The Interview

Belzberg Technologies has sponsored the Canadian Olympic Chess Team the last two times out, resulting in some outstanding performances for Canada on the International stage. The folks behind this initiative, Alicia and Sid Belzberg, were kind enough to answer a few questions for ChessTalk.

 

Larry Bevand: When did you learn to play chess? Tell us about your club and tournament days...when that was, your experiences, etc.

Sid Belzberg: I learned chess "late" in life, at the age of sixteen. My sister's boyfriend taught me the moves. He was so arrogant about his chess abilities that my steely determination to beat him quickly took over. I went to the public library in Calgary and took out a book called Chess Openings Theory and Practice by Horowitz. I found that following any of Fischer's games in this book (who, of course, was all the rage in the nineteen seventies) to be very exciting.

Having no one to consult with, I had not been told that you start with endgames and middle game tactics first. However, the book served me well enough to topple my first nemesis, and inspired me to see if chess clubs existed at our high school. I was delighted to learn that, indeed, they existed and found a very pleasurable way to spend lunch hour. One day a local master from Yugoslavia, Branimir Brebrich, gave a simul at our club that I found awe inspiring. I played in several chess clubs and youth organizations in Calgary and found really tough competition with players like Rob Hawkes and Roger Patterson who both became masters later on. I also studied a book by Robert Wade that had all seven hundred games of Bobby Fischer as well as 'My 60 Memorable Games' by Fischer himself and found both these books to be really inspiring and enjoyable.

In contrast to starting my chess life late, I started in business very early in life at the age of 15 (buying and selling rare coins) so it was hard to spend as much time as I would have liked to have at chess. I do remember playing in the Canadian Open in Calgary in 1975 and played my first Grandmaster (Leonid Shamkovich) in a simul that I found really exciting.

Larry Bevand: You made it to Expert level...was that simply something that came naturally or did it require some serious work and study on your part?

Sid Belzberg: Within a few years I was playing at an expert level. One of my first big tournament wins was a weekender in California where I won the experts section and had a 2300 performance rating. The last tournament I played was in Canada, in 1999, and was also a 2300 performance rating. I really enjoyed chess so I never considered it hard work but I am sure I could have worked much harder to get better. I found within a couple of years of learning the game that I did not progress much beyond where I am today. The good news is that you look great out of the gates and of course the bad news is that many years later you are just another player.

Larry Bevand: I sense that your wife plays a major role in your life (which is extremely pleasing to see, especially in this day and age). Care to expand on this and give us an idea of what life is like at the Belzberg residence?

Sid Belzberg: Alicia and I are partners in business as well as in life. We are together almost twenty four hours a day and love every minute of it. We face all challenges together and are both amazed at how lucky we were to meet each other. We find that we have just the perfect mix of optimism and realism that allows us, as a team, to make really good decisions. Parallel processing of course has long been known to be an effective method of dispatching all kinds of problems including good chess programs.

Larry Bevand: Tell us a little bit about Belzberg Technologies?

Sid Belzberg: Alicia and I founded Belzberg Technologies Inc. in 1993, to offer a new product for the financial industry. We invented a system for a PC(and received patents in the US) that combined the passive display of stock quotes with the actual sending of orders to the markets. I wrote the prototype of our initial product. Today, the company has a whole suite of products used by over 125 financial institutions on Wall Street and Bay Street and in Europe. Recently, our technology has been adopted by the Chicago Board Options Exchange (The worlds largest Options Exchange) as their electronic trading platform. In the past few years, we have expanded our operations beyond technology and set up a small brokerage outfit in Chicago and purchased another brokerage outfit that operates directly on the floor of the Chicago Board of Options Exchange. In addition, we operate directly on the flloor of the New York Stock Exchange. We employ 110 people and have annual sales of over 25 million dollars. We have been listed on the TSE since November 2000.

Larry Bevand: You hired International Masters Yan Teplitsky and Ron Livshits to work for you at Belzberg Technologies. Do you think chessplayers have something special to contribute to a company like yours?

Sid Belzberg: Yes we find that many talented programmers also play chess.

Larry Bevand: You made the news with the selling of your Canadian coin collection. Care to tell us a little about this and whether you or your wife collect anything else?

Sid Belzberg: Alicia and I have been avid collectors for many years. In addition to coins, we collect many other things including vintage toys, space toys, stamps, pens, maps, books, to name a few things.

Larry Bevand: Your sponsorship of the Canadian Olympic Chess Team was an awesome idea! The teams have been very motivated and Canada was the talk of the last Olympiad. Did you expect to see instant results like this? Do you have a long term plan?

Sid Belzberg: We had no doubt that the results would be great. All the players were in great spirits and most important of all, no player was intimidated by his opponent's chess strength. They all could visualise beating anybody and so they did! The team was motivated and the players' dedication was great.

We strongly believed in making sure our team felt on par with any strong team at the Olympiad. Our long term plan is to bring in a world class chess player into Canada that will serve as a coach for really talented players and help strengthen the team. We were only 1/2 point from being in the top ten instead of 33rd and I know for sure that we have enough talent that being in top ten is achievable. The fact that we were on board 4 in the second last round proves that when we put our minds to it and have the proper degree of optimism and motivation, anything is possible. In addition to good coaching, building motivation and confidence, we think it is also important for our team to have first class accommodations and not feel like second class citizens relative to the stronger teams when they are at these events. Give the players the right treatment and they will move mountains to live up to their true potential.

Larry Bevand: As a chess enthusiast, and someone who has spent some time with the top Canadian and international players, who has impressed you the most, and why?

Sid Belzberg: We were very impressed by Yan Teplitsky and our two younger players on the team. Marc Bluvshtein has an incredible natural talent. His performance rating at the Olympiad was 2575, only a touch away from a Grandmaster Norm (2600) had he had more grandmaster opposition. With the right coaching, he can probably become a very strong Grandmaster of World class calibre in the next few years. Yan did achieve a Grandmaster norm and played a very convincing training match against a 2700 rated player before the Olympiad. Now that Yan is devoting more time to chess, we have no doubt that he will become a super strong GM in the next few years. Pascal also had a brilliant performance and proved to be very strong tactically when under pressure. All three of these players have shown incredible potential to be among the top ten Grandmasters in the world. That's what makes the Olympiad so exciting, proving the potential of unknown players!

Both Alex and Kevin had the toughest job on the team in holding back the super GMs on the top boards and for the most part proved to be very effective cement. They both graciously and unselfishly sat out a few rounds to let the younger players have experience playing the top GM's in the world.

Jean Hebert started out very strong but unfortunately was not in top form. His dedication, determination and eagerness to keep playing never left him, despite his bad form. His fighting spirit and love of the game has to be admired.

Larry Bevand: I am sure you have seen some of the controversy with regards to the system being used for rewarding the Canadian team. Do you have any comments or could you explain the reasoning behind these motivational incentives?

Sid Belzberg: An alternative idea to rewarding wins only, was to pay on the bases of the sum total of points provided by the team (draws included). We believe that given that a team is made up of individuals, it is far more effective for the individual to feel directly responsible for his or her contribution. Some argue that the problem is that an individual might "sandbag" or throw games in order to get weaker opponents in subsequent rounds to the detriment of the team. In the case of our team, the integrity of all of our players was absolutely never an issue so we view that argument as a non starter. The incentive system based on wins only, has served the Linares event very well. Whether or not the players arrange to share the winning pot with the rest of the team after the Olympiad is not an issue. The point is that each individual feels very directly responsible for his or her contribution, and knows that a draw will not contribute.

Fischer as a player eschewed draws until absolutely no play was left in the position. We want other teams in the Olympiad to know that when they play Canada, they are going to be in for a very tough and bloody battle. As Canada rose up the ranks in the Olympiad our incentive system became a subject of discussion with competing teams and served us very well.

Larry Bevand: What do you consider the mandate of the CFC in the next decade?

Sid Belzberg: The most important mandate of the CFC is to raise the profile of Canadian Chess and find more corporate and advertising sponsorship as a result. Their mandate should definitely go beyond only managing the status quo, such as the continuity of ratings, national tournaments and their publication.

Our belief is that the structure of the CFC should change so that decisions can be made faster and acted upon sooner. For example, 65 governors should probably be reduced to a single board of directors with perhaps seven or eight members elected by the members. A CEO with a strong mandate to make decisions accountable to this board of directors representing the CFC membership, very much like the corporate structure of a public company, in our estimation would be far more effective than the existing structure.

We had a long discussion in Bled with Yasser Seirewan about his efforts to promote chess in the United States. We believe it would serve the CFC executive well to discuss his ideas and plans with him.

Larry Bevand: Do you have any ideas on how chess can be popularized here in Canada?

Sid Belzberg: We believe publicizing the personal drama of chess players, as has been done with sports personalities in many other sports, is a great start. Making idols out of young, brilliant chess players and creating a brainy role model for our youngsters would serve the young people and the future of chess well. During the Olympiad, we made sure that the progress of our team and in particular the promise of our younger players was well publicized in the press. This has to be a continuous and on-going effort. The work the CMA is doing is incredibly important. Promoting chess and the various personalities is a great way to attract the attention of the media and ultimately advertising and corporate sponsorship.

Larry Bevand: The grape vine tells us that Sid & Alicia Belzberg would like to bring a major chess event such as the Chess Olympics to Canada. Care to let us in on your thoughts?

Sid Belzberg: On April 2nd Garry Kasparov will be giving a simultaneous exhibition on behalf of our company, to twenty stock traders at the New York Stock Exchange. Similar events, on behalf of our company, will be held both in Toronto and Chicago with Garry this year.

We've had some preliminary discussions with representatives of FIDE in Bled about holding the Olympiad in Canada. We've received a positive initial response. The earliest available date would be 2008. We estimate the cost of an Olympiad to be between $5,000,000 to $8,000,000 so raising funds form various levels of government and corporate sponsorship would be critical but certainly possible. This would be a wonderful opportunity to promote chess in North America and arrange for the same level of publicity for it as enjoyed by other sports.

Larry Bevand: Is there a chess game of yours we could share with ChessTalk readers?

Sid Belzberg: I have no idea what I have done with the scores of my games so unfortunately I have none to offer.

In closing, we would like to say that we are extremely impressed with your organization (CMA). Strategically, your great organization is providing an invaluable service in introducing the game to as many schools and young players as possible. Intellectual capital, in our estimation, is the single most important asset any country can have going into the twenty first century. Training a young population to think is a truly great and lasting contribution.

You have much to be proud of!!

Best regards,

Sid & Alicia Belzberg

Larry Bevand: Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions and for your kind words of encouragement.