General Assembly 06.12 highlights – report to follow

Last Saturday, our Annual General Assembly meeting took place in Brussels and online. Here is a short highlight of the most important results. The full report will be finalized and published after the next board meeting, scheduled January 6th 2026.

The clubs elected Steven Bellens as their new President, following up Laurent Wery. As the writer of this article, I’m honoured to assume this role, and I’ll do my best to bring advances to the Belgian Chess Community based on the vision text I applied with.

Next to this new President, no less than four new administrators are elected:

• Geert Bailleul
• Inias Vissenaekens
• Gaston Boutchon
• Lukas Dewijngaert

Please join me in wishing all new – and existing – administrators all the best in their mandates. In the next board meeting, all administrators will present their plans and (desired) responsibilities, after which the distribution of authorities will take place. You will be able to follow along on our administrative council page.

The General Assembly also approved our ambitious budget, bringing extra attention – amongst others – to chess project support, youth and top players and women in chess!

In regards to tournament regulations and ratings, all proposed changes are approved, most notably migration of national ELO to FIDE ELO, with a target date of July 1st, 2026 and the (re)inclusion of dedicated women championships. The modified tournament regulations are available under the RBCF menu.

The proposed statutory modifications could not be voted due to lack of sufficient representation. A follow-up meeting will be scheduled at a later stage, in which these proposals will be re-submitted for approval.

I’d like to thank all clubs present or represented in the meeting for their participation, and invite everyone to actively contribute to the Belgian Chess Community together with the full board of administrators and employees.