Nadezhda Kosintseva wins FIDE Caissa Award 2010
Dear all!
During the last FIDE Presidential Board, according to the voting that took place from January 1 to February 20, 2010, the FIDE Caissa Award 2010 was awarded to Nadezhda Kosintseva.
The prize of 1000 euro (from the budget of the FIDE Commission for women's chess) and the statuette shall be awarded to Nadezhda during the Chess Olympiad 2010 in Khanty-Mansiisk.
I congratulate Nadezhda on this wonderful award and wish her to continue to show great result in the future!
Posted by: Alexandra Kosteniuk Women's World Chess Champion
Labels: Caissa Award, FIDE Women's Commission, Kosintseva Nadezhda
Goodwill Chess by Martha Fierro
Hello everybody!
As I announced in February, March 2010 is a special goodwill events month initiated by the FIDE Commission for Women's Chess, which I co-chair.
The Secretary of the Women's Commission Martha Fierro has given goodwill simuls and events in Puerto Rico and Ecuador and is right now in Detroit for the final goodwill simuls of this month. The FIDE Commission for Women's Chess supported these events by donating free chess books and DVD's to each participant.
Here is the link to the article about the simul in Detroit that has been published a few days ago.
MARTHA FIERRO OFRECE SIMULTANEA DE AJEDREZ EN GUAYNABO
Por Francisco J. Cruz Arce
El pasado jueves, 11 de marzo de 2010, la Maestra Internacional de ajedrez Martha Fierro visitó el Club de Ajedrez de Guaynabo como parte la Comisión Femenina de la FIDE para impulsar el ajedrez femenino en Puerto Rico. En su visita Martha disfrutó del exquisito buffet del restaurantes Giovanna’s, mientras dialogaba con líderes del club y de la Federación de Ajedrez de Puerto Rico sobre asuntos del ajedrez a nivel isla y mundialmente. Luego la actividad comenzó formalmente, esta estaba dirigida específicamente para niñas de 6 a 18 años. Se componía de una sección de autógrafos con fotos, una simultánea y una entrega de libros y material ajedrecístico.
En la firma de autógrafo y fotos las niñas ya mostraban su emoción, por tener frente a ellas una maestra de calibre mundial, quien había sacado de su ajetreada agenda un tiempo para venir y compartir con ellas. Cabe señalar que no solo las niñas disfrutaron de esta parte de la actividad, pues fuimos muchos los que nos colamos para una foto y un autógrafo.
Luego pasamos a la simultánea. Con un total de 13 niñas y 4 niños, Martha comenzó sus partidas. Como era de esperarse fue nuestra pequeña promesa, WCM Danitza Vázquez Maccarini, quien dio la lucha más larga. Danitza demostró muy bien su conocimiento en la apertura contra 1.d4. Luego en el medio juego la fuerza de la maestra se impuso ganándole un peón, para así pasar a un final de torres con las blancas un peón arriba. Para este momento la IM Martha Fierro ya había finalizado con todas sus partidas de manera invicta, colocó un asiento frente a su más dura rival y emprendió la batalla por el punto completo. En el final la Maestra siguió presionando y luego del cambio de torres, el camino fue más fácil para las blancas, y completaron la victoria. Definitivamente una experiencia significativa para todas las niñas.
Luego, nuestra invitada tomo unos minutos para charlar con las ajedrecistas. Les dio consejos para mejorar su ajedrez, de lo importante que es tomarlo como diversión, practicarlo y estudiar para mejorarlo. En esta parte de la actividad nuestra invitada principal aprovechó la oportunidad de obsequiarles libros y material ajedrecístico a todas nuestras pequeñas invitadas, autografiados nada más y nada menos que por la campeona del mundo, Alexandra Kosteniuk. DVD’s de sus mejores partidas, así como también sus anécdotas de cómo llego a ser Gran Maestra y Campeona del Mundo; eran los temas principales.
Una noche que fue todo un éxito. La comunidad ajedrecística de Guaynabo, Puerto Rico y sus pueblos cercanos disfrutó de una actividad diferente. Una colaboración entre Martha, la Comisión Femenina de la FIDE, la Federación de Ajedrez de Puerto Rico y nuestro club que esperemos sea la primera de muchas.
Agradecemos a CHOICE CABLE TV y GIOVANNA’S LATIN BUFFET quienes fueron nuestros auspiciadores principales y también a nuestros siempre presentes auspiciadores, y los diferentes clubes del área que asisten y auspician este tipo de actividades que el Club de Guaynabo planifica con tanto esfuerzo para toda la comunidad ajedrecística de Puerto Rico. Pero, nuestro gran agradecimiento es para la MI Martha Fierro quien se robo el corazón de cada uno de nuestras niñas y jóvenes participantes que aún continúan comentando de su maravillosa experiencia.
Posted by: Alexandra Kosteniuk Women's World Chess Champion Labels: FIDE Women's Commission, goodwill, Martha Fierro
Castle Chess Camp Scholarship
Hello all!
I'm glad to tell you that in conjunction with the FIDE Commission for Women's Chess, Castle Chess Inc. is awarding one full scholarship to a young woman from South America to come to their 2010 camp. The young woman will be a strong player with experience in international chess competition chosen by the FIDE Commission for Women's Chess, and transportation to camp will be provided by the Commission. English proficiency is required.
I'm sure that participating in a chess camp is a great way to have fun and at the same time to get better at chess. If I have a chance I'm always happy to go to a special chess training where I can dedicate 100% of my time to chess and to improving.
As a co-chairman of the FIDE Commission for Women's Chess I'd like to thank Castle Chess Camps for awarding one full scholarship for a young player from South America!
Best wishes, Alexandra Kosteniuk Women's World Chess Champion
Labels: Castle Chess Camp, FIDE Women's Commission
Martha Fierro FIDE Goodwill Chess Events
ANNOUNCEMENT:
The FIDE Commission for Women’s Chess (WOM) will be organizing in March 2010 several goodwill lectures and simultaneous exhibitions: in San Juan – Puerto Rico; in Guayaquil – Ecuador; and in Detroit – United States to help promote chess among female chess players.
The events will be given by WGM Martha Fierro, reigning Women Continental Champion and Secretary of the WOM. The events are free, Martha is donating her time to promote chess.
I am thankful to Martha for this beautiful initiative, if every woman chess champion would work as she does for the promotion of chess, it would be great! So if you're a woman champion, try to follow her example, at least once in awhile. And if you're a chess fan in the locations visited by Martha, go and visit her and give her your support!
Planned events:
Puerto Rico:
March 9, 2010 - Two days full training sessions with young talent CM Danitza Vasquez (10 years old)
March 11, 2010 - Simultaneous Exhibition at the Club de Ajedrez Guaynabo
Ecuador:
March 16-17, 2010 - Various visits to schools to give an impulse to girls to play chess March 18, 2010 Lecture at the Federacion Deportiva Del Guayas March 19, 2010 Simultaneous Exhibition at the Federacion Deportiva Del Guayas
United States:
March 23, 2010 Lecture for girls, Detroit (exact place to be confirmed) March 24, 2010 Simultaneous Exhibition, Detroit (exact place to be confirmed)
The FIDE Commission for women’s chess thinks that these good-will events will encourage the participants to increase their interest in chess and will play an important role in promoting chess in general and women’s chess in particular in the world.
The WOM is working on organizing different good-will events around the world every year, if you think your federation or local club who are doing a lot for chess but need an additional push to make chess even more popular, might be interested in hosting a FIDE Goodwill event, let us know by sending an email to Alexandra or to Martha.
Posted by Alexandra Kosteniuk Women's World Chess Champion Co-Chair of the FIDE Commission on Women's Chess
Labels: FIDE Women's Commission, Martha Fierro
Statuette for Caissa Award Contest
Hello everybody!
As you may know, starting from this year the FIDE commission for women's chess will award annually the best women's player of the preceding year with the Caissa Award. The Classical Jewelry House "Lobortas" gladly offered to be a sponsor of this event and create a very special and unique statuette. But after long discussion we decided to run a special statuette contest to give a chance to all the fans of women's chess to offer their ideas for creating the most beautiful statuette ever. That's why today the FIDE commission for women's chess and the Classical Jewelry House "Lobortas" is happy to announce the "Search for Perfection" contest:
FIDE Commission for Women’s Chess and the Classical Jewelry House “Lobortas” are glad to invite talented sculptors, artists and just every creative person who are not indifferent to chess in general and women’s chess in particular to take part in their search for the perfect award statuette for the best women’s chess player of the year. From now on, once a year, during a special award ceremony the best women’s chess player of the preceding year will be awarded with such a statuette and a prize. We invite you to send your projects of this statuette to the official jury (Igor Lobortas, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Nona Gaprindashvili) to oscar@lobortas.com and cc to: alexandra@kosteniuk.com
Keep in mind that the height of the cup shall not be more than 60 cm (23 inches) and the radius of the bottom of the statuette shall be not more than 10 cm (3.9 inches).
The Jury gives themselves the right to change and correct all the proposals when preparing the statuette. The winner of this “Search for Perfection” competition will be awarded with a special jewelry adornment from the Classical Jewelry House “Lobortas” and will be invited to take part in the award ceremony which will take place during the Women’s World Blitz Chess Championship 2010 on September 18 in Moscow, Russia, as the winner of the design competition.
GENERAL RULES & LIMITATIONS: By entering, you represent that: (i) your entry is your own original work; and (ii) you own or have the rights to convey any and all right and title in any material submitted as part of your entry into the Contest. By entering, you grant to the Organizers a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to edit, publish, promote, republish at any time in the future and otherwise use your submission, along with your name and likeness, in any and all media for any purpose, without further permission, notice or compensation (except where prohibited by law). By participating in the Contest, you agree to release the Organizers and its parent companies, affiliates, subsidiaries, employees, directors, officers, and agents from any and all liability, claims or actions of any kind whatsoever for injuries, damages or losses to persons and property which may be sustained in connection with the receipt, ownership, possession, use, or misuse of any prize. The organizers reserve the right to amend these official rules and to permanently disqualify from the Contest any person it believes has intentionally violated these official rules.
Posted by: Alexandra Kosteniuk Women's World Chess Champion
Labels: Caissa Award, FIDE Women's Commission, Lobortas
Caissa and Golden Organizer Award
Hello everybody!
During the second part of todays' executive board meeting I reported on the Commission on Women's Chess. I'm very happy to announce that the FIDE Presidential Board approved today both my proposals for the Caissa Award and the Golden Women's Tournament Organizer Award, so already in 2010 we will give these awards to the best women player of 2009 and the best organized women chess tournament of 2009. Below you will find the full information about these awards.
KOSTENIUK CAISSA AWARD PROPOSAL: APPROVED!
From the Co-Chair of the Fide Commission For Women's Chess Grandmaster Alexandra Kosteniuk:
FIDE CAISSA AWARD
The CAISSA AWARD will be awarded annually, every year in the Spring to the best female player of the preceding year.
The voting will consist of 2 stages.
The first phase:
Any women chess player, rated above 2300 ELO, who played more than 10 rated games in the previous year (for example 2009), can apply to get this award, by sending her application to alexandra@kosteniuk.com with cc to: "WOM Fierro Martha" before February 10 of the voting year (for example 2010).
She should indicate her best results of the previous year (for example 2009) and number of rated games and exact results of each tournament played.
The second phase:
Out of the valid received applications, candidates shall be proposed by the members of the FIDE women’s commission based on a voting system (each member of the women's commission can suggest up to three candidates, with the 1st place getting 5 points, 2nd place getting 3 points and the third place getting 1 point, by email to alexandra@kosteniuk.com with cc to: "WOM Fierro Martha" ) .
The winner will be the player who gets the greatest number of points. The co-chairmen will count the number of points for each candidate and will propose the winner to the PB before the 1st quarter Presidential Board of each year. The PB shall review the results, decide in case of a tie, and after the result is known, the winner of the Caissa award is to be notified and announced officially by FIDE. The decision of the PB will be final.
The winner is awarded with the FIDE CAISSA AWARD (for example 2010) and thus named the best female player of the year (for example 2009).
Prizes: Grand Prize: 1,000 euros and a statuette. (The prize comes out of the FIDE Commission on Women's Chess)
Winners may receive additional prizes if sponsors come forward.
Winners must sign an affidavit and license and will be responsible for paying any taxes they may owe on the prize.
KOSTENIUK GOLDEN ORGANIZER PROPOSAL: APPROVED!
From the Co-Chair of the Fide Commission For Women's Chess Grandmaster Alexandra Kosteniuk:
PROPOSAL FOR NEW YEARLY FIDE GOLDEN WOMEN’S TOURNAMENT ORGANIZER AWARD.
The organizers of tournaments with any time control and any system (except the official FIDE tournaments such as the World Championships, Chess Olympiads and so on) that have been held at least 3 times before the voting year with 10 or more female chess players took part in the tournament of the voting year can apply to get this award.
In order to receive this award the organizers should send an application with the following information:
1. Name, place, dates and rules of the tournament. 2. Number of female participants that took part in the event. 3. Number and quantity of prizes for the female participants and other financial conditions.
RULES FOR FIDE GOLDEN WOMEN’S TOURNAMENT ORGANIZER AWARD 2010. Submission should be sent to alexandra@kosteniuk.com with cc to:"WOM Fierro Martha" starting from January 1, 2010 until February 20, 2010, about qualifying tournaments that took place in 2009.
By submitting an entry, each contestant agrees to the rules of the contest.
Who may enter:
The organizers of the tournaments with any time control and system (except the official FIDE tournaments such as the World Championships, Chess Olympiads, etc.) that have been held at least 3 times before and including 2009 with 10 or more female chess players took part in the tournament can apply to get this award.
Entry deadline:
All entries must be received by February 20, 2010.
Judging:
The winner shall be proposed by the members of the FIDE women’s commission to the FIDE Presidential Board based on a voting majority system. The name of the winner shall be announced by PB of FIDE on the 1st quarter Presidential Board of each year. The decision of the PB will be final.
The winner will be notified and awarded with the FIDE GOLDEN WOMEN’S TOURNAMENT ORGANIZER AWARD 2010.
The organizer of this event will receive a prize of 1,000 euros (from the budget of the FIDE comission on women's chess) which he/she should use for increasing the prize fund for women chess players in his/her next tournaments.
After the approval of the awards I was approached by the representatives of the "Lobortas & Karpova" Classic Jewelry House who expressed their readiness in developing a statuette for the Caissa Award. As soon as I will know the details I will let you know about it.
Today will be the second day of the Executive Board meeting and many more important matters and issues will be discussed I will let you all know how it will go.
Posted by: Alexandra Kosteniuk Women's World Chess Champion Labels: Caissa Award, FIDE Women's Commission, Golden Organizer Award
Commission on Women's Chess Meeting
Hi to all friends of Women's Chess!
Right now I'm in Halkidiki, taking part in the 80th FIDE Congress. On October 12, 2009 I had a meeting of the Commission on Women's Chess. We discussed many things and all agreed that the chess world is in need for many more women's chess enthusiasts, not only players, but also arbiters, trainers and women officials. So everyone's help is needed and in the next year I'm planning to form a team that will work on the development of women's chess in the world. So if any of you have some experience in the chess field and are ready to help women's chess I will be more than happy to consider your applications to become members of the Commission on Women's Chess. You can send your applications to my email.
Meanwhile, I'm attaching below the Minutes of the meeting of the Commission on Women's Chess:
Report of the Commission on Women’s Chess Meeting of October 12, 2009 by co-chairman Alexandra Kosteniuk
Present: A. Kosteniuk (RUS), F. Dapiran (ITA), M. Murphy (ISV), N. Freeman (BER) - Treasurer, I. Leong (SIN) - General Secretary, L. Mazouz (GER), A. Mongiello (ISV), T. Ameyar (ALG), A. Herbert (BAR), B. Assanov (KAZ), R. Haring (USA).
The following issues have been discussed and the following steps have been approved:
1. Predictable Tournaments Calendar
Decided: - Events commision, commission on women’s chess and all other commissions that are working on the chess calendar have to work together in order to avoid unfortunate clashes of big women’s chess events.
2. Creating a special women’s chess web-site on the FIDE.com portal
Decided: - To create and launch a special page dedicated to women’s chess on the FIDE web-portal - womenchess.fide.com, where one can find the history of Women's Chess, women’s chess tournaments and events calendar, up-to-date news about women’s events, statistics on women’s chess, articles and discussion on important topics related to women’s chess, all the info contacts of WIM and WGM so any organizer can send an invitation or proposal to any of these players for a chess tournament.
3. Women's World Blitz and Rapid Championships
Decided: - To create regulations of these events and post them on the FIDE web-site for bidding procedure.
4. Creating the CAISSA Award
This award proposal has been proposed to the Presidential Board for approval.
5. Creating a GOLD ORGANIZER award
This award proposal has been proposed to the Presidential Board for approval Mr. Ignatius Leong proposed to discuss during the Executive Board the possibility to organize an award-dinner for the nominates for the awards of all chess commissions during the chess olympiads.
6. Increasing Women's Prizes in Open Tournaments
Decided: - Ask the presidential board to propose to the organizers of the FIDE rated events to have the top women’s prize not less than 30% of the first overall prize of a tournament (if there is certain number of women participating and if they take not less than 40% of the points).
7. Working on increasing women’s representatives in all the commissions and federations
All the people attending the meeting agreed that many countries are very far behind in developing women’s chess. FIDE and the chess world is desperately in need of more chess women arbiters, women trainers, women officials. For this purpose it was decided: - To work together with trainers, arbiters and all other commissions in order to increase the number of women represantatives. - To prepare a special letter to all the commissions with the proposal to have at least 1 woman representative in the Council of every commission.
8. Good-will chess visits program Current and former women’s world chess champions will visit chess federations around the world in order to popularize women’s chess and to attract attention of the media and the government of these countries to this issue.
Decided: - To collaborate with the Devlopment CACDEC Commision, the Continental Presidents, national federations about this project and work out the calendar of such events for 2010. - To create a special list of the countries who are in need for women’s chess development and were not represented by women’s team in the Chess Olympiad in Dresden and write to these countries in order to help them to develop women’s chess.
9. To publish a special book from FIDE women’s commission about benefits of chess for girls and women’s and with the history of the women’s chess and with the stars of women’s chess past and current. This book can be distributed for the women’s chess commissions of the FIDE federations especially in the countries where are no women’s chess teams.
Decided: -To wait until the agreement with Chess Lane will be decided since Chess Lane might have some rights for this kind of work.
10. Support young girls stars, to create a FIDE Grant, that will help a continental champion or anybody who will somehow win this grant to travel to the world chess youth championship. Decided: - Talk to the Development commission since they are also trying to create the same grant for young chess players and colloborate with this commission.
11. Organize special only girls FIDE approved trainings (maybe together with the trainers committee) on the base of the FIDE chess academies.
Decided: - To contact the trainers commission so these training sessions are organized during the trainers seminars.
12. Considering all of the above the commission on women’s chess should develop and propose the budget for 2010 to the Treasurer.
Written by Alexandra Kosteniuk Women's World Chess Champion
Labels: Congress, FIDE Women's Commission
October Greece FIDE 80th Congress
PLEASE HELP ME IMPROVE WOMEN'S CHESS IN THE WORLD!
Hello all!
The FIDE 80th Annual Congress will be held in the period from October 11th to 18th in Kallithea, Halkidiki, Greece. I am a member of the FIDE Presidential Board and so I have been invited to participate.
During this Congress many important meetings will take place. The chairmen and the members of each commission will meet and discuss the ways to work and to cooperate in the future (to see the schedule of these meetings click on the image below).
One of these commission is the Commission for Women's Chess (WOM). As I am the co-chairman of this commission I'd like to make sure that we discuss and go over the main issues in women's chess in order to make it more popular and better for women's chess players. For that I will need help from all of you. If you have any questions, ideas, projects on women's chess and you want these ideas to be discussed in the following Congress please let me know either my writing an email, or leaving a comment in this post, you can also leave me a message in Facebook or Twitter.
I believe that if we work together, we can do a lot of good things for chess in general and for women's chess in particular.
I'm looking forward to hearing from you!
Alexandra Kosteniuk Women's World Chess Champion Labels: Congress, FIDE, FIDE Women's Commission
Letter to the FIDE Commission on Women's Chess
Today I have written a letter to the FIDE Commission on Women's Chess, to which I was appointed Co-Chair in March. You can read it below. In the next few days, I will open posts about all 7 issues I raise here, so you will have an opportunity to comment on each issue. If you would like to raise another issue that's not in my letter, that's great, and you can simply send me an email, and we will start another post with that idea. Please be kind to each other, the goal of this chess blog is to show the world how wonderful the game of chess is, and that it is particularly well adapted also to girls and women. It is only by taking initiative and doing good things for Women's Chess that we will see progress in the future.
Best chess wishes to all, Your Alexandra :-)
From the Desk of Alexandra Kosteniuk Women’s World Chess Champion Co-Chair, Commission for Women's Chess
To FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov To FIDE General Secretary Ignatius Leong To Commission for Women’s Chess Co-Chair Susan Polgar To The Commission for Women’s Chess Secretary Martha Fierro Baquero Councilors Xie Jun and Maya Chiburdanidze, Members Antoaneta Stefanova, Xu Yuhua, Zhu Chen, Nona Gaprindashvili, and Franca Dapiran
May 7, 2009
Subject : FIDE COMMISSION FOR WOMEN’S CHESS
PROPOSALS (Ref. AK-20090507)
Dear fellow supporters of Women’s Chess!
Since being appointed Co-Chair of the FIDE Commission for Women’s Chess at the recent FIDE Presidential Board in Istanbul, I have studied in detail the current situation of women’s chess around the world.
While there has undoubtedly been great progress in women’s chess in the past few years, evidenced by the larger number of women participating in chess tournaments, as well as the general increase of women’s ratings, I believe there is much we can do to improve the situation further. We have to work on all levels, so that chess is perceived as a game equally suited to girls as to boys, beneficial to their development, in school and later on in life. This will lead to more girls starting to play chess, becoming members of their national chess federations and consequently more girls and women taking part in chess tournaments. With time, this will further raise the overall level of women chess players. With further work to make our women champions better known, girls and women will have role models to follow and that will help them become better chess players, too.
Besides that, developing Women’s Chess also can help attract more press to chess, thereby pulling in potential sponsors, raising its profile and helping the game of chess as a whole.
My belief is that, with some good ideas, coupled with sound policies and precise targets for improvements in Women’s Chess, we can reach significant improvements.
In this letter, I raise some important issues and give some proposals to improve women’s chess over time.
Improvements won’t come all at once, we will need everyone’s input and active involvement. I am firmly committed to helping to develop Women’s Chess in the world, and so I propose to take upon me the role of centralizing all the ideas, improving on them with everyone’s help, and try to push them around until they become a reality.
I need and welcome all of your comments and suggestions to any of these points. Feel free to respond to the committee members as a whole so we can all be informed of how our issues advance. You can also add issues that are close to you and we can try to improve the situation in those too. I will follow up on all issues until we either succeed or decide it is an avenue not worth being followed.
Specially for the goal the Improving Women’s Chess, and to have a central depot for the ideas generated and comments to them, I have set up a Women’s Chess Blog, where you will be able to post messages with your ideas and comments to any other ideas. The address is www.chessblog.com and I will make sure that it meets its goal of positively promoting Women’s Chess in the world.
Today I have posted on www.chessblog.com this letter in its entirety, and in the days ahead, each point raised below will have its own post, so you will have a chance to comment on any and all of the issues at hand. If you have a new issue you’d like to raise, simply send me an email to alexandra@kosteniuk.com and I will post the issue as a new post on www.chessblog.com .
The goal of the WOMEN’S CHESS BLOG is exclusively to improve Women’s Chess in the world, in a positive way, with new ideas and constructive criticism only. Women’s Chess will be shown to be the kinder and more attractive side of chess.
Open issues and Proposals:
1. Predictable Tournaments Calendar.
It is important to make the calendar for professional women’s players as predictable as possible. For that we need to set up a reliable system where tournaments are announced as far as possible in advance and dates are recorded in a central FIDE database (for example at calendarwomen.fide.com). Official FIDE tournaments and Grand Prix events should have dates fixed at least 6 months in advance and cannot be changed after the bidding host has been accepted.
2. Making our Women Stars better known and turn them into Role Models.
When the press talks about chess, they sometimes don’t have any ideas about the fact that women play chess too or they think it’s not interesting. We propose FIDE make women’s presence on their site closer to 50% of coverage. I looked today and there is practically not a word about any women’s chess champion nor any women’s event on the FIDE home page. At the minimum, FIDE should have a well placed button or banner on their home page called “Women’s Chess Stars”, for example at women.fide.com, where we could find the history of Women’s Chess, previous World Champions, as well as the current women’s champions in all sections (World, Continents, all Countries, all age groups). Any women on that page become FIDE WOMEN STARS and FIDE should promote them as such. Any girl from any country, whatever small it is, should be able to go to that page, and find her country “star”, which will be her role model for the time, before she gets better and becomes a “star” herself, then trying to become a bigger “star”. I think that this idea, while very easy to implement and which does not cost anything really, will help more girls think of chess being cool, and will bring them to chess. And it will be useful for the press, who at a glance, will be able to see all of the worlds past and present stars, on a global scale going down to each country. That’s much better than having to search on dozens of Wikipedia pages and FIDE top lists.
3. Women’s World Blitz and Rapid Championships.
Those tournaments, which could be a hit with sponsors and especially with TV, unfortunately don’t exist. FIDE should develop tournament regulations for them and put them up for bidding.
FIDE could make official the titles of Women’s Blitz and Rapid Champions, which would make these events very attractive to all the top players, as well as to sponsors and the press. Further, organizers of continental championships should be encouraged to add 2-3-4 days to their schedules to hold continental Blitz and Rapid Championships, and give out additional titles of Blitz and Rapid Champions. I am sure many players would gladly participate in the extra competitions and this has a great potential to bring in the press and even additional sponsors. Also, playing a continental championship will then offer 3 chances to become the champion, which is better for the players. This can be also extended to the Women’s Grand Prix.
4. Creating the CAISSA Award.
This award could be given to the best woman player of the previous year, based on some criteria to be determined (highest ELO improvement from 2400 up, highest performance in a top tournament, most titles won, etc.). FIDE could put this also up for bidding with sponsors and the title could come with the sponsor name, for example the “Microsoft Caissa award”, with a part of the sponsor’s money going to the budget for women’s chess.
5. Creating a GOLD ORGANIZER award.
Our FIDE Commission for Women’s Chess can make a list of positive qualities women’s chess tournaments should have and evaluate each major tournament based on these factors. For example, level of prizes, web presence, satisfaction of players, etc. The tournaments and organizers who make the mark should be given a GOLD ORGANIZER award. The award is honorific in nature, but could carry some advantages in the future for example in scheduling tournaments. Also, FIDE could post on their web site information on all chess organizers , with a particular mention for those achieving the GOLD status.
6. Increasing Women’s Prizes in Open Tournaments.
At the moment the difference between the top prize and the top women who play in the same strong open tournament is significant, making it not at all interesting for the strongest women to play in large open tournaments. For example top men’s prize in an open could be $4000, but top woman in the open $200, which is not reasonable if there are several men GM playing, it becomes totally uninteresting for women to play or even costly since they often have to pay for they travel, hotel and sometimes trainer. This is detrimental to the progress of women’s chess as women miss out on opportunities to play strong opens with men. FIDE could require for all FIDE rated tournaments to have a prize for the first woman to be no less than 30% (for example) of the top prize, this way with time it is sure that more women would participate in open tournaments, which would increase their levels.
7. Supporting women’s events with its Budget.
FIDE is a little too silent on the way it uses its budget, as they don’t have a transparent reporting of their incomes and expenses. For example, while I am Co-Chair of the Commission, it is not clear what the budget, if any, the Women’s Commission has. It is also not clear how the budget is funded, from where. Recently I received an email asking about having the Women’s Commission support financially the Central American and Carribean Women’s Championship and we don’t know if there is a budget for this and what are the procedures to follow.
I think this Commission for Women’s Chess should have a budget in accordance with its duties, and the right to spend it to further Women’s Chess, in a totally open and transparent way, and taking everybody’s votes into consideration. It should be clear how the budget is funded, for example, a part of the 20% paid to FIDE from prizes of all major tournaments should go to the Commission for Women’s Chess (at least from the Women’s tournaments).
By this letter I ask the FIDE Secretary Mr. Ignatius Leong to inform us about the current budget for this year, as well as the correct procedure for spending it. This way we will be able to monitor the progress we make and support causes that deserve it.
I look forward to seeing you all on www.chessblog.com where I will inform everybody on the progress we make in all areas and you are welcome to add your comments. If you wish to contact me personally, for any reason and to add issues or suggested improvements for Women’s Chess to my list my email is alexandra@kosteniuk.com .
Best chess wishes to all! Alexandra Kosteniuk
Posted by Alexandra Kosteniuk Women's World Chess Champion
Labels: FIDE Women's Commission
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