Why I did not play in the Canadian Open Chess Championship in Sackville

I have deliberately left off until now to explain to the readers why I did not participate in this year’s Open because I did not want to color my report on the Open with any controversy that really had nothing to do with the tournament per se.

Let me start here by saying that there are a lot of organizers in the world, some good, some less so, and some very much less so. Most organizers are self proclaimed organizers, and hence the wide variety. Every professional player has his own horror stories dealing with these sorts. Some of being ripped off large sums of money by organizers, some of having to deal with sleazy organizers who lie and cheat, and some involving merely incompetent and inept organizers.

On the top of the list, definitely, a ‘good’ organizer is my personal favourite type of organizer to deal with. Barring that, everything is just a question of luck (or bad luck). I am not sure which is worse, a sleazy organizer or a merely incompetent organizer, but I do know that both have a lot in common: they both mess up frequently and create lots of trouble for those who come into contact with them.

With Canadian organizers I do not tolerate any such nonsense.

To be perfectly candid, I confess that while I might put up and compromise with a less than forthright European organizer, I would never do so with his Canadian counterpart. That is one of my principles: I expect (demand) competence from any Canadian organizer who wants me to play in his tournament.

Because they are Canadian, because I am Canadian, and because the tournament is held in Canada. The promotion of chess in Canada first and foremost requires/demands high standards from all those involved.

I have a number of horror stories concerning Canadian organizers. I remember the time some Ontario organizer sent me an envelope that had a cheque for 1500 dollars in it. No letter explaining what the money was for: just a blank sheet of paper and the cheque. When I contacted the person on the cheque to find out what this was all about, I soon realized that I was being set up: had I cashed that cheque then he would have tried to argue that I had made verbal commitments to play in one of his tournaments that he was hoping to organize (and I would have actually lost money playing).

I tore up the cheque and have never had anything to do with that organizer since.

On another occasion I received a cheque in the mail from another Ontario organizer: this time it was for the amount of (I might be a little off) $437.89 . However, this time there was a written contract (that he wanted me to sign), based on a telephone conversation , that I had had with the organizer several months earlier. The contract was clear; I had obligations, so did the organizer.

However, in as much as I had never discussed money with the organizer (and the contract didn’t specify any amount either), and since I was particularly annoyed by the 89 cent (!) part of the cheque, I threw both the contract and the cheque in the garbage!

I am not Sherlocke Holmes: I never liked mysteries, even as a kid. I try to keep my relationship with organizers simple and clear. Period.

I didn’t play in the organizer’s tournament, not that year nor in any of his subsequent tournaments. Apart from what I have already written, not only did I later find out that while I was being offered $437.89 to play in his tournament ‘ordinary’ Canadian IMs were being offered $500 to play (!) but that I was later actually accused of cashing the above mentioned cheque that I had thrown into the garbage!

Let me now get back to this year’s Canadian Open. In 2000 Mount Allison was awarded the bid for the 2001 Canadian Open. A certain Mr. Dave Barrett, Conferences Director of the university, went to the annual meeting of the CFC in Edmonton and explained his bid to the meeting. Later he spoke privately to me about his bid and he informally extended an invitation to me. He said that a concrete proposal would come later in the year. I told him that I looked forward to this.

Around the time of the end of the year (2000) I heard through the grape vine that Mr. Barrett was planning to leave the university on January 1.

In early January. Fred Mckim, (who as I later found out was acting on Mr. Barrett’s last minute instructions before he had left the university), contacted me and presented a proposal for my participation in the Open. Since the University’s name wasn’t even mentioned in Fred’s email to me, and by that time it was well known that Mr. Barrett was no longer involved with the Open, I thought (rightly or wrongly) that that McKim did not have a real budget with which to operate (a pretty typical situation for Canadian organizers).

I was offered some 1500 dollars and free accomadation in return for my participation as well as a simul or lecture. He further mentioned to me that if I wanted more money then he would be willing to negotiate this, but at the same time making clear that the budget was limited.

I made a counter proposal that I now regret making: I would not play for more than 1000 dollars (!) , but that he would have to use the 500 dollar windfall to invite a Canadian IM to the tournament. He accepted. (Clearly my offer was too generous to refuse.)

Everything was simple and clear: my obligations, his obligations, etc. Everything was written down. This constitutes a contract. A business agreement.

Five months later (!) I received an email from a certain Ms. Krista Steeves, Housing Manager of the university. She had been appointed in the mean time (by whom I haven’t the slightest idea) as Chairperson of the Canadian Open Chess Championship, even though she has neither any chess knowledge nor past organizational experience for any such national event. (I now suspect that when Mr. Barrett resigned from the university the others who remained drew straws to see who would ‘inherit’ the Canadian Open Chess Championship…and Ms. Krista Steeves lost!)

She explained to me that I would have to sign a personal services contract with the university if I expected to get paid. She also mentioned something about university regulations, taxes and forms to be signed.

I wrote to both Ms. Steeves and Fred Mckim pointing out that while I have no problem with the university’s regulations or any taxes ( which could simply be deducted from the money my contract specifies) I do have one specific problem: I ALREADY have a contract for my participation in the tournament and before anything gets signed we had to deal with that first. (And this is not to mention that I wouldnot accept last minute conditions being unilaterally imposed on me or alterations made without my complete consent.. Not to mention that had I really known that the University was involved with the tournament at the time I made the contract I would have asked for more money—not less money!)

To make the story short and sweet, Fred Mckim and Ms. Steeves discussed my position amongst themselves and Ms. Steeves then decided that my contract was invalid, because, according to Mr. Mckim, he did not have the necessary authority to make any such contract with me. (In academic environments it is probably not so unusual to find such imaginative solutions to real world problems. In anycase, the level of cooperation and mutual respect between Mr. Mckim and Ms. Steeves mustn’t have been very high at that particular moment…)

Not feeling inclined to write to the university President and ask some embarrassing questions about the qualifications of some of their employees, I sent an email to Mr. McKim and Ms. Steeves and politely informed them that I would not play in their tournament . I also pointed out (politely, of course) that I protested the ‘ my way or the highway’ manner in which a valid legal matter was so arrogantly dismissed by a minor university employee.

I promptly changed my travel plans to Sackville in July , since the Annual Meeting of the CFC takes place in the middle of the tournament.

Over the next week Fred ,on behalf of the University, ( the question of Fred having any real authority was not resolved at this point—he was simply acting (as he put it in his own words) as messenger boy !) made a counter proposal to me to try to get a compromise solution so that the university ‘wouldn’t lose face’.

Without going into any of the details of the offer (actually there were two distinct offers) I felt insulted by the counter offer. I wrote back saying that I had a counter proposal to their counter proposal : that I receive a public apology from the university (afterall it is the official organizer, in fact) for the manner in which I have been treated and I WOULD PLAY FOR FREE !

Needless to say, I received no such public apology, (I did not expect one), and I did not participate.

To finalize, I have no negative feelings towards the University, Ms. Steeves or Fred Mckim. In fact, I am quite glad that I distanced myself from such a comedy. I believe that the CFC made a serious mistake accepting a bid for the Canadian Open Chess Championship from an organizer with no chess experience or knowledge. I think that when Mr. Barrett resigned from the University the CFC should have reviewed the situation, and consider giving the tournament to some other organizer. I also think that it was a serious mistake for the University to leave all of the details (and there are many) of organizing such a tournament to someone who not only didn’t know what was being asked of her , who did not have the necessary qualifications to fulfill the responsibility she was being given, and who waited many months before trying to find out what Fred Mckim had actually arranged with the invited players.

In essence, too many mistakes were made. Hopefully the CFC will learn something for the future.