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In shadow of double standards

Guntis Valneris about Men's World Title match

We remind about the main events.

Current world champion Alexander Georgiev refused a match versus Roel Boomstra by the end of December... In accordance with the FMJD regulations (another topic is their rationality) the right to play a match shifted on to Chinese player Pan Yiming, 2019 vice-world champion. In January Pan Yiming refused a match as well – and the right to play versus Boomstra should have gone to the bronze medalist of World Championship 2019 Guntis Valneris (Latvia).

Nevertheless on February 4 the official website FMJD revealed the document, which read approximately the following:

“Due to an expected aggravation of Covid-19 situation in The Netherlands it is impossible to carry out the match until World Championship 2021 (in Tallinn, 28.06. - 15.07.). The pandemic engenders an extraordinary case and subsequently such situations according to Annex 17, p.121 are to be dealt with by the Executive Board. The Executive Board decided to conduct the match A.Georgiev – R.Boomstra in the autumn after world championship 2021.”

Georgiev and Boomstra gave their preliminary consent to it. But what of Guntis Valneris? After all in accordance with Annex 17, p.120 (at present this paragraph has already been amended post-factum, it read) it was him who was entitled to the match. Guntis has kindly agreed to answer our questions.

— Hello, Guntis! What would you say about the FMJD verdict on the match? Was it offered to you to play the match after Pan Yiming’s withdrawal?

— Hi, Ivan!

What can I say?! Just a cartel in action. In a civilized country for such actions, if it were about companies, one can go to jail. I mean all the actions and decisions of the FMJD after Jacek Pawlicki left the position of the FMJD tournament director, who was the only person there who really worked and had a sober understanding of what he was doing.

Okay, I'll tell you how I see it.

First, the new world championship (tournament) is to be held from June 27 to July 15 in Tallinn. The match was supposed to take place before this tournament (although it is still strange that the match is organized not in the same year as it should be, but always back to back in the year of the new World Championship 2021). The match was to be played between the reigning world champion Georgiev and a challenger who had not played in the official FMJD competitions for 2 years, because of Boomstra's studies. Both are very strong and respected players, but these days they are not head and shoulders above the others.

According to official data, Georgiev refused the match at the very end of 2020, although the match was planned from January 28 in the Dutch city of Eindhoven. Everything was ready for the match. Now in a logical way (following paragraph 11 in the FMJD rules) they started negotiations with the Chinese young talent Pan Yiming who placed 2nd at the 2019 World Championship and the Chinese federation. According to my information the Chinese federation gave up the right to the match as early as January 6, 2021 and notified the FMJD about this.

But then a miracle happened !! FMJD silence for a whole month. Paragraph 11 of the FMJD rules on the sequence of challengers if the former refused had disappeared, and all the terms when the final decision was to be made were postponed.

Initially, this was a meeting of the FMJD on January 12, when no decision was made. Then the FMJD posted on its website that the decision of the FMJD would be no later than February 1. But, apparently, they did not care about their own decisions. It was important to postpone the time to announce that the match could not take place, and “we did everything that was possible”. After all, the next on the list was me (3rd at the 2019 World Championship), and playing me is somehow not very profitable: from a small country that is not prestigious for advertising in Holland, a strong player who can resist or even win the match, and will definitely not refuse. And what if Boomstra loses "some third place in the world"?! This cannot be explained to the public and the media ...

Screenshot from the official FMJD website (news from January 19)

— As far as I know, after Pan Yiming's rejection of the match, the Players’ Committee (PC) was asked to give its opinion on the match. PC unanimously decided that FMJD should follow the rules and invite you to participate in the match. However PC's advice has traditionally been ignored. Now we know that FMJD did not make any decision for a whole month and, as a result, broke its own rules.

I would like to make a small digression about the rules themselves and recall the match for the title of world champion Jan Groenendijk - Roel Boomstra, 2016,  in which none of the players was world champion. In my opinion, the world champion must participate in the match for the world title; if he does not participate, then this is already a match for 2nd or 3rd place. However, there are rules and they must be followed. Do you agree with this?

— I agree. But one can't change the rules of an international global organization as beneficial only to the Dutch?! When they need it, then such a rule appears, and when it is not needed, it is "quietly removed" without notification and concrete decisions. I don't mean the talented young Dutchmen, who are good guys and very strong players, but Harry Otten, who with dirty boots promotes the interests they need ...

Yes, you are also right about the Players’ Committee. Jean Marc Ndjofang, who is on the Players’ Committee, informed me that their decision was unanimous that I should be approached as the next challenger.

— I agree. The rules can and even need to be changed, but not retroactively. It is also surprising that FMJD first observes them - they offer Pan Yiming to participate in the match, and then no - they do not offer you. Pan Yiming is from mighty China, and a match against him is like a battle against 1/5 of the world's population, and you are from small Latvia.

— Exactly. This explains everything. If they had decided initially: yes, in such a situation there can be no match, and Georgiev retains the title, and all the challengers - then, from the World Cup in Tallinn in July 2021 - then what to talk about, who can object ?! And in this case the second and third - such a difference!

— After you learned about Pan Yiming's refusal, did you approach the FMJD with a question about the right to play in the match? Or waited and followed the official decisions?

— Officially, as a federation, we did not apply until February 2 of this year. But my Chinese student is a bosom friend of Pan Yiming's training partners from the Chinese province of Hubei (where Pan Yiming himself comes from), and they unequivocally answered that Pan Yiming is not playing a match.

Knowing that the president of the FMJD Janek Maggi is absolutely incapable of being independent, since he himself is not a draughts player and is not interested in draughts domestic affairs, but votes like the majority, knowing this, I decided to write to him via Facebook about the importance of a possible decision at the FMJD meeting on January 12 and issued confidential information, explaining what was happening, so that he was "in the know." To this he answered evasively that nothing had been decided, that he knew nothing. And he gave this confidential information to the public of the FMJD board. Then I realized that he is not capable of leading the FMJD - if he is not able to comprehend even the information ...

Only our federation can officially apply to the FMJD, which it did in the person of the president of the federation Vladislavs Vesperis on February 2. After all, February 1 was the deadline when the FMJD had to make a decision (according to its own deadline on the official website).

Could say that we were waiting. After all, at first, waiting for FMJD meeting on January 12, then for February.

Correspondence LDF – Harry Otten

— The match will be played after the World Championship 2021 - an unprecedented event. The official letter refers to the impossibility of holding the match due to the pandemic, but when Alexander Georgiev refused for the same reason, they did not postpone the match and offered to play to Pan Yiming. Double standards? Choosing an opponent for Boomstra - who fits and who does not? All this, of course, is very strange. Has the epidemiological situation in the Netherlands deteriorated since then?

— The absurdity of all this is that they did not inform the Latvian federation, did not ask about its capabilities to host the match itself, since there is such a problem with the virus in Holland (although the reports show just the opposite). For example, the organizer and main sponsor of the Riga Open 2019 (he is also the organizer of the Golubeva’s match in Riga against Sadowska), Roberts Misans said that if the “turn” reached Valneris, he would start organizing the match in Riga before the World Cup in Tallinn.

But the FMJD successfully pulled - and immediately refused, without giving time.

COVID-19 situation in the Netherlands

— Indeed. After all, if the situation with the pandemic does not allow holding a match in the Netherlands, it can be held in Latvia. Moreover, there is Roberts Missans - an organizer with an excellent reputation. Tell us why theFMJD didn't do it?

— The decision of the FMJD to hold a match at the end of the year 2021 (for the 2020 title) after the World Championship in Tallinn is an egregious case of a cartel within the FMJD.

I will explain.

Now after Pawlitsky's resignation, without waiting for new elections to the position of tournament director, only Yuri Chertok is active (personally interested in Georgiev, he pays him a salary through the Ufa club, pays for all trips abroad, organizes all matters for him, up to the paperwork ) and Harry Otten, whose favorite and "protectee" is Roel Boomstra. Do you understand that it is unlikely that Maggi or Estonian treasurer Aare Harak are interested in polemics with a very aggressive Otten for the sake of someone, especially not of their own ?!

So they decided to organize a "shadow match", in which not only the 2020 world champion title will be decided, but also the challenger for the match with the 2021 world champion ...

And imagine the situation that Bomstra / Georgiyev (one of them) becomes the world champion in Tallinn in 2021, and already in November they play the match for the title of the “old champion” - 2020 ?! .. Will they fight or just decide to play another match - for the title of world champion in 2022 too ?!

And the silver medalist of the World Championship 2021 will have no rights, just to watch this clowning ...

"Shadow match" - after you know all the layouts and results; and everything is in their hands.

— Yes, the interest of those who made the decision can be noticed. And the very fact of a match for the 2020 championship after the 2021 championship can really lead to strange things. And then, what interest can a match for the title of champion in 2020 boost, when the champion of 2021 is already known ?!

— That’s exactly what I am driving at! I do not know the kind of sport where they play for the title of champion of the past or the year before last, when there are already new, completely different results ...

- Then one can now play a match for another year. After all, not all matches took place, and the challengers are in good health.

- Oh sure. I think there have been match failures since the late 1990s. Someone refused, isn't Shvartsman somehow against Chizhov, if my memory serves me? Maybe play his match now - "for the old"? He should have the right ?!

— In general, we can summarize some results. In international draughts strange things have been happening more and more often at the highest level. Problems with the WC 2019 in Ivory Coast, the scandal with the women's match Tansykkuzhina - Sadowska and, of course, the men's match. FMJD badly controls the conduct of such important events, and sometimes makes rather strange decisions.

All this suggests that new blood should be injected into the FMJD. On our website, they suggested adding someone from China to the governing body - I think the proposal is quite rational. In China, they know how to work and hold tournaments at a high level, and there is also funding. In addition, a wonderful organizer from Latvia, Roberts Misans, expressed a desire to nominate himself for the position of director of FMJD tournaments. I think Roberts is one of those who can really put things in order and raise the level of tournaments and matches. What do you think about that?

— Yes, you are right, an entrepreneur of this level, a philanthropist and at the same time a strong draughts player confirmed to me his desire to nominate himself for the post of tournament director at the FMJD assembly on July 3, 2021. He has several companies in Latvia and abroad with dozens of employees in the large advertising industry. He is ready to use his employees for "paperwork" in order to have time for a serious restructuring of the FMJD system, which he calls totally outdated and hopelessly stagnant.

As for the Chinese president, that's a very good idea! After all, the Beijing leadership is very supportive of its people who run international global organizations. This means that people are entering the Beijing offices and may well count on extensive financial and organizational assistance from the central authorities. For example, draughts was a component of the domestic China National Games (in other words, "China Olympic Games") in 2017, which comprised a rare non-Olympic sport. Now at the new games in 2021 there is no draughts, but there still is bridge, chess, go and Chinese chess. Imagine if the president of the FMJD were a Chinese, and not a helpless Mjaggi, would this happen? And this is a very important competition for prestige within China.

— At the beginning of the year Edward Buzhinsky published an article “Do checkers have a bright future? To be or not to be, that is the question ... " on our website. It turns out that there is a future - one just needs to change something.

Let's go back to the situation with the match. As a result of all the twists and turns and decisions of the FMJD that contradict themselves, you became the main victim. Do you and the Latvian Draughts Federation plan to send a kind of official protest to the FMJD and seek a change in the decision. Orisitalluselessnow?

— I think that at the moment it is useless, since the interested persons inside the FMJD exclude everything “what is needed and when needed” from the FMJD rules. At the same time, they hide behind a screen: “In extraordinary and emergency situations, the decision-making right goes to the Executive Board within the FMJD” (which practically is made up of the same people!).

And it is useless to sue the FMJD: you can only sue them in the Netherlands, since the FMJD is registered in Holland, and since anything can be removed from the FMJD regulations at any time, where is the reason to sue ?! There was the end of paragraph 11, but it disappeared, and no one will ever prove that it was ...

At the moment the list of the FMJD leadership includes two partial (at times) men and those who either play the role of extras, or simply work in their own narrow field (treasurer, director of youth tournaments ...).

But the decision of the FMJD on the "shadow match" is the most impudent example of partiality and impunity.

A dead end ...

Draughts as a game with its spread is now worth better than in 1990, as the "100" is played even in Pakistan and Northern Cyprus, but it is small and amateurish. We need a serious program to help advertise the game, we need to use more live blitz games to attract people's attention. But this is the field of the new tournament director of the FMJD and the issue of his support from the FMJD board, I hope, of an absolutely new composition.

— Adjusting of documents retroactively is a serious violation. Unfortunately this is not the first time when such a thing has happened, and not only at the FMJD. Well, all this reasoning leads to the fact that one cannot do without reforms. The FMJD require changes, we need active and efficient personnel, such as Roberts Missans, representatives of China. Only in this case there is hope for a bright future!

Guntis, thank you very much for the interview! Thanks to this material draughts players and ordinary readers will expand their understanding of what is happening at the moment in the world of draughts.