Ochoa kandidiert als ECU Präsident

“From a good ECU to an even better ECU”

Dear friends and colleagues, Presidents and Delegates:

This year there will be elections for the office of ECU President during the ECU General Assembly in Torino. According to the new regulations approved in Goteborg, all candidates will present a ticket composed of President, Deputy President, Treasurer and General Secretary. The Spanish Chess Federation nominated Mr. Javier Ochoa de Echagüen as a candidate for the office of ECU President. Now, it is a pleasure for us to provide more information concerning the whole team.

Our candidate for Deputy President will be Mr. Mikko Markkula (Finland); for Treasurer Mr Kevin O’Connell (Ireland) and for General Secretary Mr. Petr Pisk (Czech Republic). All of us have been deeply involved with our sport since a long time ago and we can properly say that our lives have been devoted to chess. In the attached document you can find our respective Curriculum Vitae.

The ECU started a new phase in 1998 in Elista. Since then the administrative work and the structure of the competitions have been considerably improved. However, we consider that it is still necessary to work harder in order to receive sponsorship from companies, even from those which are not directly connected to chess.

The ECU should also help the less developed chess federations in Europe, especially in youth and scholastic chess. Many small federations don’t participate in ECU events. It is a challenge for the ECU leadership to activate these federations.

The quality of the ECU tournaments has been satisfactory in recent years, but in order to improve even more it would be convenient to educate tournament officials (arbiters and organizers) to enable an even better result.

The ECU has the majority of events in the world and also a majority of the best players, so one of our goals must be to increase the prestige and position of the ECU in FIDE.

The Internet is another great challenge in the near future. Not only as a virtual chess club but also as a tool for teaching chess or for educating trainers and arbiters. The experience of the Spanish Chess Federation in recent years could be a good example. The ECU should create or promote these virtual learning spaces.

The ECU web site recently started a new phase. In order to offer better institutional information some aspects must be made very clear there. For instance, the bidding procedure for our tournaments, the deadlines, the places and dates of future Board meetings and even the agenda of these meetings should be clearly visible on the website in order to allow any federation to send its comments.

We have inherited an ancient game and we are aware that chess is much more than a sport. Chess presents many other aspects related to culture, art and literature, as well as a rich historical and artistic legacy, the product of many centuries of existence. Developing all these aspects in order to increase the prestige of our game will be another of our goals.

We would like to bring a new image to the ECU leadership, some fresh air in order to offer a different representation and a renewed image for Chess in Europe.

We have a good ECU; our challenge is to improve it even more.

It will be an honour for our team to receive your support.

Thanks for your attention.

Best regards

Javier Ochoa de Echagüen (Spain)
Mikko Markkula (Finland)
Kevin O’Connell (Ireland)
Petr Pisk (Czech Republic)