5.08.2003, Vadstena, Sweden

1. The General Assembly was declared open by Peter Jonsson.

2. Peter Jonsson was elected as Chairman of the General Assembly

3. Anders Henningsson was elected secretary of the General Assembly.

4. Three persons who should check the minutes.

Ants Soosõrv
Hiroshi Okabe
Juri Tarannikov

5. Election of three scrutineers.

Markus Ericsson
Alan Pelikan
Albert Pogosyan

6. The agenda was approved.

7. Roll call:

Armenia Albert Pogosyan
Azerbadjan Nizami Eibatov
China Chen Wei
Chineese Taipei Chang Yi Feng
Japan Masao Mitsumori
Russia Pavel Makarov
Estonia Ants Soosõrv
Sweden Peter Jonsson

The above countries has the right to vote in the General Assembly, 2003.

8. Adoption of new RIF members. Canada was adopted as RIF-member from 2003-08-05. The 50 USD should be paid ASAP.

9. Annual reports from the President, the Treasurer and the Auditor. See separate documents.

10. The work of the Central Committee for the last two years was approved.

11. Budget and the membership fee. Changes in membership-fee status since June 2003.

China 2003-2006
Chineese Taipei 2003-2008
Japan Until 2004
Russia Until 2003
Czech Republic Until 2004
Canada Not paid

The budget was adjusted with 1800 SEK for Renju Class and approved.

The membership fee would be same as before.

12. Election of the Central Committee

Peter Jonsson was elected president.

It was decided that Anders Henningsson is one out of 3 candidates for Vice President.

It was decided that there can be 3 Vice Presidents.

Vice Presidents:

Anders Henningsson
Alexander Nosovsky
Norihiko Kawamura

General Secretary: Pavel Salnikov

Treasurer: Stefan Karlsson

13. Proposal from the General Secretary:
RIF should use a system with coefficients for the member fees depending on the economical situation in the country concerned. If the General Assembly approves the proposal the Central Committee should make a suggestion for coefficients that can be approved on the General Assembly 2005.
At the Mind Sports Olympiad such system was used for the tournament fees.
The assembly voted NOT to approve the proposal from point 13.

14. Proposal from Yuriy Tarannikov (through the President):
"We will have one "perspective future opening rules" (PFOR) and five "candidate future opening rules" (CFOR). During the period between two General Assemblies these rules and new prepositions are analyzed by federations and an Opening Rules Commission. At each General Assembly the following three questions are decided:
a) Will the current PFOR become the new RIF rules? If not
b) Which rules will be the new PFOR (the choice is possible only between the current PFOR and the five current CFOR; also it is possible that the status of PFOR will be vacant).
c) Which maximum five number of rules will be the new CFOR:s (the choice is possible between all prepositions.
For example, if we introduce this system at the GA 2003 then we will be able to decide five CFOR at the GA 2005, one PFOR at the GA 2007 and to establish the new rules at the GA 2009. So, we will have enough time to analyze all consequences and renju players do not have to be afraid of that the rules will be changed suddenly."
The assembly voted to approve the proposal from point 14.

The assembly voted to approve as a basis the list of requirements for new opening rule.

The list of requirements for new opening rules:

I. Traditions
The basic Renju rules must be kept.
The opening stage must not exceed 5 moves.
All 26 canonical openings must be possible and only 26 canonical openings can be possible.
All present realistic variants must be possible.
The moves located very closely near the edges of a board during the opening stage are not preferable.

II. Simplicity and attraction
New rules must be simple to study.
New rules must be simple to play for beginners. The situation when in significant part of cases a beginner will have the lost position already after the first 5 moves is not good.
The rules must be systematic and attractive.

III. Creativity
The number of possible creative variants must be significantly greater than now. These variants must be achieved under the optimal strategy of both players.
The chances of sides to win must be practically equal.
The situation when during the opening stage the player who make a move does not interested in the forming of equal and creative position is not preferable. (Example: indirect 2nd move in previous opening rules).
The rules must give the chance for both players to avoid the position after the opening stage well known for the opponent.
The knowledge of theory and deep own analyses must give an advantage but the player with a good imagination must have chances against this.

IV. The new Renju opening rules after the acceptance must be unchanged during a long historical period. For this we must be guaranteed that these rules have not any problems.

The assembly decided that the time schedule of opening rules selection for next two years will be developed by RIF Rules Commission.

15. Proposal from the President: The commissions are given a specific task (from the GA or the Central Committee) and a specific date when it should be ready together with the report.
During all RIF history the work of the commissions have with a few exceptions been very poor. Maybe it can be easier for the commissions to work in this way.

The assembly voted to approve the proposal from point 15.

16. Proposal from the President: RIF should be registered as an official organization.
"It has been a wish from some people that it would be much easier for them to cooperate with authorities in their countries if RIF was an official organization. RIF can apply for registration in Sweden. This will lead to that RIF will have a REGISTRATION NUMBER. It is no cost for the registration in Sweden but the authorities need a copy of the statues and copies of the General Assembly minutes. The form for registration will be brought to the GA in Vadstena."

The assembly voted to approve the proposal from point 16.

17. Proposal from the President: RIF should have an official Swiss system to be used in all RIF championships. The Referee Commission makes a suggestion and the Central Committee decides.
In Chess FIDE has an official system. For us it should be easier for referees and players.

The assembly voted to approve the proposal from point 17.

18. Proposal from the President: RIF should reprint the book "Five-In- A-Row/Renju". In the same time the book should be updated with new information in the end of the book (pages 152 – 154).
The cost for 500 copies in the same quality as the original book is about 20 000 SEK. I think it is necessary not only to have information available on internet but also in book form.

The assembly voted to approve the proposal from point 18 and the cost was adjusted to 15.000. The cheapest option will be choosen. Poland and China are identified options.

19. Proposal from the President: "The Sport Committee should a month before a new rating period starts declare what tournaments during this period that should be counted on the RIF official rating list. The declaration should be announced in the Renju Newsletter. Moreover, the first rating period of a year should be from Jan 1 – May 15.
As the situation is now I am not sure that all players really know what tournaments that are counted. Quite often it happens that a tournament starts in the end of April and finishes in May."

The assembly voted to approve the proposal from point 19.

20. Proposal from the President: "RIF should re-establish a list of connection men and publish this list on RIF home page. The President should at minimum once every sixth month ask the connection men about the situation of Renju in the country concerned and also ask if he/she wants to continue as a connection man.
The President should also see that RIF systematically check out all sites for renju/five in a row in order to establish more contacts. The President can ask suitable persons to carry out this task and he should also together with the Central Committee take care of that a "package" of information can be delivered (by ordinary mail or by e-mail) to people who have showed interest for Renju. The President can during the next two years use maximum 4000 SEK for this task."

The assembly voted to approve the proposal from point 19 except "The President can during the next two years use maximum 4000 SEK for this task"

21. Decision of the place for future RIF official championships.

a) Tyumen in Russia has asked for being the host for the Team World Championship in 2004.

b) Tallinn in Estonia has asked for being the host for the World Championship in 2005.

c) Asian Championship

d) Youth World Championship

e) European Championship

The following locations was decided:

a) Tyumen, Russia

b) Tallinn, Estonia

c) 2004 will be decided by cc. (Beijing, China, 2003, October already decided).

d) Armenia (August prefered)

e) Will be decided by cc

22. No report from the commissions

23. Elections for delegates in all RIF commissions.

The Asian Commission: Chairman Nara, Vice Chairman Na Wei, Members Mr. Khramov, Uzbekistan, Mr. Chang, Chinese Taipei, Mr. Pogosyan, Armenia, Mr. Nosovsky, Russia, Mr. Eibatov, Azerbadjan, Mr. Kwon, Korea, Mr. Hasegawa, Japan, Mr. Glukovsky, Israel, Mr. Henningsson, Sweden.

The Correspondense Commision: Chairman Mr. Salnikov, Russia, Members Mr. Tarannikov, Russia, Mr. Nosovsky, Russia.

The sports Commission: Chairman Stefan Karlsson, Vice Chairman Lu Xiao Chun, Members Pavel Salnikov, Ants Soosõrv, Iio, Japan.

The Referee Commission: Chairman Skuridin, Members Ants Soosõrv, Yao Zhiyong, China.

The Youth Commission: Chairman Ants Soosõrv, Members Skuridin, Metreveli, Ono, Pogosyan.

The Rules Commission: Chairman Ando Meritee, Members Peter Jonsson, Kawamura, Zhang Jinyu, Tarannikov, Mr. Chung.

The Qualification Commission: Chairman Oleg Stepanov, Member Smirnov.

The Translation Commission: Chairman Anders Henningsson, Members Ando Meritee, Peng Jian Guo.

The European Commission: Chairman Mr. Pelikan, Members Ants Soosõrv, Peter Jonsson.

The Internet Commission: Chairman Ando Meritee, Mr. Chen Wei, China, Ester Eggert, Frank Arkbo

24. The General Assembly was closed

Anders Henningsson
Vice President, RIF

Peter Jonsson
President, RIF

Ants Soosõrv

Hiroshi Okabe

Juri Tarannikov

Appendix: FINANCIAL REPORT BY TREASURER

Notes: (1) Renju World for all 2001 is included in the SEK 8908, meaning that there are costs for more than 2 years.