Turkish Chess Federation willing to organize the event
The Turkish Chess Federation, originally licensed to host the 2011 European Individual Women Chess Championship in Gaziantep, withdrew from the organization of the tournament on late December. Those events were described in an earlier article.
The European Chess Union followed up on the then issued press release and discussed the situation at the ECU Board meeting in Belgrade on 12-13th January. The decision was to begin with a new bidding procedure, and the official invitation for new bids was published on the ECU website.
However, immediately on the following day, the Turkish Chess Federation renewed the offer to organize the Championship on the same dates and venue and with the same prize fund as originally planned. (Full official letter bellow.)
It should be noted that the ECU has offered the following dates for the new bidding procedure: “Potential organizers should bear in mind that the following terms are available for the championship organization: 07-25 May, 25 June – 25 August and 05-20 October.”
The Turkish Chess Federation believes that it is still not too late to have the tournament played in March, but it also offers an alternative date on 31st July to 19th August. But there is also a small warning – “However, you should note that it will be very hot there at that time.”
The ECU Board has authorised the ECU President Silvio Danailov to grant the competition organization and close the bidding procedure “if an excellent offer is received”.
Dylan McClain of The New York Times investigated further and interviewed a number of key persons involved in the events around the 2011 European Women’s Championship and 2010 Women’s World Championship.
OPEN PROPOSAL FOR EUROPEAN INDIVIDUAL WOMEN CHESS CHAMPIONSHIPS 2011
Dear Mr.President, Silvio Danailov,
As you know due to the insults and humiliation of your General Secretary, we have protested and in the end, because we did not get any response from your side for a long time, we withdrew from the European Championship, which was to be organised in Gaziantep.
It is great pity to read your comments on this issue, claiming that we do not have the money to organise it. This is not true. We attribute this to your limited experience as President of the ECU. We want to show our hand again, like just after election, and offer again to organise the event. We hope that you will close the file on the elections in your mind, and as a chess person will make the right move now.
We are willing to organise the European Individual Women’s Chess Championship under the same conditions agreed and finalised in attached regulations. We do not, however, want to communicate with your General Secretary on this issue, while she is behaving improperly to our federation, and to me. It would be proper for her to apologise for this.
If you want to run ECU in the best possible manner, and to find the best organisers for each specific event, kindly answer us in time, and let us organise the best European Women Championship ever, in Gaziantep, in March 2011. We hope you will agree with our proposal, and we await your answer before Monday 24, January 2011, at 1:00 p.m. Turkish time.
If you think that the proposed time schedule is not enough to organise event in March, we are ready to organise it from 31st July until 19 August, in Gaziantep. However, you should note that it will be very hot there at that time.
We do not believe that we should make a new bid, considering that the event was granted by General Assembly to Turkish Chess Federation.
We hope you maintain the level of organisation and succeeding in your term, the best for the sake of chess.
Chess regards,
Ali Nihat YAZICI
President, Turkish Chess Federation
