Benefit of fees reduction by FIDE will be passed on to players: AICF

Chennai, Jan 12 (IANS) The All India Chess Federation (AICF) will pass on to the players and others the benefit of any fee reduction implemented by the global chess body FIDE, said senior officials.

"We will surely pass on the benefit fee reduction by FIDE to the players," Bharat Singh Chauhan, Secretary, AICF, told IANS.

"The FIDE annually receives about 30,000 euros as fees and other charges from India. India is one of the top revenue contributing nation to FIDE," D.V. Sundar, Vice President, AICF and FIDE, told IANS.

According to Sundar, the FIDE normally raises its invoice on national chess federations twice a year and the latter settles its dues accordingly.

Sundar said that the AICF pays FIDE a share of the tournament fees paid by chess players participating in the domestic tournaments.

True to his electoral promise of cutting down payments made by National Chess Federations (NCF) to the global chess body, newly elected FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich has proposed drastic reduction of income from the NCFs in the 2019 budget.

"After deliberations with the Presidential Board members and our legal counsel, we decided to divide all contributions payable in 2019 into two parts, the second of which shall be due only in December 2019," he said in a statement.

"At the same time, we decided to submit to the FIDE General Assembly (planned for Fall 2019) an amendment to the Financial Rules that would reduce the fees and will be applied from January 1, 2019. If the General Assembly approves our proposal, no federation, player or organisers will have to pay the second part of the fees due. This way, a significant reduction will be achieved in the manner that benefits everyone."

As per the FIDE budget for 2019, the income from NCFs has been cut to 694,500 euros from 1,252,000 euros in 2018.

However, AICF officials were not able to estimate the probable reduction in their annual outgo to FIDE as fees and other charges.

The AICF officials also added that it is not known the quantum of reduction in fees charged by FIDE.

According to Dvorkovich, there will be more money for development for NCFs and less fees for everyone, especially for seniors and juniors.

"These are the tangible benefits that the new FIDE management team brings you in 2019. We continue working with all of you for the benefit of chess worldwide," he added.

Meanwhile, there were no responses by the AICF to the reported veiled critical comment on it by Grand Master Nigel Short, Vice President, FIDE.

Short was reported saying that it was a matter of concern to note about 100 ongoing cases against the AICF though FIDE has a non-interference policy with national federations.

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