I think the update on the situation is in order.
Over last couple of weeks we exchanged couple of emails with the President of FMJD Mr. Otten, General Secretary Mr. Teer and Tournament Director Mr. Jacec Pawlicki.
To our sorrow, which should have been expected nevertheless, Mr. Otten has refused to listen to the voice of logic as he replied to our polite request to analyze and reconsider the rules for qualifications. Furthermore, it appears that he has totally misunderstood our reason for comments and even our sanity, by writing the remarks such as:
- "What you ask now is: to hell with your qualification tournaments, we (the American Federation) will decide who is going to Beijing. As you will understand, that’s not the way it is or will be."
- "When I would extrapolate your reasoning in extremis you would want to let ICAONA decide who would go to Beijing and because it takes too much time to get there and to play you would tell us the final place in Beijing and ask us to transfer the price money. "
Please, Mr. Otten, we are not so naive to think that we in ICAONA, have any influence or power to change the players' ranking. As Alex Mogilyansky wrote in his reply to Mr. Otten: "The goal of our letters is not to blame anybody ... we just want to help you to create good system."
The failure of the current system is obvious to anyone, not even a checker player. We are assuming that checkers is a sport (often a reason for argument with my friends), but if it is - then criteria for selecting the best players shall be similar to what it is in other sports, right? Let's consider a competition in long jumping for this theoretical discussion. You have 2 sportsmen: one completed 2 jumps, each of them 5 meters. The second only jumped once, but jumped to the distance of 9 meters. Which one would you say is better? Before you answer this, here is how FMJD would judge it: the first person is obviously rated higher since the sum of his jumps 5 + 5 = 10, which is more than 9 meters acheved by the other (9 + 0 = 9). Sounds crazy? That is how we feel. According to FMJD." First of all we want players to play to get qualified " (so whoever plays more will be qualified over someone who plays less). Now. whom does such system benefit? Obviously, the
professional players who receive sponsorships or government support, and therefore can afford to travel to competition all year long since they have no other obligations. Who does this system exclude or discriminate?
All of us, US players: professionals, business owners, workers - all those who need to support themselves and the family in order to be able to play... It is sad that with the current system our superior players, masters and grandmasters will not be able to attend world elite events... Something we all need to be aware....
