Open letter to FMJD President

[anatoli gantvarg]

To Mr Maggi, the President of the FMJD

Open Letter No. 3

Highly esteemed Mr Mäggi,

In my previous letters, I addressed you in connection with the fact that my points in the World Cup were reduced 3 times by Mr Pawlicki, a representative of Poland. The points were also reduced to the participants in all World Cup tournaments, except for the weakest competition, the only one, in which the strongest players of the world did not play. This is obviously due to the fact that the winner of that competition was the coach of the Polish team, who, respectively, is the main beneficiary of J. Pawlicki's actions. With the same aim in mind, J. Pawlicki imposed restrictions – no more than one player from one country. Such retroactive changes to the regulations, when players compete and pay for their participation according to one set of rules, but then, they are informed about their results according to another set of rules, have only one name – swindling.

While responding to my Letter No. 2, you promised to entrust Mr A.Harak to consider the facts from my appeal and send me a reply after the sitting of the Executive Committee. However, you have failed with your promise and decided not to answer me at all.

Such actions of yours demonstrate your consent to be abused by crooks from the FMJD's Executive Committee.

I have decided not to play in World Cup tournaments. At my age, I should stay away from crooks.

2018 European Championships

I turned to the Belarusian Draughts Federation about my participation in the European Championships. However, when I learned about the regulations thereof and that Mr Pawlicki had been appointed to be the main Referee there, I immediately refused to take part there.

The European Championships are the qualifying tournament for the World Championships; therefore, you are also responsible for the European event as well.

All the strongest players are eligible to play in the European Championships. How could you appoint the person who has either bad or even hostile relations with some of highly rated players to be the main Referee? The person, who does not know the rules, constantly neglects them and is involved in all scandals?

You know perfectly well that he has already been caught more than once for changing tournament outcomes after the end thereof! The latest scandal of this sort happened recently at the tournament in the Netherlands, when, after the tournament, the Dutch players found that he had changed the outcomes thereof.

You saw in Tallinn that he interfered in the course of the tournament during the World Championships; and his actions of changing the composition of groups 2 days before the World Championships is unique for the world of sports.

You should know that since the start of the tournament, neither the President of the FMJD, nor the Tournament Director, nobody, except the main Referee can interfere in the course of the tournament, and, moreover, change its outcomes, as well as the results of individual matches.

You, and Ms I.Drukteynite from Lithuania, the President of the European Draughts Confederation (EDC), are aware of the last year's scandals, when J. Pawlicki and Y. Chertok did not allow to the World Cup Finals some of the strongest players, successful at the qualifications, including O. Fedorovich from Belarus, the runner-up in the World Championships, who finished the year 2017 with the best rating in the world. For 1.5 years, you failed to respond to the protest of the Belarusian Federation about this fact.

You also know about numerous facts of retroactive changes made in tournament regulations.

You know about the scandal caused by the fact that two strongest women-players at the time, the Nos. 1 and 2 in the world rating, who had confirmed their strength at the 2017 IMSA Games, were not admitted to the Women's World Championships. And this was done despite the fact that there were 4 vacant places; and nobody had claimed two of them.

This blatant fact was covered by a letter of twenty grandmasters, addressed to the FMJD, in which a real mistrust to Mr Pawlicki was actually expressed.

Personal relationships with this man are often decisive for the formation of regulations and the membership of various tournaments.

Examples of the aforesaid are in plenty; let us take the latest ones only.

Qualification for the 2019 World Women's Championships

After the scandal with the 2017 Women's World Championships, changes were made at the 2017 General Assembly of the FMJD concerning the World Championships. Thus, No. 1 in the world rating and No. 1 in the 2019 World Cup are admitted to the 2019 World Championships.

I have recently found out that this was done only for men, although the scandal had to do exactly with the non-admission of strongest women.

This is explained simply: the first place in the rating at that time was occupied by V. Motrichko.
Mr Pawlicki's personal attitude to V. Motrichko was reflected in the letter of two scoundrels that I quoted earlier.

The regulations of the European Championship envisaging 9 matches to be played in 6 days make the sportive competition generally unpredictable, because, unlike men, women do not resort to playing "easy" 5-minute matches in order to have some rest.

Why are women's issues decided by men-members of the secret players' committee? Women did not elect them.

How was J. Pawlicki elected to be the Chief Referee of the European Championships?

At one of the sittings of the European Draughts Confederation (EDC), V. Anisko from Belarus was elected to be the Chief Referee of the European Championships.

After some time, Mr Pawlicki contacted the organizer of the European Championships from Russia, and he appointed Pawlicki to be the Chief Referee, with which Ms I.Drukteynite agreed. Does the EDC's decision mean nothing?
Do you know that participants and referees of official World and European Cups and Championships are appointed only by federations? And that no organizers can influence this.

Whom does the sport of draughts exist for?

Looking at the mess that was going on at the 2017 World Championships in Tallinn, and now, in connection with the 2018 European Championships, I have to ask one question: "Whom does the sport of draughts exist for?"

My colleagues from Vilnius were surprised when one of the sittings of the EDC with your participation was held in the best five-star hotel of the city. The EDC has no other source of funding except players' contributions.

What conditions are offered to players?

Even at the finals of the 2017 World Championships, they had to live in two-bed rooms.

The participants of the 2018 European Championships in Moscow must play 9 matches in 6 days. Men solve their rest problems at the expense of quick draws they play, when they get into the leading group. And what women should do?

At European Championships, organizers are obliged to accommodate the first numbers from countries at their own expense. They provide two-bed rooms for them, even if players are from different countries. The men's championships will include about 60 players; and 30 of them are from Russia.

When the European Championships were held in the Netherlands, their Federation established a reasonable restriction by admitting the Dutch players with the rating not lower than 2250.

Here, the picture is different. Out of the 30 Russians, 10 have their ratings below 2000, or have no rating at all. And they will play a significant role in distribution of places.

Women have 33 Russian players out of 50; and the picture is the same.

That is, players with extremely low levels from the strongest draughts country will not play in the "championship of the street", according to their skills, but against strongest players in the world. And this is done in order to extort more money from the players: that is, only Russian players will pay an amount in excess of 6000 euros for their participation.

A natural question arises: "What will strongest players get, who are forced to play in such a farce?"

Let us look at the Prize Fund. It is 5000 euros: 3000 for men and 2000 for women. They will collect total contributions in the amount of about 9000 euros.

As always, when money for the hotel accommodation and meals should be handed over to the organizers, they also get some income from this money.

That is, the financial conditions of the championships, plus the income of the EDC and the Russian organizers are paid by the players, who receive unacceptable conditions instead.

Where are sponsors? In which website can I see them? If they are present, then, where is their money?

Let me remind you that at the recent European Championships in draughts-64, held conducted by the IDF (also by Russians), the Prize Fund made 20,000 euros.

I do not take into account the contributions and the prize fund for the super-blitz. This is a small part. This kind of the game, which is all the time imposed by J. Pawlicki, is rejected by all mental sports. For this rapid movement of hands the most suitable place is the zoo.

Does Ms I.Drukteynite understand what regulations she has approved?

In this situation of unacceptable conditions for players, a complete and transparent financial picture of the championships should be presented.

Match for the World Champion-2018 Title of Schwartsman-Boomstra

I would like to finish my letter with the match for the title of the World Champion – the most important event of the year.

During the year, the FMJD did nothing to organize the match. To save the match, Harm Wiersma, a former world champion took up the search for money about 2 months ago.
The match will start on December 28, 2018.

Mr Weirsma is completely ignoring the FMJD leadership. This was a very good decision. The history of this match shows that your colleagues in the Executive Committee are of no need to anyone.

They are unable to organize anything, neither the Olympiad, nor tournaments by invitations, nor a match for the title of world champion, anything that demonstrates the level of any sport.

Permanent retroactive changes in the timing and regulations of tournaments; and playing without rules are all the hallmark of the Executive Committee of the FMJD.

I want to remind you of the decision of the Executive Committee with had demanded an apology from Harm Wiersma, one of the best players of the century and one of the best organizers of tournaments, for not clear what.

Who has offered the idea to consider this issue at the sitting of your Executive Committee? Who is really managing the sport of draughts? What is the adequacy of these people?

I hope you will answer all the questions raised by me in this letter.

Anatoli Gantvarg

[Wieger Wesselink]

After the scandal with the 2017 Women's World Championships, changes were made at the 2017 General Assembly of the FMJD concerning the World Championships. Thus, No. 1 in the world rating and No. 1 in the 2019 World Cup are admitted to the 2019 World Championships.

Such ad hoc decisions are symptomatic for the FMJD. Sometimes the no. 1 in the rating is admitted, and sometimes not. I'm very much against this kind of interference with the rules by the FMJD.

I have recently found out that this was done only for men, although the scandal had to do exactly with the non-admission of strongest women.

It is quite weird indeed that such rules are applied for men, but not for women.

The regulations of the European Championship envisaging 9 matches to be played in 6 days make the sportive competition generally unpredictable, because, unlike men, women do not resort to playing "easy" 5-minute matches in order to have some rest.

Playing two games on one day seems to be the trend these days. I think it should be avoided whenever possible in title tournaments.

At one of the sittings of the European Draughts Confederation (EDC), V. Anisko from Belarus was elected to be the Chief Referee of the European Championships.

If this was an official decision of the EDC, then of course it should not be overruled. Unfortunately it is not possible to check this, since the most recent published minutes of an EDC board meeting are from almost 3 years ago.

At European Championships, organizers are obliged to accommodate the first numbers from countries at their own expense. They provide two-bed rooms for them, even if players are from different countries. The men's championships will include about 60 players; and 30 of them are from Russia.

This is also symptomatic: the format of official tournaments changes more often than it does not. In any case I can't take a European Championship with 30 players from the same country seriously. In the past it used to be something special to qualify for a European or World Championship. Nowadays almost anybody can participate.

In this situation of unacceptable conditions for players, a complete and transparent financial picture of the championships should be presented.

Independent of the conditions for the players, more transparency is desperately needed. Transparency about money, transparency about the rules that are applied, when they are changed, why they are changed, by whom they are changed, transparency about qualification for important tournaments etc. etc. In my opinion transparency is still by far the weakest point of the FMJD. To give one small example: the world title match between Ndjofang and Georgiev was silently ignored. There was no communication whatsoever about it. At last a stupid mini-match took place in the week before the next world championship. If the FMJD is not able to attract candidates to organize a match, why don't they communicate about it?

During the year, the FMJD did nothing to organize the match. To save the match, Harm Wiersma, a former world champion took up the search for money about 2 months ago.

I don't know how much effort was put into this match by the FMJD. But the lack of communication about this upcoming match is striking again.