In a follow-up to yesterday's casting call for titled contributors, I wanted to mention one of the problems of the chess publishing trade and a suggestion that might help many in the community. If a Russian or Israeli or Brazilian Grandmaster wants to contribute material to ChessNinja it can be quite complicated to pay him or her. Stuffing a wad of bills into an envelope isn't wise. Many countries (including Russia) don't accept one of the current standards - and the system I use at Ninja - Paypal. Many will offer bank transfers but this costs both sides money, often over 10% of the fee.
Since I am now a card-carrying member of the Association of Chess Professionals (thanks Almira!), I'll make a suggestion to the leadership. (There isn't really an ACP card, but it beats the FIDE forearm tattoo.) They could establish a payment distribution system by which they act as a sort of bank for their members. They could receive and distribute payments to their members, taking advantage of good faith dealings instead of exorbitant fees. Setting up a merchant account would allow them to accept credit card transactions. Even Paypal would work in the interim.
With the wide membership of the ACP regional treasurers could be established to disburse funds on a regular schedule. If the money is held in a central corporate account you avoid transfer fees. This could be a simple but useful way of improving the lot of many Grandmasters. An additional step could be establishing links with translators so more GMs have access to the global information market.
