Who is BCF?

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Who is BCF?


The above question is simple yet interesting questions, which need to be answered, so that all the chess enthusiast are aware of how the body that promotes chess in Bhutan operates.


So who is the Bhutan Chess Federation (BCF)? The BCF is the official body which promotes chess in Bhutan, and has been recognized by the Bhutan Olympic Committee (BOC) in Bhutan and also by FIDE at the international level.


So how did this happen? We are not too sure but it seems that sometime in 2013 or so FIDE recognized BCF, we are told that BOC helped the then officials of BCF to register with FIDE, the BCF went dormant approximately in 2015 as there seems to have been some problems which we are not aware of. 


In 2021 Mr Ugen Wangchuck initiated the revival of the BCF with the help of BOC, and all the outstanding payments to FIDE for the membership of BCF was cleared by BOC, and BCF was re-recognized by FIDE. From 2021 to 2023 Mr Ugen Wangchuck managed the BCF with the help of a few other chess players. Mr. Ugen Wangchuck operated as the Secretary General of the BCF. 


In 2023 Mr Ugyen left for Australia to complete his Masters degree and the BCF was being operated by a few volunteers in an impromptu manner. At which point Mr T Palden Dorji, initiated a general meeting of the active chess players and got the approval to establish a new set of Board of Directors made up the following people:


  1. Mr Tshering Dorji (Acting General Secretary)

  2. Mr Kelzang Tshering (Male Players representative)

  3. Mrs Asha Huang Limboo (Female Players representative)

  4. Aum Kinsang P (Board Member,Treasurer)

  5. Mr. Tashi Namgyel, Director DEP, (Board Member) 

  6. Mrs. Namgay Zam (Board Member)

  7. Mr. Sunil Rasailly (Board Member)

  8. Mr. T Palden Dorji (Board Member, Interim President)


The Board decided to nominate T Palden Dorji as the interim President of the BCF until all the necessary documents were prepared and BOC terms and conditions were fulfilled. Uptill now the BCF has been functioning under this interim structure.


The BCF has prepared the following documents for the approval of the BOC and general members of the BCF.


  1. The Article of Association which will guide the BCF once it has been approved by the General Member and the Board of Directors.

  2. The Vision 2030 Documents, which will guide the BCF over the next few years to plan and implement our programs.

  3. The Chess in ALL school program. This is our flagship program which cover the following aspects

    1. Grass root development of chess in schools

    2. The development of a tournament path to identify talented players from schools

    3. The development of an elite program to develop future champions.


The BCF has on a trial basis started engaging with schools to introduce chess as a club activity with a teacher in charge in exchange for chess sets for the school. So far the BCF has collaborated with 8 schools and we plan to implement the program with 25 schools in 2024 on a trial basis.


We can only implement it across Bhutan if we are able to get funds from BOC and FIDE. The BCF management has started the process engaging with BOC and FIDE, and we hope that by the end 2024 we will have some commitments.

  

So who are the people who are preparing these documents and how are they compensated by BCF? All the above documents are done free of cost by some of the Board members and the interim President. 


Do the Board of Directors get any financial compensation for being Board of Directors? Non of the Board of Directors have been given any form of compensation other than a Thank you for their effort.


How much does the office staff of the BCF get paid or compensated? We only pay a token salary to one person and the salary is also less than half of the salary normally paid in Bhutan. 


If nobody is paid then the BCF must have a lot of funds. In reality over the last 4 years the BCF has only been given the below amounts from BOC:


2021 paid outstanding membership with FIDE

2022 Zero

2023 Nu 90,000/- 

2024 Nu 250,000/- comitted but not received.


So as you can see other than the above funds from BOC we receive some funding for the chess Olympiad which is used to fund the travel expenses of our team.


The PDC from FIDE also provides Euro 5,000 per year for certain activities which are project specific, which is released to us to complete the identified programs, which are usually for tournaments and for the training programs in the schools.


We hope the chess players and enthusiast understand that the BCF is run by volunteers who are doing the work not for financial compensation but for the love of the game and to promote the game in Bhutan. Nobody is actually paid on a fair market basis even.


We would like to encourage players and chess enthusiasts to volunteer to help us implement programs all over Bhutan. If you would like to contribute to this noble cause please feel free to contact us and we can work together to develop the beautiful game.  




 




 







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