1. BOARD MEETING AND QUORUM
Present for the 3rd Board meeting in Beirut, Lebanon were :
Dr Ammar Houry, Vice President
Mr. Geoffrey D Borg, General Secretary
Mr. Halim Bounehas, Board Member
The other board members who were contacted via telephone before or during the 1st MCA Championships were Mr. Nizar Elhaj (on behalf of Eng Mohammed), Eng Ali Nihat Yazici and Dr Sakis Kouvatsos. Given the number of events that clashed with the MCA Championships it had been agreed prior to the Board meeting in Beirut that a high degree of discussion would be done also through telephone calls to Greece and Libya.
The Board meeting is acceptable as an official Board meeting in terms of Clause 14 within our statute. The Board is currently made up of 6 members.
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(a) The Board can take and agree decisions by letter, fax or e-mail if no Board member demands a meeting. The President will determine whether to call a Board meeting or in his absence any of the Vice Presidents. Minutes of the discussions and final decisions will be made in all cases. (b) 50% of the elected or co-opted Board members shall form a quorum.
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The Board also welcomed the Syrian Federation President, Mr. Yassien Al Moktef as a guest observer at the MCA Championships and Board. Mr Al Moktef expressed the desire of the Syrian Chess Federation to contribute in the organization of the MCA. Following discussions with Dr Houry, Eng Ali Nihat Yazici, Dr Sakis Kouvatsos and Mr Geoffrey D Borg, Mr Al Moktef was welcomed as a Board member.
The number of board members is now at seven and for the record these are :
· President – H.E. Eng Mohammad Al Gathafi (Libya)
· Deputy President – Eng. Ali Nihat Yazici (Turkey)
· Vice President – Dr.Ammar Houry (Lebanon)
· Treasurer – Dr.Sakis Kouvatsos (Greece)
· General Secretary – Mr Geoffrey D Borg (Malta)
· Board Members – Mr Halim Bounehas (Algeria), Mr Yassien Al Moktef (Syria)
2. TOURNAMENTS AND CALENDAR
2.1 MEN & WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP 2003 - BEIRUT
Following the success of the 1st Mediterranean Boys and Girls Junior Championships in March in Ajelaat, Libya the MCA Board were pleased to note the success of the 1st Men & Women’s Championships in Beirut. A total of 13 countries were represented out of a potential 23 countries which was very positive This could have been 16 countries but Libya had to withdraw due to unforeseen circumstances, and Albania / Croatia had intimated their interest but could not make it in the end due to financial constraints.
The MCA had also received negative replies from Spain, San Marino and Italy whilst Tunisia had indicated they were considering it. There were no replies whatsoever from Serbia, Bosnia or Andorra although in the latter case all e-mail addresses as indicated in the FIDE handbook were returned undelivered.
The MCA also thanked the Lebanese Chess Federation for giving other countries the chance to give their arbiters more norms and the tournament witnessed arbiters from Syria, Morocco and Algeria apart from the highly efficient Lebanese Chief Arbiter Rabih Rabah.
2.2 TEAM TOURNAMENT 2003
The Libyan Chess Federation has once again generously offered to host a tournament. Mr Nizar Elhaj confirmed he was waiting for a final answer from the Ministry of Sport in Libya and the target date would be the second week of December preferably. Alternatively another date could be the second week of January 2004. Given that 2004 is an Olympiad year there would be several constraints on Federations and players both in terms of finances and vacation leave respectively making it possibly difficult for many countries to participate in 2004. The decision whether to hold the event annually or every two years was also discussed.
Given the size of many of the Mediterranean Federations e.g. Malta, Andorra, San Marino, Palestine, Monaco, Bosnia it was preferable to hold this event every two years and possibly in non-Olympiad years. It was agreed that the format as discussed in the second board meeting in Tripoli would be maintained, namely 4+1 players for men, 2+1 women and one team captain meaning that each delegation would be not more than 9 persons.
It was estimated that at least around 8 teams would take part in December although final confirmation would depend on a number of factors. The teams indicated at this stage were : Libya, Algeria, Malta, Lebanon, Greece, Syria, Turkey, Egypt. Other potential teams were Morocco, Tunisia, Slovenia.
A final decision about the timing of this tournament would be taken during the FIDE Congress in Greece where it was hoped another MCA Board meeting could be held since the majority of MCA Board members would be present there.
2.3 JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS 2004
The Algerian Chess Federation expressed its interest in hosting the Junior Championships in April next year. The tournament would be held in Algiers although the exact timing of this event was not clear. Whilst the tournament was held in March last year Mr Bounehas proposed April as a possible date.
It was confirmed however a few days later that there would be Presidential (political) elections during April and this month should therefore be avoided. Given the timing of schools and exams it was recommended that maybe the 2nd week of July would be an ideal date for the tournament in Algiers.
Mr Halim Bounehas said that he would be forwarding the final details and dates by the FIDE Congress hopefully. The MCA thanked the Algerian Federation for its kind offer. It also requested Mr Bounehas to provide some more information about the Hotel that would be provided, the requirements for visas etc…
2.4 MEN & WOMEN CHAMPIONSHIPS 2004
Dr Houry said that he had had discussions with the Syrian Federation to organise the 2nd Men & Women Championships in Lattikia in Syria next year. This was confirmed by Mr. Al Moktef who requested up until the end of November 2003 to get full approval from the Ministry of Culture.
The idea was to organise the Men’s and Women’s Championship between the 1st and 12th of August 2004. This would coincide with the 25th Cultural Festival which would be held at the same time in Lattikia. Additionally Mr Al Moktef, who is also a Board member of the Arab Chess Association, said that it would not clash with any Arab tournament since the MCA were far ahead on their chess calendar plans than other Associations.
Dr Houry suggested that the conditions of the tournament in Syria including prizes and visas etc would be very similar to the current tournament and he would help the Syrian Chess federation in drafting the invitation letter etc…
The MCA thanked the Syrian Federation for its kind offer. It also requested Mr. Al Moktef to provide some more information about Syria, the Hotel that would be provided, the tournament conditions, the requirements for visas etc… in due course.
Some fundamental points needed to be worked on during the FIDE congress and these were the provision of some financial assistance to the two poorest Federations, namely Albania and Bosnia, so that they could be encouraged to participate in future. Whilst the MCA appreciated that other Federations may be going through some problems at the moment , their situation was different from the two Federations indicated above.
Another critical point is that given the excellent participation and performances by the winners, in this year’s tournament, FIDE should be approached to consider giving a GM norm to the men and women championships.
3.0 TRAINING AND WEB SERVICES
The General Secretary said that he had written to both the Internet Chess Club and Chessbase to see what facilities could be offered to MCA countries for provision of training and holding of tournaments via Internet. He was pleased to report that Mr. Matthia Wullenweber of Chessbase had extended an invitation of three years free access to all those Mediterranean countries (excluding Italy and France) who were interested.
The training sessions could be open or closed depending upon the MCA / teachers’ requirements. This means that the MCA now has an effective vehicle that can be driven and it also saves significant investment in the MCA having to reinvent any software ‘wheels’. The next stage in this critical area was to look at how trainers could be found and funded.
A preliminary exercise showed that the four groups could be designated and a trainer allocated to each group :
GROUP 1 France, Monaco, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Lebanon
GROUP 2 Italy, San Marino, Malta, Libya, Albania
GROUP 3 Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Syria, Palestine, Egypt
GROUP 4 Slovenia, Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia, Andorra, Spain
The idea would be that each MCA Federation would appoint two persons that each Federation believed could benefit from the training. Given the different technical level of each country these players could be national team members in the case of less strong chess Federations or juniors in the cases of higher level Federations. In either case the level of these players should be between 2000-2200 ELO.
Another point is that each player would receive one hour of free training a week giving around 46 hours of training per week across the Mediterranean. Given a cost of around $15 per hour, this would work out over a year at 46 x 52 x $15 = $35,880. Whilst not all countries could want to participate in this activity, the cost would still be around $ 20,000-30,000 given reasonable participation.
Dr Houry made a suggestion that a sponsor be found for the training program for around $10,000 and that maybe four strong Federations be approached with the objective of them providing a trainer from their national pool. Ideal countries who could be considered were France, Greece, Italy, Slovenia since the technical standards in these countries were very high.
Mr Al Moktef said that could propose that during next year’s Men’s & Women’s Championships in Lattikia, the Syrian Federation would be willing to host, free of charge, one person from each MCA member Federation. The trainers & traveling costs would need to be provided by the MCA however. The MCA thanked the Syrian Federation for their generous offer. Mr Al Moktef also said that if the MCA were willing to consider extending the participation of the training camp to Arab Association members e.g. Yemen, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain etc… sponsorship for the training costs could be found from this area.
Dr Ammar Houry (Vice President) ___________________________
Mr Geoffrey D Borg (General Secretary) ___________________________