Association of Chess Professionals

(ACP)

Last update: May 2010

Prepared by Olena Boytsun for the ACP

http://chess-players.org

The ACP in Brief

The ACP is the only organization in the world that is a civic initiative of a significant group of chess players

250 top chess professionals from all over the world are members of the ACP

70 high-level tournaments in more than 20 countries all over the world are united in the ACP-Tour

The Association's purpose is the protection of professional chess players' rights, the practice and promotion of chess worldwide, in particular through the organization of chess tournaments and other chess events.

The ACP encourages and promotes the civil engagement of chess professionals

ACP Members

• 250 top chess professionals from

• 46 countries

• grandmasters, international masters, chess journalists, international organizers, international arbiters

• ACP Members are experts in every field of chess life

ACP Members

GM Vishy Anand (India) World Chess Champion GM Sergey Karjakin (Ukraine)

GM Levon Aronian (Armenia)

GM Peter Svidler (Russia)

ACP Members

GM Vasyl Ivanchuk (Ukraine)

GM Judit Polgar (Hungary)

GM Alexei Shirov (Spain)

GM Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaidzhan)

ACP Members

GM Alexander Motylev (Russia) GM Arkadij Naiditsch (Germany)

GM Anatoly Karpov (Russia)

GM Viktor Korchnoi

(Switzerland)

GM Vladimir Kramnik (Russia)

ACP activities

The ACP Board coordinates all the activities of the ACP on a voluntary basis.

The main activities include:

Consultations of the members on the topical issuesDevelopment of recommendations for FIDE, national federations and other members of the chess society on actual problemsDialog with members and the community through the ACP Newsletter, the official website (http://chess-players.org), correspondence, meetings etcConduction of opinion polls – the ACP is the only organization in the chess world that develops and conducts polls on a regular basisACP Tour – regular up-to-date calculation of all players’ performance through the year (season) Organization of the chess events – the ACP uses the most attractive and modern formats of the events in order to promote the game of chess

The most popular event of the ACP is the annual ACP World Rapid Cup.

The ACP Tour

70 high-level tournaments in more than 20 countries all over the world from China to Brazil

16 best players qualify for

the ACP World Rapid Cup

The ACP World Rapid CupLocation: theatre stage or conference room (about 1,000 spectators)

Live transmission: large screens for the audience in the playing room and broadcast on Internet

Commentaries: for the audience through infrared headsets and on Internet

Total audience: over 1,000,000 people (in person and through the Internet)

The winner becomes

the ACP Champion

•Prize fund: € 150 000

The ACP World Rapid Cup

• 1st ACP World Rapid Cup --Odessa, January 2007

Winner GM Peter Leko(Hungary)

• 2nd ACP World Rapid Cup -- Odessa, January 2008

Winner GM Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan)

• 3rd ACP World Rapid Cup -- Odessa, May 2009

Winner GM Boris Gelfand

(Israel)

ACP polls• The ACP Board systematically collects

opinions of chess players on the most topical issues of their professional lives

• Opinion polls can involve both a small number of respondents (i.e. professionals for specific problems) and a large group of chess players

• The ACP Board developed a wide database of contacts

• Provided opinions help the ACP Board to develop recommendations in order to increase the management efficiency in the chess world

Open questions encourage respondents to develop their own recommendations and therefore to be involved into the rules-of-law

processes of their own professional activity

The ACP in the media

The activities of the ACP always attract attention of the chess and mainstream media

The ACP cooperates actively with the international press; information about the ACP and its activities appeared on the following media platforms:

Television -- TF1, France 2 (France) Eurovision (International) WDR, ZDF (Germany) ORT, NTV, Canal Sport, TV6 (Russia), numerous channels in Switzerland, Italy, Hungary, Israel, Ukraine etc.

Radio -- France Info, France Inter (France) New Life (US) Ekho Moskvy (Russia) stations in Germany, Switzerland, Ukraine, Italy, etc.

International press -- Le Monde, Le Figaro, Le Point, Libération, Agence France Presse (France) The International Herald Tribune, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Associated Press (USA) The Daily Telegraph, The Times, Reuters (UK) Der Spiegel, Frankfurter Allgemeine, Sueddeutsche Zeitung, DPA Press Agency (Germany) Kommersant, Sovietsky Sport, Sport-Express, Izvestia, The Moscow Times, Itar-Tass Press Agency (Russia) Tages Anzeiger, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, La Tribune de Genève (Switzerland) El Pais (Spain), The Hindu (India), etc.

ACP Newsletter

The main aim of the

ACP Board Newsletter is • to inform members on the ongoing

processes within the organization• to establish stable communication

between members and the Board• to provide the official position of

the Board on topical issues

Only members of the ACP receive the Newsletter; however it is published with delay on the ACP website and is available for general public later on

ACP on the Web

The ACP is on Twitterhttp://twitter.com/acpsecretary

Twitter is used as a convenient tool for short announcements and quotes on chess administrative issues, news, players, tournaments etc. 

Please, join also the ACP group at Facebook, which is open for all chess professionals and fanshttp://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=313594380772

ACP Board

• All members of the ACP have the right to be elected as well as to vote for the candidates of the ACP Board. The ACP Board coordinates all the activities of the ACP on a voluntary basis

• Members of the Board are in constant contact with each other using all possible means of communications. About 2-3 times a month there is a common gathering of the Board Members, when the issues are discussed live (over the phone or, if possible, in person).

• The procedure of decision taking within the Board is the following: all crucial decisions go under the vote procedure. In most cases the decisions are taken with the majority of the votes; however, in the most important cases the 2/3 of the supportive votes are needed.

ACP Board

Vadim Morokhovsky (39, Ukraine) is the President of the ACP. Vadim is a master candidate in chess and an international organizer. He is the Chairman of the Board of Pivdenny Bank (Odessa, Ukraine), which support the ACP in different projects.

The ACP Board is an international team of chess professionals united by the main aims of the organization: to protect the rights of participants in the chess society as well as to promote the game of chess worldwide.

ACP BoardPavel Tregubov (39, Russia) – International

Grandmaster since 1994. Best chess performances: European Champion 2000, Russian Team Championship winner 1999, three times French Team Championship winner, winner of the “Pivdenny Cup 2008”. Since 1.01.04 – ACP Board Member, from 1.01.06 to 31.12.07 – ACP President, since 1.01.08 – ACP Board Director. Pavel lives in Paris, France.

Olena Boytsun (27, Ukraine) is a Women International Master and an author of more than 60 publications on chess subjects. Olena is an economist, novelist and chess promotion researcher. She lives in Kiev and develops the project Marketing and PR for Chess – http://marketingchess.com

Member of the ACP Board since 2008, ACP Secretary General since 01.06.2009

ACP Board

Yannick Pelletier (34, Switzerland) – International Grandmaster, became first Swiss-born GM in 2000. 3-time Swiss Champion in 1995, 2000 and 2002. Yannick lives since 2007 in Montpellier, France. Member of the ACP Board since 2004, Technical Director of the ACP Tour since 2006 and ACP Treasurer since 2008. Yannick was also a member of the initiative group which created the ACP in 2003.

Alexandra Kosteniuk (26, Russia) is an International Grandmaster, the current Women’s World Champion and Co-Chairman of the FIDE Women’s Chess Comission. Alexandra develops personal blog on women’s chess at http://chessblog.com and her personal web-site is http://kosteniuk.comMember of the ACP Board since 2010

ACP BoardEmil Sutovsky (32, Israel) is an International Grandmaster.

Emil won a total of nearly 40 International Grandmaster Tournaments and since 2007 is a second of the US Grandmaster Gata Kamsky. Emil is a Member of the ACP Board since 2008. He is a profound bass-baritone singer and an avid Trivia player, a captain of chess team, which participates in quiz tournaments.

Elmira Mirzoeva (28, Russia) is a Women International Grandmaster, since 2002. From 1996 Elmira participated in European and World championships and also in International men tournaments. She lives in Moscow and works as sport journalist for the radio-station Mayak as well as TV-channel “NTV+”. She is ACP Board Member since 2008. Elmira’s personal web-site is www.elmirachess.com

Sergey Movsesian (31, Slovakia) is an International Grandmaster of Armenian descent who now plays for Slovakia. Sergey is a Member of the ACP Board since 2008. He won international tournaments in Sarajevo (2002 and 2007), 2007 Czech Coal Carlsbad tournament in Karlovy Vary, B-tournament of the Corus Chess Festival in 2008. Sergei loves league play and takes part in team competitions around Europe.

Development – ACP Women Rapid Cup

The new project developed by the ACP Board

is   ACP Women Classics

analogous to ACP World Rapid Cup

8 best women players qualify

to be hold during 3 days from September to January of the corresponding year

Current Standings of the ACP Tour: http://chess-players.org/eng/tour/tour_2009/standings_wom.html

Minimum prize fund 20,000 €

The winner of ACP Women Classics 2007/2008IM Viktorija Cmilyte (Lithuania)

Development – ACP Women Rapid Cup

The 1st ACP World Women Rapid Cup was

held in Rixos Hotel, Konya, Turkey from November 30th to December 4th 2009

In cooperation with Turkish Chess Federation

12 strong female players

games were played under the 'Corsican rule' (draw offer is forbidden)

final rapid tournament of the ACP Women Series 2008/09 (ended on July 1st 2009)http://www.chess-players.org/eng/tour/tour_2008/rules_wom.html

Web-site: http://womenrapid2009.tsf.org.tr/

The winner of the 1st ACP Women Rapid Cup GM Alexandra

Kosteniuk and the President of the Turkish Chess Federation Ali

Nihat YAZICI

Contacts

http://chess-players.org

Board Director

Pavel Tregubov gmtregubov@hotmail.com

Secretary General

Olena Boytsun olena.boytsun@sant.oxon.org

Prepared by Olena Boytsun for Association of Chess Professionals © 2010