Minutes of the Annual Meeting of the
Swiss Go Federation
April 2, 2005, 19:00h
Present: Alan Held (Bern, Chair), Jean-Marc Louis (Geneva) ,Robert
Meyer (Lausanne), Roberto Morrison (Locarno), Dominik Müller (Luzern),
Allan Rosenheck (v-p), Ueli Rusterholz ( Zurich), Lorenz Trippel (Treasurer).
1. The minutes of last years meeting (available on our web site) were
accepted.
2. Held delivered a presidential review of the year. He pointed out
that Go has done very well in the past year. Yuki Shegano was
featured in a stage organized by Daniel Baumann and Adi Wagner (Les
Pactot). In addition she gave a course for beginners in Nyon, and has
appeared several times in Geneva. It would seem that if any club is
interested in having her, she is will to come from Milan - of course
inviting her means covering costs and an honorarium.
In addition the Seijo - Taranu road show came through
Switzerland making stops in Zurich, Bern, and Yverdon. The word is
that that Seijo will be interested in coming once more.
Catalin Taranu is now living in Bucharest, and he to is
available for invitation. (Cost and honararium again necessary).
Also Chizu Kobayashi is now residing part time in Geneva where she has
begun to give courses. These are usually announced before hand on
E-mail by Armel-David Wolf.
Josef Renner has been giving courses in Zurich, aided by the strong
Hungarian player Diana Koseki.
There are two new clubs in Switzerland. The first is a club which has
been organized at CERN. They seem to be content to exist in
isolation, they have however been invited to take part in our
tournaments.
Jean-Marc has been giving lessons at a school in Bernex where the
students have formed their own small club. They are paying 50
Fr/month for a room. It was decided that the Federation would cover
25 fr/month of the costs.
The attendance at our tournaments has increased. Almost all
tournaments have more than 40 participants, with the championship in
Yverdon and exceptional success: 58 players participated.
The Swiss championship was won by Sebastian Koch
At the junior championship in Bern, Ivan Bariswyl repeated his
previous years win.
In short it has been a good year for Go in Switzerland.
3. The financial report was given by Trippel. It can be summed up in
a simple sentence. We are in very good financial shape, and are open for
suggestions for projects. The details of our financial situation are
available on our web-site. However to get access requires a password. If you are
interested, this can be obtained from Trippel.
It was decided to donate approximately 320 S.Fr. to Yverdon for
their share of the Seijo-Catalin tour.
4. Election of officers. There being no other candidates, the
current board was reelected:
Alan Held - President.
Lorenz Trippel - Secretary - Treasurer
Allan Rosenheck - Vice-president
Patric Grüter - Juniors Responsible
5. It was still a little early to get exact dates for the next year,
however tentively the schedule looks like
Chamiponship - October Tessin, organized by Roberto
Morrison. Bern - first week end in February. (4,5)
Zurich - end of March - beginning of April
Geneva - Ko Go club May Wintertür - November
Lucerne - Maybe
Veyrier - October
6. International Representation.
In the 2004 WAGC, Josef Renner represented Switzerland,
scoring a creditable 4 wins.
By virtue of his point count, Robero Morrison will be the
representative in Japan for the 2005 WAGC.
Held turns to the proposal that had been circulated with the
agenda. It proposed a change in the system of choice of
representative to make it more acessable.
He explained:
At the present moment we have about 10 players who could creditably
represent Switzerland. If you look at the results, (available on the web)
you see that noone is dominant and the selection system seems to be working.
However the suggestion is made with an eye to the future. It could easily
happen in the future that one or two players might obtain a dominant
strength and skew the choice. In the discussion he explained that it is
better to protect against this problem before we have to make a decision
which is directed at one person.
Morrison explained the situation in Czechia where exactly this
has happened. There is a three year cycle and there are two 6 dans
each of whom goes once every 3 years, which leaves 1 year open for
others. As a result there 4 dans who will never see the WAGC.
The idea is to extend the cycle to a four year cycle, and to
retain six years results (rather than five) with the best five of the
last six years counting rather than the best four of the last five as
in the past.
After further discussion and clarification of the details, this
was accepted. So as it now stands. After having gone to the WAGC, the
representative loses all of his points and MUST sit out THREE years before he
is eligible to go. again.
The candidate who has the highest point count using the best
five of his last six years results is to be chosen. As an example,
Sebastian Koch, who went in 04 will be elegible to go again starting
in 08.
The six year rule for collecting points will begin with the
choice after the 2006 championship. The choice made after the 2005
championship will be made on the basis of the best four of the last
five.years.
Held then proposed the change effecting the choice of pair
rep that had been presented in the Agenda.
He explained that the idea is to use the choice of male
member of the team to reward those people who had done work for Go in
Switzerland but whose level of play will never enable them to go to
the WAGC.
This idea is used in other federations. As an example, some
years ago the European Go Federation used an invitation to send Marcel
Schweizer who was the man most responsible for the institution of Go
in Switzerland.
Our situtation is complicated by by the scarcity of female
players who have reached a level where they will not be an
embarassment to Switzerland. Note that the level of the players is
basically of no interest to the organizers. One problem is that a
woman who is in the position to go could easily say, "Either my boy
friend goes or I don't". To avoid this the choice of possible male
members is to be made by the AGM.
As an example he pointed out that at the moment, we have a
potential woman player (Silvia Koch) and proposed as the two obvious
candidates to accompany her, Daniel Baumann or Adi Wagner, both of
whom have done extensive work for Go**
There followed a discussion in which some possible problems -
such as what happens when there are more than one possible team, that
answer to which was of course - then they have to have a playoff. But
given that the organizers don't want to see the same face again and
our scarcity of woman players we are not likely to face that problem
in the near future.*
After further discussion the motion was accepted, with the
proviso that the three of them settle the problem among themselves,
with the possibility of a coin toss in case they cannot agree.
Held pointed out that some years ago it was decided that in
order to qualify for points for the WAGC, one had to play in at least
two Swiss tournaments. Given the then scarcity of tournaments, this
was never enforced. However there are now more tournaments being
held. It was agreed that the rule should now be enforced.
Since two tournaments have already taken place this year, the
rule is to be in effect AFTER the 2005 Swiss Championship.
7. Kobayashi Chizu is preparing a program of exchange between young
Swiss and Japanese Go players. Held has spoken to her and asked her
to send details in time for the meeting. She was at the time in
Paris, and planning to leave for Japan, so has not yet answered. He
said that as soon as he gets the details from her he will circulate
them.
8. There has been discussion as whether or not when entering players
in a tournament, their stated Dan or Kyu rating should be taken at
face value and their entry on the list (effecting the draw) done in
descending order of claimed strength. This of course can lead to
distortion, for instance people registering above their real strength,
say as a Dan, then being beaten by a second kyu who immediately thinks
that he has now improved massively.
The European rating system has now been up and running for
some time and it was decided that we should take advantage of it.
Working on the assumption that all ratings five kyu and better are
reasonably stable. There will be exceptions, but noone in that range
is likely to jump 3 kyus in a month, whereas a serious twelve kyu can
easily do that.
So the decision was made that for players in Swiss
tournaments claiming to be five kyu or better they must be entered in
descending order according to the rating system - NO MATTER WHAT THEY
CLAIM TO BE. Players of six kyu and higher to be entered as they
claim.
9. Victor Bogdanov who was in Zurich asked that attention be called
to the European team championship, which will be held in Petrodvorets
(thiry kilometers from St. Petersburg) 3 - 7 July. The sponsors are
offering very generous tems, such as free lodging.
What is needed is a team of four players plus an optional
spare. If anyone is interested in trying to put together a team of
four Swiss nationals, complete information can be found at '
http://www.go-federation.spb.ru/ ' .
10. The modus of the Swiss championship was called into question. It
is was made clear that given the number of dan players, a five round
tournament is no longer a proper method for determining the champion.
So the proposal is to pick a holiday week end and hold a three day
tournament. This would allow for a seven or even eight round
tournament. Unless there is much (justified!) opposition, we will be
doing this in the future. The details remain to be settled.
11. There being no other business the meeting was closed at 21:00.
* Held said that he wasn't sure of what the cycle is for pair
championship, but if the problem arises it is easily established.
** They have discussed it and decided that Adi Wagner should
be the male half of the team.
