annual meeting, nominations are passed on to the OCA. Presented in order:

1. Michael Barron (FIDE Representative)
2. Ilia Bluvshtein
3. Egidijus Zeromskis
4. Gary Gladstone
5. Natalia Khoudgarian
6. Bob Armstrong
7. Nava Starr
8. Barry Thorvardson
9. Bill Evans

 Other Governors who live in the GTCL:

David Lavin, President

Eddie Urquhart, Masters’ Representative

Philip Haley, Past President

Maurice Smith, Past President

Nikolay Noritsyn, Canadian Champion

Artem Samsonkin, C.C. runner-up 

OCA Governors

Not as busy as the CFC, only issue last year was to rebate 50% to the leagues.

As GTCL President Michael Barron is automatically an OCA Governor. Presented in order:

1. Brett Campbell, OCA Vice-President
2. Ilia Bluvshtein
3. Egidijus Zeromskis
4. Gary Gladstone
5. Natalia Khoudgarian
6. Bryan Lamb
7. Chris Field
8. Bill Evans

7.2009-10 Budget

 Fiscal year ended Mar. 31. Barry Thorvardson is still donating the hosting of the website. A slight lost is projected. Tournament Support is raised to $500. The GTCL could see funds to advertise tournaments such as a flyer with a list of all clubs and tournaments. Online advertising? Could also have non-monetary Grand Prix awarded to the players who scored the most points in the year’s weekend tournaments.    

8.2009-10 Tournaments

 Scarborough Chess Club is having its 50^th anniversary in 2010 and would like to have some kind of festival for its members. Maybe an active and buffet, GM simult/lecture.  

Alex Ferreira announced the Hart House Summer Open 5-round Swiss in five sections July 3-5, directed by Bryan Lamb. http://hhchess.sa.utoronto.ca/hhopen. Hart House does not want to host the Thanksgiving Open because it’s a bad week for school work. Next January U of T will host the Canadian Post-Secondary Chess Championship.  

Hal Bond will be running the Canadian Closed in Guelph, August 7-16. 

Fred Komendi and the Willowdale C.C. can again host the Toronto Senior Championship this fall. We encourage organizers to submit their bids for Toronto Junior and Women’s Championships. Is there anybody that can provide a space for 4-hour games so that the Toronto Closed can be FIDE-rated? 

9.New Items

 Proposed to have a GTCL emailing list of Toronto players. Hart House was advised not to share their list, a question of privacy. Perhaps have box to check on entry forms if willing to receive mailings of future chess tournaments. Can also ask for emails addresses on the GTCL website. Not everybody has subscribed to the Scarborough C.C. newsletter. There is a hierarchy of emailing flyers to clubs who can then inform their members.

In the Library, first floor, SW corner Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Toronto (GOMT), 86 Overlea Blvd., between Don Mills and Thorncliffe, turn North at William Morgan Drive, turn East and through the gates.

Our host, Nicholas Varmazis, would like people to RSVP so that he knows how much coffee and cookies to provide. varmazisn@hotmail.com

1. Announcements
2. GTCL Awards
3. Support for high school chess
4. Executive Reports:
   a. Club/Team Coordinator
   b. Director of Communications
   c. Secretary
   d. Treasurer
   e. Vice-President
   f. Outgoing President
5. Nominations for 2007-2008 GTCL Executive and 3 Directors at Large
6. Nominations for CFC/ OCA Governors
7. 2007-2008 Budget
8. Tournament organizers in GTCL
9. 2007-8 GTCL Tournaments
10. New Items

If you are interested in being elected as an executive member or Governor and/or would like a copy of the minutes please email Erik at jerik@idirect.com.

2007-2008 Minutes of GTCL AGM

Greater Toronto Chess League

Annual General Meeting

Saturday April 20, 2008

Present:

Michael Barron, President

Ilia Bluvshtein, Vice-President

Nicholas J. Varmazis, Treasurer

Erik Malmsten, Secretary

Natalia Bogushevskaya

Samuel Chaplin

David Cohen, Chess Institute of Canada

Alex Ferreira, Hart House

Chris Field, TSSCL

Brian Fiedler

Mickey Stein, Willowdale Chess Club

Michael Sutton, City of Toronto

Barry Thorvardson, OCA

Egidijus Zeromskis

William Yuan, Director of Communications, is at a tournament in Chicago

Agenda

Executive Reports

Election of New Executive and 3 Directors at Large

Election of CFC/OCA Governors

Toronto Open 2009

High School Chess

OCA Achievement Award

City of Toronto

Fundraising

New Organizers and Tournaments

 

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Executive Reports

Treasurer Nicholas Varmazis

Report was emailed. Present funds available $632. We haven’t received the 2007 rebate from the CFC. We should expect only $300, down from $1,000. CFC’s borrowed money from the Chess Foundation was to partially pay the provincial dues held in trust.

Club/Team Coordinator, reported by Michael Barron

Yuri too busy with his business, Knights of Chess. Problem with a host team not reporting the results. Several matches have been postponed. Three tournaments:

Premier has three 4-player teams with a time control of 1 hour plus 30 seconds.

The Under 2000 has six 4-player teams, game in 90 minutes if no increment clocks.

The Cup is 15 minutes with 5 seconds, Scheveningen, playing all four players on the other team.

Director of Communications, William Yuan report read by Erik Malmsten

Report was emailed. William is new to Toronto and has enjoyed the emails with people he’s never met. The Chess Calendar is one-stop for all the important events in Ontario, although database limitation has stopped listing of all school events. The chess information is easy for search engines and the volume of visitors is increasing. The site will be upgraded when he finds time.

William was praised for his outstanding website and quick updates.

Secretary Erik Malmsten

Report was emailed. Last year saw the biggest chess event in public in Toronto’s history. Lindsey Dickie of Chess’n Math had a chess display at the Taste of the Danforth. To commemorate the 50^th anniversary of the World Junior in Toronto I had set up a display on Toronto’s chess history in city hall. I would like to see a chess festival at Dundas Square and some kind of chess cable TV show.

There was an increase in events held in York Region directed by Barry Thorvardson. Scarborough Chess Club is filled to capacity and this year saw the return of Oriole and Mississauga Chess Clubs to CFC activity.  Dobrich’s Bayview Games Club hosted the Canadian Junior, Toronto Active, Blitz, Junior, and Senior. The Toronto Closed was played at the Willowdale Chess Club which unfortunately doesn’t have long enough hours for it to be FIDE rated.

With all five Grand Prix tournaments being held at Bayview attendance was down from 269 players in 2006 to 109 in 2007. As in past years, over 50% of the players played in only one event. More players, 132, played in the annual Labour Day Open despite the change in location. I think that the traditional Toronto Open at Easter would get a similar number if it was held at the same location every year. Praise must go to repeat Grand Prix winner Nikolay Noristyn for being our most active master, playing in all Grand Prix tournaments in the past three years. Photos of the winners were put on the GTCL website.

Vice-President Ilia Bluvshtein

Assisted the President in many evening discussions.

President Michael Barron

Report was emailed. The GTCL’s main goal is to support chess clubs and organizers. We lost the Bayview Games Club, our most active club. We have new faces like Brian Fiedler and Liam Henry who’s having a FIDE rated tournament at the Chess’n Math school. We need more volunteers willing to put their skills, knowledge and time to help organize chess.

Barry Thorvardson mentioned that chess life is more active. Brampton Chess Club is up to 40 people and lots of students in the school not on the radar, not yet playing rated chess.

Election of New Executive

Club/Team Coordinator Egidijus Zeromskis

Director of Communications William Yuan

Secretary Erik Malmsten

Treasurer Nicholas J. Varmazis

Vice-President Ilia Bluvshtein

President Michael Barron

Directors at Large

They contribute ideas, participate in executive discussions, but do not vote.

Bryan Lamb

Brian Fiedler

Mickey Stein

CFC Governors

Important time to be a Governor as the CFC undergoes a major change. The number will go down this year from 9 to 5.  Presented in order:

Michael Barron

Ilia Bluvshtein

Egidijus Zeromskis

Nava Starr

Gary Gladstone

OCA Governors

Michael Barron, GTCL President

Ilia Bluvshtein

Egidijus Zeromskis

Bryan Lamb

Gary Gladstone

Chris Field

Toronto Open 2009

Brian Fiedler wants big-time chess to return to Toronto. The Toronto Open used to be on Easter but some of the top players go to Foxwoods, and many have family commitments so this 5-round event will be after Easter. Someone suggested an alternate path of 3-rounds on Saturday; as well as attracting out-of-towners, in such tournaments someone who loses the Friday night game can re-enter. Three sections: Open, Under 2000 and Under 1600. No free entries for GMs. Prizes for juniors under 16, seniors over 50 and women. Someone suggested a team prize as in Guelph. Classical time controls, 40 in 2, as a recent survey of players revealed that those who prefer the faster FIDE controls would still play in a classical time control event. Important was location and big names playing.

Brian is negotiating with a downtown hotel which has a space limit of 180-200 players so advanced entry will be necessary to guarantee a spot. He plans to advertise in schools, libraries and to do direct mailing to present and ex-CFC members. He was warned of the risk of guaranteed prize funds, as several organizers present have lost money.

He’s working with a corporate sponsor who would require a charity component.

Draft Budget

Fiscal year ended Mar. 31. Of the $7 OCA membership, 30% goes to the GTCL. Projected expenses of $879 slashed due to the lower CFC rebates. Barry Thorvardson is still donating the hosting of the website. Donations to the GTCL can be given through the Chess Foundation.

High School Chess

Chris Field presented with a cheque for $100 towards the TSSCL annual trophies. The teachers’ union had donated $350. As well, Nicholas offered to donate towards trophies.

Marc Garneau CI, led by Haonan Zhou, won the senior team, while Pleasant View JHS, led by Yuanling Yuan, the junior team. Yesterday, the 52-player Individual Championship was won by Pavel Rakov of Michael Power. Thanks to the OCA who provided sets and clocks. The league has 45 schools in four divisions, with East being the largest.

The Ontario High School Championship is always on Mother’s Day weekend, and there is a scheduling conflict with the Canadian Junior being the same weekend, so will lose their top players.  Also, the Ontario Youth Championship is the weekend before.

OCA Achievement Award

Barry Thorvardson presented Chris Field with the OCA Achievement Award for his over 20 years of volunteer work organizing chess tournaments in schools in Toronto and the annual Ontario Secondary School Championship.

City of Toronto

Mike Sutton considered the connection with the City last year a success, that we have our foot in the door. The display of the history of chess in Toronto can be repeated as a background for an event. Civic centres like Metro Hall have space available for charitable events, you just need to get a councillor to get a room.

Unfortunately, the Nuit Blanche deadline was in March, but can still try to apply to see if chess can be put on the list of all-night cultural activities on Oct. 4. Mike made a flyer “Nothing in this world is blanc and nuit, except chess.” Erik will look into it.

Fundraising

David Cohen offer of consultative services to assist the GTCL in fundraising was accepted. Last year’s Canadian Open in Ottawa showed that it can be done. In the long-term Toronto could host a big event like the Olympiad. He needs to be told immediately of results of championships so that he can forward to the media.

New Organizers and Tournaments

Liam Henry has organized FIDE-rated tournaments and wants to organize a weekend open and the Toronto Blitz Championship.

Alex Ferreira announced that the Hart House Chess Club is bringing weekend chess back to U of T. The Debates room is where many famous GMS like Fischer and Keres gave simults. Nicholas remembers an opponent smoking dirty cigars. Bryan Lamb will direct. Canada Day Open, June 27-29, 5 rounds in 3 sections: Open, U2000, U1700. Some players don’t like time control being at 30 moves, but it gives the TD two time controls to monitor. Long break between rounds, 1.5 hours, can be shortened. Bid approved.

Bryan Lamb announced that the Labour Day Open is moving back to the Macedonian Hall, where it’s been since 1991 except for last year. Last year’s location was difficult for the school whose opening day was right after the tournament. The $1,000 first prize is guaranteed and amateurs can enter the lower sections. The board approved the bid if it is called the Labour Day Open, not the Labour Day Macedonian Open.

Barry Thorvardson announced that Brampton will have a chess street opening on June 21st and that Brampton would like to host a series of opens, maybe Thanksgiving, and apply for the 2011 Commonwealth Chess Championship. The Rose Theatre can hold 1,000, is next to the bus station and has plenty of free parking.

The Canadian Junior, May 9 to 13, has space for 20 players, so far 7 entries. The TD is Liam Henry. He plans to direct the Toronto Junior there next fall.

Willowdale will host the Toronto Senior Championship.

Barry is working on a funding proposal for a seven-days-a-week Toronto Chess Centre.

There was some discussion of the present CFC proposals to outsource their work.

In-person meetings give a better sense of community. They can be called between annual general meetings, preferably with two weeks notice.