ICU International Eligibility / Activity Criteria

The ICU sub-committee on international eligibility was set up at the instigation of the ICU Executive at its meeting of the 16th August 1997 and comprised three members - Oisin O'Siochru, Stephen Brady and John Hurley.

The context was the controversy surrounding the Irish team selection for Yerevan Olympiad 1996; withdrawal of two players, one in protest at the selection of IM Alexander Baburin on board one of the Irish men’s team, the other in protest at a low board placing; and failure by the ICU at an EGM in June 1997 to get a mandate from the members to incorporate existing eligibility criteria into the ICU constitution.

As I understood it, the objective of establishing the sub-committee was the following

• To introduce rules governing eligibility criteria that would be both easy to interpret (for the benefit of ICU members, candidate international players and ICU officials) and to administer (for the benefit of ICU officials), that would cater equitably to the rights and expectations of players both Irish-born and foreign-born in terms of eligibility to represent Ireland at international chess tournaments and that would promote the interests of Irish chessplayers and of chess in Ireland.
• To eliminate any possibility of the events surrounding 1996 Olympiad team selection recurring.

The following list of agreed recommendations and unresolved issues (doc format) emerged from the third and concluding meeting of the subcttee held at the Teachers Club on 14th January 1998.

Subsequently, the ICU rubberstamped the 'agreed proposals' at an ICU executive meeting. Regarding the 'unresolved issues', my recollection is a little unclear but if I can manage to recall the curious goings-on that culminated in Oisin O'Siochru's minority proposal being accepted, I'll let you know over coming days.

The purpose of the activity criteria?