Women's World Freestyle Championship

[Patrick Parker]

status report?

[kiwinurse]

Patrick,at this stage,all i can say is that the negotiation goes on,regards Jan

[Eric Strange]

I'm very sorry to hear all of this nonsense has happened. Often the most simple of tasks turn out to be the hardest. Jan, if you or anyone needs help preparing for a trny come to kurnik. I have seen Alex there preparing for tournaments. I'd be happy to give you a run for your money and maybe show you a few things Jan.

[kiwinurse]

Thankyou Eric, its very kind of you,and i may take you up on that offer soon,regards Jan

[tommyc]

Eric Strange ..............Hmmmmmm....its "strange " i somehow knew that name and now its "clicked........Ho w are you Eric,last time we met was in Vegas 2007 ,you won the Juniors as i remember good to hear your still in the circle..........Matter of fact i included a pic or two of you in my book on the "new" openings "Cannings Comp".......Jan you should take up the offer of Kurnik.

[Eric Strange]

Hi tommy,

where can I get a copy of that book?

[tommyc]

Hi Eric,
Send me your email address i will be printing "Cannings Comp"part 2 soon which includes all of part1 and lots of additional play and diagrammes ,extended lines etc...abt 106 pages in all ,so thats abt 20 +pages extra comprising almost 200.000 digits and words.

My email is cancar25@hotmail.com

[Alex_Moiseyev]

I've got yesterday email from Hoja Durdyev. He told me privately that he got an agreement with Turkmenistan government and Sport Minister who will sponsor this event and raise cash prize fund up to $12,500.

Regards,

Alex

[tommyc]

Well thats good news all round then.!!

[kiwinurse]

Still negotiating for this match.As far as i understand it,there will only be me,Amangul and referree,if it goes ahead.

[kiwinurse]

A question to Alex. Did you genuinely get that quote from Hoja, or was it an april fools joke?If so im not laughing!

[kiwinurse]

From what i understand from the WCDF, Hoja Durdyev is currently negotiating with the Turkmenistan government to hold our match in Avaza on June 15th.He is promising it to be one of the best run events in checker history.!I have accepted,and am waiting the details of the match. Jan

[kiwinurse]

Monday, January 19th, in great frustration at not being able to get a date for our match, I posted on the forum of what had gone on, and the steps I had taken to try and get a date sorted.It is now June 20th, and still no date,and quite frankly it is much too late now to even contemplate this match.

I originally accepted the bid for Balkanabet, in Turkmenisten,after an almost similar bid was counter-proposed on the last day by Hoja Durdeyeva.

According to both bids,after acceptance of the bid a date was to be set by both partys.This never happened,and both Jim(my husband) and I waited and waited.I must add on acceptance there had been questions on my part about the distance of travelling to Balkanabet,440ks from the airport.Hoja had mentioned in the bid that I would be picked up at the airport and taken there by road.

But I ACCEPTED the bid on Tuesday 30 September, 2008 after asking that I could be given more detail,for example the forwarding of plane fare,so I could buy my tickets,where exactly would I be staying,could I bring my husband?dress code,the monetary situation etc which is only normal in negotiation,especially travelling to the other side of the world,and travelling such a distance.This I had sent to Hugh Devlin sept 28th.

Our intentions of going to Turkmenisten to play were honourable. I have pasted Jims letter to Hugh Devlin,October 30,2008







Hi Hugh, This is Jan's husband, and the reason I am writing this is that things are getting out of hand about this match in Turkmenistan ,.and I need a few answers.

It has been about 5 weeks since Jan said she would go to Turkmenistan to play Amangel for the world title, and since then we have had no dates, money for air fares etc so I am putting our proposal in writing

The dates we are looking at are, arrive Agabad, Thursday 21May, games to start on the Monday 24th depart Sunday 30 May these dates are good for me due to work commitments.

one of the reasons we are looking for money for the air fairs is that the Dudeyovs show some commitment . On the 9th of November there is a big expo here with travel agents wanting to book customers for overseas travel next year and they are looking at very good specials.

Regarding Jan's last e mail to you on the 28 September we still have had no replies to any of her questions ,and I can understand Jan's frustrations as all this could have been sorted out at the Beijing games.

Personally I am very disappointed in the checker federation taking no interest in this tournament, I know of no other sport where it is up to the competitors to organize games/times/fees/etc this is in every occasion done by the ruling body who make the decisions. Why should we be organizing this tournament it should be up to you guys to say right the date is ???? the prize money is?????? t he referee is ????? the venue is ???? get your head out of the sand and start organizing, that is why you were all elected on to the federation board.



Over the last 8 or 9 years Jan at her own personal expense (or mine) has travelled all over the world to play in major tournaments ,and as far as I am concerned the federation has lost and is loosing a lot of respect with other checker players around the world in the way it is handling this tournament.

I personally play competition squash and we know up to 6 months in advance when tournaments are on ,entry fees ,location, accommodation etc in fact have registered to play in a world masters games in Sydney Australian October next year.

At the end of the day, Jan could play in the qualifying checker games every 2 years and if she won there would be a stale mate again and more arguments about where the world title mach should be played. I personally think that this system of qualifying then getting to play the champion is very antiquated and should be done away with instead you should be using something like the Olympic every 3 years to decided who is world champion.

We are getting very frustrated here and we need some answers NOW this has dragged on long enough .

I ma sure if the members of the checker federation new what a farce this tournament was they would be a bit pissed of as i am

regards

jim



This was after I had asked Hugh to talk with Hoja in Beiijing at the mindsports to get a date sorted,and I was expecting to get a date for Balkanabet,when Hugh got home. Hugh explained to me that Hoja was organizing a wedding,and would be out of action or contact for three weeks.Which would take until November 17th.so we waited.Hugh told me to email Hoja myself and get a date fixed,which I did on the 18th November





From: jan

To: Hoja Durdyev

Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2008 10:52 AM

Subject: Dates



Greetings Hoja, My husband JIm and myself are looking forward to coming to your country,but time is running out,and we need a date to book our airfares,I would appreciate a reply from you within the next few days. At the moment JIm and i are tentatively looking at the last week in May next year.How would that be for you guys? regards Jan Mortimer



I never received any replies from Hoja,and I wrote to the WCDF again asking for a time.







Hugh,John, Ingo, Richard and all other Representatives of the WCDF,….



There has been nothing but delays and delays and delays, no answers from Hoja. I have the press constantly ringing me every week, asking when this match is going to happen, its embarrassing to put them off again and again! Hugh, you keep giving him a time frame to get back to you with an answer,and then another excuse happens.Dont tell me that Hojas too busy to even write a line in email to me at least acknowledging my email.



In the finish and in great frustration I wrote on the forum.Hugh sent me two emails from Hoja which made me think twice about going to Turkmenisten,and sent me to my lawyer.In these letters dated 9th feb and 12th feb 200 Hoja claims I lied,that he wrote emails to me many times. The only emails I received from Hoja were when I had my bid organized for New Zealand ,and he wanted to know details of it like payment of their visas,accommodation etc.After the bid changed hands for Turkmenistan,it was up to Hoja to keep me informed on their bid not the other way around,so I waited for him to do so.

He states in his emails to Hugh that I insulted the Moslem nation by posting on the forum about Turkmenisten.At this point I apologize to Hoja and his country if I said derogatory things about his country, I spoke in innocence ,copying what id been studying on the internet about it.I was not intending to be “warlike””He goes on to say”Such action,insult of nations,religion is considered criminal in many countries including our country……her aim is to break down the match. ….I still try and still trying to organize the match on governmental level.” In his letter on the 9th he stated that some draught people had informed authorities about “what kind of guest who hates moslem,turkmenisten….”Which is not true,I embrace all cultures.

If Hoja had already got his bid sorted for Balkanabet,why was he trying to organize the match at government level?I wasn’t asked to accept this,I had already accepted Balkanabet.Hugh would argue that I grumbled about going there,I wasn’t grumbling I was trying to sort out the details,extra days etc to get over jetlag etc.The only grumbling I did was trying to get a date.But in so saying,I now questioned the validity of now going to Balkanabet after I heard about those letters.Would anyone in their right mind contemplate going to an unknown country at the other side of the world,if they had received these letters.?

During this time also,Ashgabad was being looked at by Hoja,as a possible place to play,as it was the city I flew into,so we waited for information on that.Nothing came.



.When Hugh mentioned it to me,I kind of thought, oh ok,it might be an easier option, but I wasn’t asked about the change,it was just kind of mentioned that Hoja was flying to Ashgabad to try and hold it there.I shrugged and didn’t think to much about it at the time. You get busy with life,and sometimes don’t take things in.But then, on looking back, Hugh now says that it was my fault,that I wasn’t happy about the origina lbid,so Hoja had to change it.That’s rubbish and not true.I didn’t ask them to change it, I accepted Balkanabet as I previously said.





To get back to the letters from Hoja to Hugh, Hoja goes on to say ‘anyhow,we confirm our bid (Balkanabet)and I can send an invitation to her……….Our bid doesn’t have the item that we must send her airticket or money for that beforehand.It was the same in NZ bid.We’ll pay it when she come to Turkmenisten even if she wants to get it at the airport(by landing”

In our bid it was stated “pay up to $3,600 dollars for Amangel to come to New Zealand”.In their bid it stated, “pay up to$ 2,610 in airfares for Jan Mortimer to come to Turkmenisten”

I would certainly have sent airfare at least 6 weeks before the match for Amangel,and I certainly expected that of them To me that’s a courtesy thing,and im pretty sure other world matches would have sent airfare in advance to the participants.It never occurred to me that it would be otherwise..But the WCDF sided with Hoja on this.

So those letters really put me in confusion.Should I risk going to Turkmenisten under these circumstances. My lawyer read the letters and advised me not to go He said we needed to play in a neutral country.. I sent his letter to the WCDF,and asked to play the match on neutral ground. They refused.according to the WCDF,the match was now to be held 14-18th May,on the basis of those two letters.But no more details.Ashgabad had somehow fallen by the wayside,so it was back to Balkanabet.

In the meantime I had good confidants in Lindus Edwards and Liam Stephens,and John Guetta,who is the secretary of the New Zealand draught association. They were great friends to me over this time,of whom I am very grateful.

I asked John Guetta to negotiate for me at this stage,because id had enough,and was really confused over the many issues involved.John has tried to negotiate an agreement since.





He has tried to get concrete details and a proper format for this match,but has failed.



On March 23 Hoja approached Hugh with the idea of holding the match in Avaza,where 6 five star- hotels were being opened for tourism. “In this case,the match will take place in one of the best buildings in Turkmenistan,and partici[pants and other guests will live in one of those hotels,meals,prize fund will be very high.visas will be got easily,guests will be met at the airport on governmental level(vip) days of the match will be 10-14 days.”



Hugh told John that I could accept this bid instead,and the WCDF would extend the time limit from end of may to after June 15.Hugh has also confirmed what Alex posted on the forum,that the prize money was rumoured to be $12,000 American.at this stage I had already decided id had enough,after those two letters,and my attempts to get a workable date.John Guetta persuaded me to accept,and I did,as you see on my last entry on the forum.





But according to the WCDF I took too long to accept the bid for Avaza,taking three weeks to ponder it over.The reason I did this was I had heard that you couldn’t take more money out ofTurkmenisten than you could take in,and I wondered if that was the reason Hoja wouldn’t snd me airfares,their monetary policy.I made enquiries everywhere about it,I even rang the Turkmenisten embassy in America,they couldn’t help me.A bankrt in London didn’t know,and I still don’t know.If that was the case any prize money would be pointlessOn april 15.I got a letter from one of the members of the wcdf stating “he found it increasingly difficult to understand what my motives were in these negotiations.You complained about the long journey in Turkmenisten,so Hoja arranged a different venue.Now you don’t appear to want that either…….Jan you cannot have it both ways,you must go and play or withdraw your challenge.If you continue to do nothing 1 June will arrive and you will be defaulted anyway.”

Ireplied “I have no motive in these negotiations,except my personal safety…Balkanabet is out of the question for me,and it is perfectly understandable why,and Avaza has just come up in the last three weeks.so I needed time to process this.Hoja had months and months,and you expected me to answer in a few days?I expected the WCDF to be a bit more supportive and look at my point of view for a change.That hasn’t happened,regards Jan



Hoja had been given months and months to organize the match,I had been given 3 weeks to accept.Even then,I wasn’t given a time frame to accept from Hugh. Just an ASAP reply.If the WCDF had done their homework on specifics like prizemoney etc,I wouldn’t have had to take three weeks.Everything about the bids so far had been unspecific,nothing written out in detail about them.John kept asking for more details,but the WCDF would not or could not provide them.6 weeks before the Avaza bid I accepted to go.On acceptance Hugh Devlin told me the prizemoney was not $12,000.He had taken it what alex said about it,but Hoja now denied it and it must have been an April fools joke on Alexs part.I emailed alex twice,asking him,but did not get a reply.What am I expected to think about this?How ill run is this match?How foolhardy is it to go,when they haven’t even got the basics right?



June 15 has gone,still no date,the WCDF keep extending it for Hoja,they are still negotiating for another date,but it was agreed that the bid had to be finished by firstly end of May,and because we consented, extended to June 15th.I started negotiatons for this match around January,February 2008,firstly with our bid.It has now been at least 14 months in negotiation,and still nothing concrete.Why is this happening?And what does it spell for womens checkers in the future?Will there be any?What is the point in going to world qualifiers,if this process has been allowed to happen? Jan Mortimer

[liam stephens]

Hi Jan,

Very sorry to hear the news about the Women's World Title Match,which must be a great disappointment.
By all accounts it appears to have been a nightmarish scenario for you.
I believe, that under the former administration there existed serious currency restrictions, that did not allow the export of currency from the country. In view of the failure of the Turkmenistan bids, are they going to award you the title ?

Hope to see you at the Welsh Open in September.

Regards - Liam.

[Lindus Edwards]

Hi Jan,
That this situation has been allowed to develop beggars belief. It is evident that you have done everything possible to try and get the "show on the road" as it were with no result. It is more than sad to see that the match we were all looking forward to will now perhaps not take place.
I can only but sit and hope and wait for some positive information from the WCDF.
Lindus.