CHENNAI: 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, IANS reports.
“We will surely pass on the benefit fee reduction by FIDE to the players,” AICF secretary Bharat Singh Chauhan told IANS.
“The FIDE annually receives about 30,000 euros (Rs. 2.42 million) as fees and other charges from India. India is one of the top revenue contributing nation to FIDE,” AICF and FIDE VP D.V. Sundar added.
According to Sundar, the FIDE normally raises its invoice on national chess federations (NCFs) twice a year and the latter settles its dues accordingly. He 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 NCFs to the global chess body, newly elected FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich has proposed drastic reduction of income from the federations 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,” Dvorkovich 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 (Rs. 56 million) from 1,252,000 euros (Rs. 101 million) in 2018. However, AICF officials were not able to estimate the probable reduction in their annual outgo to FIDE as fees and other charges.
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 concluded.
