Circular Letter 6 / 2001

Written by Heinz Herzog, WebAdmin

Monday, 24 December 2007, id:320 Article cached on Thursday, 07 August 2008 10:06:29

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To all

European Chess Federations

Associated Members

Board Members

FIDE

FIDE Zonal Presidents

Berlin, 27^th June 2001

Dear Friends,

Upon invitation of the Chess Federation of Azerbaijan, the ECU Board has met in Baku on 22nd and 23rd June 2001. It was a well organized Board meeting with receptions by the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Youth, Sport and Tourism and by the National Olympic Committee.

The Board has decided to apply to the European Olympic Committees to include chess into the European Youth Games. With this, we would like to support the FIDE attempts to have chess admitted to the olympic programme.

The annual ECU General Assembly is scheduled for 11th November 2001 in León / Spain in connection with the European Team Championship.

Due to the discussions and experiences with the accommodation of the participants of European Championships including safety reasons the Board has taken the following decisions:

In order to hold the European Championships in a proper manner and to be in permanent close contact with all participants, official hotels have to be appointed. Each participant is obliged to stay in one of the official hotels. Players not fulfilling this condition are not allowed to participate. Exceptions for local players have to be approved by the ECU President.

The room prices should not exceed the normal rates.

The European Individual Championship in Ohrid / Macedonia was a big success. 203 players from 39 member federations, including 143 Grandmasters took part. It has been the strongest open tournament ever. Congratulations to the new European Champion Emil Sutovsky (ISR), to Ruslan Ponomariov /(UKR/silver medal) and to Zurab Azmaiparashvili (GEO/ bronze medal).

The European Individual Championship 2002 will be held in Groningen from 19th December 2001 until 4th January 2002. The Board has confirmed that in case FIDE will not organize a World Championship in 2002, the event in Groningen will be held as European Individual Championship without any qualification for the World Championship.

We would like to remind that bids for the following championships have to be submitted by 1st August 2001:

- European Individual Women’s Championship 2002

- European Junior Championship 2002

- European Youth Championsip 2002

The Belarus Chess Federation is to be organized the European Women’s Rapid and Blitz Championships in Minsk starting on 2nd September 2001. The total prize-fund will be

25,000 DM. More details will be published later.

The Board has recommended that the European Rapid and Blitz Championships (men and women) in the future – if possible – together be held with the European Team Championships or European Club Cups. This enables more players to take part in these events.

The European Individual Senior Championship 2002 has been granted to the Ukrainian Chess Federation (probably in Milgorod from 11th to 21st May).

A match between Europe and Asia is to be organized in Batumi/Georgia. Further details will be negotiated between the Continental Presidents of Europe and Asia. If possible, this match still can take place in September 2001.

The next meeting of the ECU Board is to be held in Kallithea / Greece in connection with the 72. FIDE Congress on 6th and 7th September 2001.

Kind regards,

Horst Metzing

Secretary General