Global Strategy Commission's Meeting Takes Place in Wijk aan Zee

With participation of Arkady Dvorkovich and Kenneth Rogoff.

A meeting of the FIDE Global Strategy Commission (GSC) took place in Wijk aan Zee on January 25-26. Director General of FIDE, GSC's Chairman, grandmaster Emil Sutovsky told to Vladimir Barsky about the work done. 

– Our Commission assembled in Wijk aan Zee almost with a full complement, and FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich took part in its work. A well-known economist, grandmaster Kenneth Rogoff, who hasn't seemed to be deeply involved in chess in recent years, successfully integrated himself in the team. Kenneth proposed several valuable ideas. We were discussing many issues connected with the World Championship Match: its format and engaging global sponsors in it. The Candidates Tournament and principles of its formation were discussed as well, in particular, cancellation of wild cards. 




– Do you recommend not to give one spot in the Candidates Tournament to the host country? 

– Yes, we do. Our position, which was supported by Arkady Dvorkovich, is based on the principle that a sports selection should be made a cornerstone.  

We discussed many technical issues concerning, for example, holding of the World Cup and allocation of quotas for this tournament through continents. For example, the situation in Asia is changing, and we should consider it. We listened to a report about development of chess in various countries. For example, Ignatius Leong told that chess is much more popular in South Korea than we could expect - around 50,000 children are studying chess on a regular basis. We discussed the forthcoming Wold Team Championship. The dates are confirmed: March 4-15 for men and women, the competitions will be held in one place. The decision will be announced soon; at the moment, I cannot name the venue for it.

There was a big discussion about the format of the World Rapid and Blitz Championships, there are interesting ideas as well. We also worked a little bit on a calendar, because this year is really crazy; I think it has never happened before in the history of chess and I hope it won't happen again. Of course, a calendar should be composed for two years ahead with official tournaments precisely specified, and private events should be adapted to us. 

I think we've worked well. Both players and organizers are represented in our Commission in a great degree, so everybody made a contribution in the discussion. We are planning to hold three such meetings a year and I think that the first one showed that such work could be very effective. Although we have online consultations every day, of course. I think that our work is very important right now because we have to confirm many Regulations for open and women's competitions, both individual and team ones. Right now, urgently! 




– When will these Regulations be confirmed? 

– On the Presidential Board in March. It will be held in parallel with the World Team Championships. At the same time, we are planning to open the bidding procedure for the Candidates Tournament, which will take place in spring 2020, and for the World Women's Championship Match in 2019. 

– Which help are you expecting from Kenneth Rogoff, a world-renowned economist?  

– It is very important that he agreed to join us in our work as he is no stranger both for the world of chess and for the world of corporations. Being an exceptionally intelligent person, he grasps any issue very quickly. And when we were talking about attracting global sponsors, he said: I can call Peter Thiel, I can write to Paul Allen. So he is very effective in this matter! 

Kenneth Rogoff gives pieces of advice which are not perfectly evident for chess players. For example, how to hold the bidding procedure and not to have any questions about its transparency. In particular, he proposed to invite external audit which will confirm the fairness of the selection process. In brief, Kenneth Rogoff has greatly exceeded our expectations! 

Photos by Maria Emelianova