New Year’s greetings of Vladimir Langin, President of the International Draughts Federation (IDF)
Dear friends!
On behalf of the International Draughts Federation (IDF) and me personally I congratulate draughts players, coaches, organizers, officials and all fans of draughts on the New Year!
It has become a good tradition before the new year to recall our achievements and to share our plans for the future.
In 2017 IDF celebrated its 5th anniversary. Over the past period, thanks to the enormous efforts of our team, draughts-64 have made a giant step forward and turned into a serious and full-fledged sport. Currently IDF, being the only organization specially created to promote and develop draughts-64 in the world, is stable and successfully develop its sport at the international level. 65 national federations are our members and we are in constant contact with many other countries.
Of course, not everyone likes our success. This is evidenced by the destructive activity of the FMJD, the organization for draughts-100 that competes with us. Members of its leadership, Jacek Pawlicki and Yuri Chertok, are trying to destroy draughts-64 from within and to split the draughts, creating within FMJD a nominal section of Russian draughts with the help of the “fifth column” in Russia, headed by the vice-president of the Russian Draughts Federation (FSHR) Aleksei Shonin and president FSHR Anatoly Nikitin. For them, the situation with the Brazilian section in the FMJD, which its leadership created in violation of its charter and went into conflict with the then-working in the FMJD section-64, did not serve as a lesson. The results of the activities of this section are known to everyone – only one so-called “World Championship” was held among individuals and without a prize fund in a few years. Promised to participants as a reward, 8 places in intellectual games in Beijing remained only an empty promise.
Despite the demarche of some of the FSHR leaders, IDF will confidently and fully continue its work to develop and popularize draughts-64 in the world. All the possibilities for this we have. We thank all the countries that are developing draughts-64, for the support of IDF in this difficult situation.
The Russian Ministry of Sport has also reacted very negatively to the destructive actions of the FSHR, which is in violation of the state’s international policy in sport.
And now we will recall the results of the outgoing year.
In 2017, all planned events according to our calendar were held.
In October 2017, the World Championship in draughts-64 among men and women (Classic, Blitz – international/ Russian version of draughts-64, Rapid – Brazilian version) was held successfully in St. Petersburg (Russia). Representatives from 44 countries took part in the competition. The prize fund of the championship was about 53 000 US dollars. It was one of the best championships in the history of draughts-64.
In April, in Tashkent, Asian Championship among men, women and youth in five age groups was held at a high level under the patronage of IDF.
World Cup successfully developed also.
6 stages of the World Cup were held in Russia, Portugal, Italy, and, for the first time, in Georgia. More than 250 players from 38 countries took part in the competition. Within the framework of the World Cup, competitions were held in various versions of draughts-64: international/Russian, Brazilian, Italian and Portuguese. The total prize fund of the World Cup was about 16 000 Euro.
The IDF traditionally paid much attention to youth sports. Youth competitions were held at a good level: the European Championship in Russia and the World Championship in Bulgaria. In both championships, the winners of the competitions in each age group received prizes from the organizers in addition to official awards.
Traditionally in Bulgaria, together with the youth championship, the World Championships among teams and veterans were held. Under the auspices of the IDF, European Championships among people with disabilities was held, as well as various international tournaments.
The Fund for promoting the development of Draughts Sport “Russian Draughts” provided a great support in holding our official competitions, for which we express our great appreciation to him.
In total, more than 1000 players from more than 50 countries of the world took part in the official competitions of the IDF in 2017!
Many players have received well-deserved international titles. To the 5th anniversary of the federation, award badges were created, produced and handed: over to the best functionaries – honorary signs “For the development of draughts in the world”, judges – “International Arbiter”, players – “International Grandmaster” and “International Master”.
We are constantly working on improving the holding of official competitions. In 2017, in the official competition, the new approved debuts table of draw for men and women began to be applied. At the World Championships for the first time a new formula for the competitions was applied. These innovations revived the game and exacerbated competition in the fight for medals.
A systematic work was held to popularize draughts on various Internet resources, on television, in newspapers and magazines.
Information about our activities was published on our official website. The news of draughts-64 are watched by fans of draughts from 195 countries of the world!
2018 will be next important milestone in the development of draughts-64 in the world and will bring a lot of new to our activities.
Work will continue on establishing international contacts with various world sports organizations, attracting new countries to our organization.
All planned events of the calendar for 2018 will be held:
World Championships:
World youth championships in 6 age groups, world championships among teams and veterans traditionally will be held in Bulgaria.
World Cup:
6 World Cup stages will be held on three continents: in Europe, Asia and the Americas; in Jamaica, Uzbekistan, Italy, Estonia, Portugal and Georgia, including programs for international/Russian, Brazilian, Portuguese and other versions of draughts-64. The prize fund will be increased both at the stages and in the overall standings of the World Cup.
Continental Championships:
2018 is the year for the continental championships, qualifying for the World Championship 2019.
The first Pan American Championship in draughts-64 will be held in February 2018 in Jamaica.
The second African championship will be organized in July.
Holding these important events will give a great impetus to the development and promotion of draughts-64 on the American and African continents. Champions of the continents in accordance with our rules will receive the title of “International Grandmaster” and a trip to the World Championship 2019, where they will be able to compete with the strongest grandmasters of the world.
European Draughts-64 Championship among men and women will be held at a high level and with a good prize fund. The venue will be announced shortly.
The European Youth Championship in 6 age groups is planned in Belarus.
Tournaments under the aegis of IDF:
World and European championships 2018 among people with disabilities will be held under the auspices of the IDF.
Due to the fact that all stages of the World Cup 2018 will be held in different countries with the exception of Russia, traditional, well-reputed tournaments: “White Nights” (St. Petersburg), Cup of Information Technologies (Kazan) and tournament memory of V. Sokov (St. Petersburg) will be held under the auspices of IDF. The first international tournament will be organized in Armenia. In all these tournaments, the rules of international titles will be established and tournaments will be included in the rating counting.
What else awaits us in 2018?
Tournament fees significantly reduced in youth championships (50 euros in total for 3 programs).
It was decided to provide accommodation and meals at the expense of the organizers in the youth championships, for not four, but for six participants from each country – member of the IDF (one participant in the age groups up to 27, 20, 17, 14, 11, 9 years – a boy or a girl).
The level of the competition will continue to increase. There will be new activities and projects to develop draughts in the world. The geography of official competitions will be expanded.
Our events will be held in close cooperation and with the support of the Fund for promoting the development of Draughts Sport “Russian Draughts”.
The material and technical base of IDF will be strengthened. In the first half of 2018, the publication of the first textbook on draughts-64 (international/Russian version) in English is planned.
Work is under way to create an official drawing program and rating counting.
I invite to cooperation all interested persons, new countries and federations! I’m waiting for new proposals and ideas for the development of draughts-64 in the world. Together we will bring our sport to a new high level!
I wish in 2018 for everyone health, prosperity, success and new achievements, prosperity to our beloved sport!
