Presidential Candidate : Mr. Jörgen Magnusson

Ticket Nominated on July 14 2023

A Team with Experience, Realism and Ambition!

Introduction

Two months before the upcoming congress in Rhodes, the ticket of the presidential board with Jörgen Magnusson as president was published. But now is the time to give a fuller picture not only of the presidential board, but of the entire executive board. Our presentation differs from the postings that Sergio Hernandan and Diana Tsypina have published. We will not attack people due to race, gender, or location. We are a team consisting of people from Europe, Africa, America and Asia. There are younger and more senior persons. We are males and females, but first of all, we are human beings and chess lovers who are united in our ambition to promote chess for the visually impaired for all. As humanists, we avoid building a team according to superficial categories, we instead see what capacities we have as a team. Everyone should know that they are elected out of their skills, not because we have to get a male, a female, a younger or an older, a European or an Africain. The IBCA is a humanistic project and harshness risks drawing the attention from what we are here for, improving the possibilities for all visually impaired persons to enjoy chess, no matter from where you are.

Presentation of the Executive Board
There are many ways to present a team, but we prefer to start from the president and the presidential board, and then continue with the continental representatives and the general board members. But we will try to point out how all members as a team make up a sum of competence that is greater than the sum of the individuals.

Jörgen Magnusson: Proposed Next President
Jörgen Magnusson is a 56-year-old blind scholar from Sweden. Academically, Magnusson is a historian of religions. His main focus is on ancient religions, and he is an expert in the Coptic language. In 2007 he acquired his doctoral degree at Uppsala University. In 2012, Magnusson was appointed associate professor at Uppsala University, which means that he had reached what compares to a second doctoral degree, and presently his publications make up for a third one. His first international IBCA event was the Olympics in the Netherlands in 1980 and until today, he has played eleven IBCA Olympics. He won the Junior World Championship four times, 1985-1988. 1986 and 1990 he was number four at the World Championships of the IBCA. At the IBCA Olympics he scored 10 points out of eleven on the first board for Sweden and in 1993 he was rated number one for seniors of the IBCA. Magnusson has won the open Swedish team competition many times, latest in 2020, and he has a solid reputation as chess coach. 1991-2008, Magnusson was employed as coach by the Chess Federation of Stockholm, and he still frequently runs chess events for them.

As for project leading and administrative experience, Magnusson has been appointed to many university boards, both at Uppsala university and at Mid Sweden University, where he served as university lecturer from 2010-2022. At Mid Sweden university, Magnusson upheld the position as head of the department of the study of religions from 2010-2019. He chaired two international research seminars from 2014-2022 and was successful in attracting research money for his team.

Magnusson has been president of the Swedish BCA in two periods, the last one from 2013-2021. His first IBCA congress was in 1985 and he was appointed secretary general of the IBCA in 2019. Right now, Magnusson is continental representative of Europe in the executive board as well as chairperson of the Commission of Technology. He has played an important role making Lichess.org an accessible platform for blind chess players. As organizer, Magnusson has organized three Junior-World Championships, five Nordic team Championships for blind and visually impaired and approximately twenty Swedish Championships for blind and visually impaired chess players. Magnusson is known for his capacity of building teams and to find solutions in difficult situations. His zeal together with his long experience of leading organizations would serve the IBCA well.

Piotr Dukaczewski: Proposed First Vice President

Piotr Dukaczewski is a 58-year-old visually impaired chess player from Poland. His academic education is sociologist, obtained at the University of Warsaw. For decades, Dukaczewski has been one of the leading chess players of the IBCA and he is International Master. Among his achievements as player, we mention gold medal in the FIDE Olympiad for disabled, Serbia 2023, gold medal in the IBCA Team World Championships, Macedonia 2022, gold medal in the Individual European Championships,Greece 2011- and three-times silver medal in the IBCA Individual World Championships. But as a candidate to become first vice president of the IBCA, it is worth noting that he already has upheld that position, which will be a valuable asset. Besides his experience of the IBCA, Dukaczewski has a broad experience of chess administration outside the IBCA. He is chairperson of the Disabled Chess Players Commission in the Polish Chess Federation, Member of the FIDE Players with Disabilities Commission and president of the Polish Association of Sport, Tourism, and Education for Disabled.Besides Polish and English, Dukaczewski masters Spanish and Russian.

Nikos Kalesis: Proposed Second Vice President

Nikos Kalesis is a 53-year-old sighted chess player from Greece. He is an International Master and a very experienced International Organizer. Since 2008, he has been a member of the IBCA board, currently serving as first vice president. Kalesis is well recognized within FIDE and since 2014 secretary of the FIDE Commission for chess players with disabilities.

Olivier Deville, Proposed Secretary General

Olivier Deville is a 60-year-old blind chess player from France. Until he lost his sight in 1995, Deville worked as an accountant. Deville started playing with the blind and visually impaired in 2010, and his first IBCA event was the 2012 Olympiads in Chennai (India), as board one of the French team. Together with the French team, Deville won the 6 Nations tournament in 2013 in Ostende (Belgium), and he was French champion of the blind and visually impaired in 2017 and 2018. Deville was co-organizer of the IBCA European Individual championship in Lyon in 2015 and he joined the IBCA board in 2019. In 2021 he was appointed secretary general. He played a crucial role when the IBCA became an official non-profit organization in France. That was an especially important step as the IBCA for the first time became a formally registered organization. Deville is treasurer of the French BCA, and he organizes many online events on Skype, more than three hundred blind and visually impaired chess players are playing his tournaments. Additionally, he organizes mainstream chess events as well. Over the years, more than 100 GMs and IMs have played his tournaments. Besides his native language French, Deville is fluent in English, Spanish and Portuguese. He has a formidable network, and due to his efforts the IBCA has improved significantly regarding communication and in a deeper sense in democracy.

Thorsten Müller, Proposed Treasurer

Thorsten Müller turns 49 on congress day. He is a visually impaired chess player from Germany who has been an active chess player for thirty years. Since 2015, he has been president of the German visual impaired and blind chess-players association. Moreover, he has been secretary of the state Hessen chess association.Müller will be an outstanding resource as treasurer of the IBCA. His CV is long, but we notice that Müller, among other things, is a certified accountant with 29 years of experience in US-GAAP, Swiss- GAAP and of course German-GAAP accounting. Müller has acquired a National B-Trainer License and he is an IBCA Arbiter.

Johannes Grib, Continental Representative of Africa

Johannes Grib is a 52-year-old blind chess player from South Africa and currently the secretary of the South African Braille Chess Association (SABCA). Presently he is the continental representative of Africa in the IBCA. As one of the founding members of the SABCA, in 1992, Grib strives to promote and advocate Braille chess both in South Africa and abroad. In 2006 he started rating the online chess games played on the World Chess Parlour platform (WCP). When Dr. James Slagle retired from chess in 2023, Grib took over the responsibility of running the WCP mailing list, ensuring continuation of the WCP tradition in hosting online tournaments in a fun and friendly environment for over 200 international visually impaired chess players. With a background in assistive technology and software development Grib helps many blind chess players to play online, via Skype as well as on Lichess.

Fernando Daza, Continental Representative of América
Fernando Daza is a 52-year-old blind chess player from Colombia. He works as a lawyer, specializing in labor law. Over the 33 years Daza has played chess, he has won multiple medals both in the national championships as well as in the Pan American Championships.

James Infuesto, Continental Representative of Asia

James Infuesto is a 55-year-old sighted renown chess organizer and arbiter from the Philippines. He holds many important positions not only within the chess world, but in para sports in general. His CV is long, but the following extract would suffice:

Board Member, National Council of Disability Affairs (NCDA), 2017 to present • Consultant for Sports Entertainment, Philippine Amusement & Gaming Corporation(PAGCOR), 2018 to present • Head Coach-Philippine Para Chess Team: 5 Gold Medals in Asian Para Games Indonesia 2018 • Consultant, Games and Amusement Board (GAB), 2017 • Deputy Sports Chief, Sports Development Division-Davao City, 2011-2013 • Operations Officer, Sports Development Division-Davao City, 1996-2000 • FIDE (World Chess Federation) Licensed Resource Speaker, International Arbiter and Coach,2013 to present • Event Organizer & Director: ASEAN + Age-Group Chess Championship 2018, Davao City, Philippines • Resource Sports Speaker/Accreditor: National Sport Association and DEPED

• Awarded a lifetime title of National Master by National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP), September 18, 2021, • National Chairman for Sports:” Basta BBM-Sara UniTeam” (BBSU)

• Project Director-United Mindanao. Parallel Group (UMPG)

As Chess Online Organizer:

• Tournament Director: Basta BBM-Sara Uniteam Chess Tour: Mahalin Natin Ang Pilipinas,March-May
2022 • Tournament Director- MVPSF National Secondary Online Rapid Chess Championships 2021 • Tournament Director- PSC Pilipinas Para Games Online Chess Competition 2021 • 2021 February 20 – Jesuit Athletic Meet Online Chess Forum • 2021 April 17-18 – National Age-Group Online Chess Championships – Mindanao Leg • 2021 April 19-21 – 2021 PSC-NCFP Selection Men & Women: Mindanao Leg Elimination • 2021 April 26-27 – Mayor Inday Sara Duterte National Youth & Schools Chess Championships – Mindanao Leg • 2021 May 31 – Mindanao Online Chess Open: Pa-Birthday Kalingawan Online Blitz forMayor Inday Sara Duterte • 2020 June 27-28 – 6th Davao-All Star vs. MISOR/CDO Finest Online Chess Goodwill Match • 2020 July 25-26 – 6th Davao-All Star vs. MISOR/CDO Finest Online Chess Goodwill Match“The Rematch” • 2020 September 12-13 – 3rd Davao-All Star vs. MISOR/CDO Finest Online Chess GoodwillMatch “The Decision Match” • 2020 October 24-25 – “Chess for Peace” 1st Mindanao Online Chess Team Battle Royale.

Achievement as International Arbiter:

• Chief Arbiter- 17th Asian Continental Chess Championships Philippines 2018, Women Division, December 9-19, 2018 in Makati City, Philippines • Sector Arbiter: ASEAN Age Group + Chess Championships 2013 Chiang Mai, Thailand • Deputy Chief arbiter: Asian Youth Para Games 2013 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia • Match Arbiter: Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games 2013 Incheon, South Korea • Deputy Sector Arbiter: World Youth Chess Championships 2013 Al Ain, Abu Dhabi, UAE • Chief Arbiter: ASEAN Para Games 2014 Nay Pyi Daw, Myanmar • Deputy Chief Arbiter: ASEAN Age Group + Chess Championships 2014 Macau • Sector Arbiter: Asian Schools Chess Championships 2015 Singapore • Sector Arbiter: ASEAN Age Group + Chess Championships 2015 Singapore • Sector Arbiter: Asian Youth Chess Championships 2015 Suwon, South Korea • Sector Arbiter: World Youth Minds Game 2015 Suwon, South Korea • Sector Arbiter: ASEAN Age Group + Chess Championships 2016 Pattaya, Thailand • Deputy Chief Arbiter: ASEAN Age Group Chess Championships 2017 Kuantan, Malaysia • Events Director: ASEAN Age Group Chess Championships 2018 Davao city, Philippines.

Vladyslav Kolpakov, Continental Representative of Europe

Vladyslav Kolpakov is a 28-year-old blind chess player from Ukraine. He has taken part in IBCA events since 2016 and he presently is number one of the Ukrainian team. As a professional in assistive technology, he will also hold the position as chairperson of the commission of technology.

Marilyn Bland, Board Member

Marilyn Bland is a 68-year-old blind chess player from the USA. As a doctor in comparative literature, she works as a college teacher. Bland joined the USBCA in 2018, and in 2020 she became a board member of the USBCA, where she presently serves as secretary. In 2022 she played in the IBCA Women’s World Championship as well as in the Pan-American.

Nomin Erdenebat, Board Member

Nomin Erdenebat is a 30-year-old sighted chess organizer and arbiter from Mongolia. Erdenebat is Bachelor of Business Administration and Financial Management of the University of Finance of Economics of Mongolia. Besides her chess related duties, she works as Senior Cost Controller/Estimator. She plays a vital role in the Mongolian Chess federation. Among her merits we mention:

2015-2017 – General manager of Mongolian Chess federation

2015-Current – FIDE Arbiter

2022/03/01 – 2023/08/01 – International relations manager of Mongolian Chess Federation. Her network will serve the IBCA promoting for the visually impaired, especially in Asia.

Harrison Nyaga, Board Member

Harrison Nyaga is a 28-year-old sighted FIDE chess coach and arbiter from Kenya. His main focus is coaching persons with disabilities, Particularly the Blind/ Visually Impaired. Nyaga is a Sign language interpreter of the University of Nairobi, and he has acquired a degree in Technology in applied physics at Technical University of Mombasa. He regularly teaches a growing number of blind and visually impaired chess players. His coaching activities are supported by Kenya Sports Association for Visually Impaired, United States International University and the Chess Kenya Federation. Currently, Nyaga is appointed head coach for Persons with Disability by Kenya chess Federation. He has organized tournament for blind and visually impaired chess players in Kenya, and has been the head coach for Kenyan teams, for example at the World Amateurs chess championships 2021 in Rhodes, Greece and the first FIDE Chess Olympiad for Persons with Disabilities 2023 in Belgrade, Serbia.

Working Together

For the first time, the executive board consists of two persons from Africa, América and Asia. This reflects our long-term ambition to promote chess in these three continents. Inspired from the American committee, we gradually want to develop committees for every continent, safeguarding the stability of the IBCA. At least two board members from each continent is a good start, but only a start. We have learned from the IBCA history, when the presidents often have worked too much as individuals. It has meant that when something happens to the president, the work slows down considerably. The president is supported by two very competent vice presidents, which we see as crucial for modern management. Moreover, the board has a very experienced treasurer, but it is good that the secretary general has served in that capacity as well. The secretary general already has done a splendid job in the current board, but in the same manner as with the president and treasurer, it is a strength that the board contains many persons that could support the secretary general in his position.

The board includes three sighted persons. They are carefully selected, to a large degree out of their experiences as organizers, but even more for their networks within FIDE and different national chess Federations. Our idea is that this will be valuable when the IBCA supports organizational structure building in parts of the world where chess for the blind and visually impaired lack stable structure. We also hold that it is an important signal that the president and first vice president are blind or visually impaired. Most members of the board are in their fifties. But we are happy that three members are 28-30 years old. It means that experienced board members can mentor the future of the IBCA, which to a large extent will be in Africa, America and Asia.