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Austrian Chess Federation - 100 years anniversary!Austrian Chess Federation(ACF) was founded in Viennaon December 12, 1920, and onthe occasion of the 100thanniversary, the ACF presents anexclusive chess magazine.Austria’s current Number 1 MarkusRagger was voted Austria’s Player of theCentury by the readers of ‘Schach aktiv’magazine.Shortly after the turmoil of World War I,the Austrian Chess Federation wasfounded in December 1920 in the HotelPalace in the chess metropolis ofVienna.The ACF started with 22 clubs. JosefKrejcik, who was also one of thestrongest players at that time, waselected the first president. Krejcik wasfollowed by Josef Hanacik and FranzCejka, and from 1971 long-termpresident Prof. Kurt Jungwirth shapedAustrian‘s chess life for 46 years. Heachieved the recognition of chess as asport, was founder and president of theECU and vice-president of the FIDE.Christian Hursky is heading the ÖSBsince 2017.The magazine “100 Years of ACF” takesa journey back in time (Wilhelm Steinitzconquered the chess world from Vienna,Carl Schlechter and Rudolf Spielmannwere world-class players) and presentsthe currently strongest Germanspeaking GM Markus Ragger asAustria’s player of the century.Légende Nemo enim ipsam voluptatemquia voluptas sit aspernatur.Managers, artists and politicians likeArnold Schwarzenegger talk about whychess plays an essential role in theirlives.Further contributions to the magazineare dedicated to the successful workwith young talents, the growing femalechess scene and the future developmentof the sport of chess.Austrian President Alexander Van derBellen, ECU President ZurabAzmaiparashvili and FIDE PresidentArkady Dvorkovich congratulated thehistoric #Chess Federation and areconvinced that chess in Austria has abright future ahead of it in the nexthundred years.From the left toright:JohanPoecksteiner(ECU zoglou(ECU SecretaryGeneral)Austrian ChessFederationECU Website page of theAustrian Chess /austria/Official Website of AustrianChess FederationNewsletter December 202010

BELGIAN CHESS FEDERATION 100 YEARS YOUNGChess tradition in Belgium started long before the creation of the nationalchess association. Like all the major cities, Brussels already had a chesscafé in the 19th century, the Café de l’Europe, which housed a chess club in1815, and the chess enthusiast will have analysed the games played duringthe several tournaments of Ostend at the beginning of the 20th century.Roughly a hundred years ago, on 17December 1920, representatives ofthe leading clubs in the country,namely from Antwerp, Ghent, Liège,and Brussels gathered in the ‘Cercledes Échecs Bruxelles’ for a specialoccasion. They signed the statuteestablishing the Belgian ChessFederation!The first secretary of the newly bornchess federation, Edmond Lancel,would later publish the famousBelgian chess magazine‘L’Échiquier’ with regularcontributions from Alekhine, Rétiand Tartakower (1925–1939).The foundation of the Belgian ChessFederation in 1920 also provedbeneficial for the inception of FIDEfour years later. The Belgianrepresentative Léon Weltjensbecame a co-signatory of the FIDEStatute in Paris 1924, and theBelgian chess champion, EdgardColle, impressed with a third place inthe first amateur worldchampionship.Colle would also become a regularfixture in international professionaltournaments, but his prematuredeath in 1932 prevented him fromputting Belgium among the leadingchess nations in Europe.For those wanting to know moreabout our history, we recommendthe book written by FrankHoffmeister at the occasion of the100th anniversary of the federation.It is available in Dutch, French andGerman, and it can be ordered bywriting to info@frbe-kbsb-ksb.be .Frank Hoffmeistertells us the historyof Belgian chess.Edgard Colle(right) againstAlekhine in1925Newsletter December 202011

Daniel DardhaSource: SchaakwonderDaniel Dardha – Gazetvan Antwerpen(gva.be)Belgian chess history has been characterized by three main aspects:The national chess federation has always had to demonstrate enormous flexibility and adaptability. In our smallcountry, the political situation has never been simple and when the country was split into three language communitiesin 1970, this naturally also had an impact on chess. Three regional federations were founded under the nationalfederation, each of which must abide by regional rules and decisions.Chess is for example only recognized as a sport in the German-speaking community,not in the other ones. The large proportion of German-speaking teams in the firstdivision of the national team competition is therefore quite normal. For some yearsnow, the Ministry of Education in the French-speaking community has allocated aconsiderable amount of money to the development of school chess, but again, notthe Ministries of Education in the other communities.TEXT BY:Philippe Vukojevic Board Member of theBelgian Chess Federation Member of ECUEducational Comission .Belgian also have an entrepreneurialspirit, so that it is no surprise thatBelgians are also keen to make aninternational contribution, such as WillyIcklicki (Chief Operating Officer at FIDE),Patrick Van Hoolandt (president of theA.I.D.E.F., the international Frenchspeaking chess association) and otherBelgians who promote chess in thevarious commissions of FIDE and ECU.And what about other Belgian ‘products’:Houdini, the chess program, andThinkers Publishing, one of the bestchess editors in the world. Is it thereforea surprise that – even without having realtop players – we also manage toorganize big tournaments. Spa 1926,Liège 1930, Antwerp 1932 and Ostend,again, in 1936–1937. In a less distantpast, the top elite in chess came to playin the Lost Boys (Antwerp), the Swifttournaments (Brussels) and the GrandChess Tour (Leuven). And even theyouth can play in ideal conditions: theorganizers of the Belgian Youth ChessChampions make use of about 120electronic chess boards.Our Burgundian lifestyle is also reflectedin the world of chess. The habit ofoffering something to drink before agame (and more than one drink after it)is something that surprises playerscoming from abroad.Newsletter December 2020And our tournaments are not only forchess lovers, but also for life lovers.Why not play the tournament of Ghentduring the festivities in the city, Brugeswith its beautiful decor, Charleroi with itsrelaxed atmosphere, Brasschaat with itsconviviality or Liège with its warmhospitality?Is it our lifestyle that made a lot ofplayers settle in Belgium? VictorSoultanbeieff and Georges Lalevitch, theunfortunate Akiba Rubinstein and later,top trainer Vladimir Chuchelov andMichael Gurevitch came to Belgium andeven Magnus Carlsen went to aninternational school in Belgium when hewas 7. Did he learn some valuable skillsto become World Champion in Belgium?Our contribution at the chess board maynot be underestimated neither: wementioned Colle already, who gave hisname to a rock-solid opening, andJadoul gave his name to a variation inthe Scandinavian, but Belgians are alsoknown for their problemists. And did youknow we even have a world champion?Indeed, in 2017 Daniel Dardha hasbecome U14 world champion blitz andtwo years later, he even became theyoungest national champion at the ageof 13 years In short, the Belgian chess federation is100 years old, but still alive and kicking.12

Gunter Delhaes- honorary presidentof the Belgian Chess FederationAt the last general assembly of the Royal Belgian ChessFederation, Gunter Delhaes no longer stood for thechairmanship of the national federation.The end of an era.ITEXT BY:Philippe Vukojevic Board member of theBelgian Chess Federation Member of ECUEducational Commissionndeed, Gunter Delhaes wouldn’tbreak the record of the longestpresidency in Belgian chess history.He was at the head of the nationalfederation for no less than elevenyears. Only one chairman held thatpost longer than he did. Gunter'slong chairmanship was not at allself-evident, because during histerm of office, the Belgian ChessFederation went through one of itsmost serious crises, when a memberof the board had robbed the savingsaccount.Today, the federation is doing wellagain, and that is largely thanks toGunter, who always put thedevelopment of chess first. By theway, that was not only the case inthe national chess federation.He had already developed his ownclub, Rochade Eupen, into one ofthe most important clubs in thecountry.He also made every effort in theinternational organisations, ECU andFIDE, whether it was in the eventcommission or in the ethicscommission. Moreover he supportedand advised members of the BCF intheir goal to realize an internationalcareer in ECU as well as in FIDE.Newsletter December 2020For that reason Gunter became arespected person in the internationalchess world as well as in the BelgianChess Federation.It is therefore not surprising that theBCF governing body decided toinclude him in the list of HonoraryPresidents?The fact that this is not an end pointfor Gunter characterizes himentirely, because even before thathonorary title was voted, he said thatthe federation could still contact himif he could still be of any use with hisexpertise.The development of chess first.That is how we know GunterDelhaes, our latest honorarypresident.For sure Gunter will always be animportant support in de BelgianChess Federation.The board of the BCF wishes tothank Gunter for his many years ofdedication for chess in general andfor chess in the BCF in particular!13

CHESSTECH 2020 CONFERENCERunning parallel to the FIDE Congress wasChessTech2020, the online conference on chess andtechnology, which drew 526 registrations from more than70 countries.Following a welcome to the two-daymeeting from Zurab Azmaiparashvili,President of ECU, the FIDEPresident Arkady Dvorkovich gave akeynote address Chess: DrivingTechnological Innovations in the21st Century and answered a widerange of questions afterwards.The event, the 8th in the sequenceof the London Chess Conferences,was directed by John Foley fromChessPlus Limited, a London-basedtraining and education company,with a programme developed byStefan Löffler of ChesstechNews.FIDE was a foundation sponsorthrough its continental funding of theECU.Commercial sponsors of the eventincluded Tornelo, Chessable, DGT,LearningChess, ChessKid,ChessLang, SzuperChess,GameAhead Consulting andChessStars.The Zoom-based conferencecomprised 44 sessions with 122contributors. The conference wasvery well received with an averagesatisfaction star rating of 4.3/5.According to the post-conferencesurvey, the three most frequentdescriptions of the conference were“interesting”, “informative” and“inspiring”.ECU PresidentMr.ZurabAzmaiparashvilisent a welcomemessage#ChessTechNewsletter December 202014

There were many memorable sessions. One of the most important topics wasanti-cheating on which there were threein-depth sessions examining differentperspectives. Many attendees were impressed byChris Callahan’s overview of the freeplatform Lichess. The book presentations from DavidSmerdon (The Complete ChessSwindler) and Noam Manella (Think Likea Machine) provided deep insights intocognitive psychology. Daniel King’s honest account of howhe built up his YouTube channelPowerPlayChess attracted manyadmirers. Another session on streamingchess gave advice from setting upTwitch to running a successful channel. The clear presentation by ShohrehBayat and Judit Sztaray on onlinearbitration was praised by the arbitercommunity. Many chess teachers valued thepresentations from a range of educationcompanies including LearningChess,ChessKid, Chesser, AcornChess, andChessLang The session on sponsorship wasexcellent. The gender issues from the previousconference were revisited in a livelyinternational forum. There were three sessions onErasmus projects: Castle, CGS and8by8; and one session featuring theEuropean Research Council fundedDigital Ludeme Project. There were several panels such as “IsChess an Esport?" and "How to MakeChess Greener?” Many people praised the session onnew formats for chess journalism. There was a competition for the bestchess startup 2020. This was won byChessvision.ai by Pawel Kacprzak fromPoland.In addition to the above sessions inEnglish, there were also segments of theconference conducted in French,Spanish and German which werereported to be highly satisfactory.The conference also comprised a socialnetworking “Chess Café” where it waspossible to meet with other attendees inan informal atmosphere.Newsletter December 2020ChessTech2020RecordingsFor those who did not attend theconference, these are available inthree categories. Some areavailable to the general public andare being released one-by-one withsocial media notifications.A second category is for thosepeople who registered for theconference and may not have beenable to get into some popularsessions.The third category is reserved forthose with professional tickets.Access to categories two and threeis available for a modest fee.15

ECU FIDE ARBITERS SEMINAR FORFEMALE PARTICIPANTSFrom 7 to 12 December 2020 a FIDE Arbiters’ Seminarwas organized on the Internet, by the FIDE Commissionfor Women’s Chess and the European Chess Union bythe support of FIDE Development fund.The Seminar was held in the Zoomplatform. The Technical Organizer wasIA Mihail Prevenios (GRE).The Lecturer was IA Takis Nikolopoulos(GRE), FIDE Arbiters’ CommissionHonorary Chairman and FIDE Lecturerand the Assistant Lecturer were IA IlahaKadimova (AZE).The language of the Seminar wasEnglish.The lectures lasted in total for 20 hourswith the following subjects:1. The Laws of Chess ( including Rapid,Blitz and Appendices ) and the duties ofthe Arbiters in the Tournaments.2. The FIDE Competition Rules and tiebreaks.3. The systems of games, the Swisssystem and the pairing rules.4. The FIDE Titles and RatingsRegulations.5. The Regulations for the Titles of theArbiters.6. The FIDE Fair Play regulations andguidelines for Arbiters.Seventeen (17) women from eleven (11)Federations (RUS (1), CYP (1), IRL (1),ISL (1), ROU (5), GRE (2), ENG (1),SVK (2), MKD (1), NED (1), LAT (1) )participated in the Seminar.Many examples and cases fromtournaments were presented and theparticipant showed great interest, askingquestions and participating in thediscussions.Fourteen (14) of them took part in theexamination test, which was held afterthe end of the lectures, and which,according to the FIDE Arbiters’Commission guidelines, lasted for four(4) hours and covered all the topics ofthe seminar.Report by: IA Takis Nikolopoulos (GRE)FIDE Lecturer and IA Ilaha Kadimova(AZE) Assistant LecturerDetails can be found on the ECUWebsite.The followingparticipantssucceeded in thetest and will beawarded a norm forthe FIDE Arbitertitle, after theapproval of the nextFIDE Congress/CouncilNewsletter December 202017

UPCOMINGONLINE ECU ARBITERSCERTIFICATION COURSEECU Arbiters Council organises two Online ECU ArbitersCertification course for the FIDE and International arbitersin period from 16-19 and 27-30 Jnaury 2021.TThe webinars are open to all FIDEand International arbiters.For the 1st Webinar alll the 30 seatshave been booked in one day, andECU Arbiters council announced thedates for the next course.The second Online ECU ArbitersCertification Course will take placefrom 27-30 January.For the European arbiters, the OAcertification will be required to workas an arbiter during the ECU onlinetournaments.The course is open also to allarbiters around the world, who wishto have a special education andcertification.The cost for certification is 30 Eurofor the seminar and 20 Euro for theexam- in total 50 Euro together, withpossibility for experienced onlinechess arbiters to only take the testwithout participation in the seminar.The application deadline for thesecond course is 25th JanuaryMore information can be found onECU Arbiters Council Website.Newsletter December 202018

ARBITERS CORNERECU AC, the strange and unbelievablestory of 2020.Allow me to quote mr. TheodorosTsorbatzoglou, the secretary general ofECU, in his small reaction on Facebook:“It was an epic and historical year 2020for the whole world!”. I fully agree!In many ways, maybe it was a year weshould forget as soon as possible.Or maybe not?Text by:IA Geert Bailleul,Secretary of the ECUArbiters CouncilCompared with 2019, 2020 was a totallydifferent year! No one doubt that Covid19 was the biggest cause.In 2019 ECU organized 13 OTBtournaments during which 168 arbiterswere appointed. However in 2020 noOTB tournaments were organized!They were all postponed and after a fewmonth they were even cancelled.It was a year in which ECU had to adoptin the new global situation digitizing allservices and events.The internet became an even moreimportant tool then the previous years,not only for the organization oftournaments but also to organizemeetings and seminars.This was a huge challenge for ECU aswell as for the ECU AC.With great proud and pleasure ECUannounced the birth of “the EuropeanOnline Chess Championships”.It offered the possibility to all chessplayers to still practice their favouritehobby.Five championships were organized inclose cooperation with the ECU AC anda few national federations: TheEuropean Online Individual ChessChampionship 2020, The EuropeanOnline Youth Chess Championship2020, The European Online CorporateChess Championship 2020, TheEuropean Online Women’s Club Cup2020 and the European Online BlitzChampionship 2020.Newsletter December 2020To guide these championships in theright direction and to make sureeverything went smoothly, many arbiters(97) were appointed for these onlinechampionships.At that time, ECU AC realised that therewas a strong need for the training ofarbiters to be active during onlinetournaments. ECU AC realized that whatwe ask to an online arbiter is not whatwe need from an arbiter who is active ina standard tournament. ECU AC haslearned along the tournaments thatbeing an arbiter in one onlinecompetition is by far different from beingan arbiter in an over the board event.For that reason, and with the approval ofECU Board, ECU AC has set up anonline training program for “OnlineArbiter”.This certification, which will bemandatory to serve as an arbiter inEuropean Online Championships, willcertify that a particular arbiter has somespecial skills for online tournaments andconfirm the ability of an arbiter to work inonline events.The first online training will be organizedin the second half of January. Furtherinformation can be found on the ECUAC website.ECU AC also organized a FIDE ArbitersSeminar which was, also forced byCovid 19, held online.The FA seminar started on Monday May4th with 41 participants out of 27federations. For the first time the testwhich was used for the exam, was astandardized test in close cooperationwith FIDE ARB, which should be a normin the future for other FA Seminars.9 participants passe

E-MAGAZINE DECEMBER2020 Cercle d'Echecs de Monte-Carlo wins European Online Women's Club Cup! ECU Annual Meeting took place on 19.12.2020 ECU General Assembly . Austrian‘s chess life for 46 years. He achieved the recognition of chess as a sport, was founder