Kalev Pugi Fund - 2021 Recipients
— — Kalev Pugi Fund Committee
(Original announcement: ChessTalk)
The Kalev Pugi Fund Committee announces the recipients for 2021:
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The Kalev Pugi Fund
- Anthony Atanasov ($461)
- Svitlana Demchenko ($461)
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The Women’s Post-Secondary Scholarship
- Maili-Jade Ouellet ($450)
Congratulations to the winners and to the strong field of applicants again this year!
For the Kalev Pugi Fund grants, the committee decided to award two larger grants instead of the usual three smaller grants due to higher travel costs.
For the Woment’s Post-Secondary Scholarship, the fund received only a partial year of income from Andres Pugi’s recent $10,000 donation. Therefore, the Women’s Post-Secondary Scholarship was partially funded by the youth fund.
The Kalev Pugi Fund Committee: Felix Dumont, Michael Lo, Christina Tao
About The Kalev Pugi Fund
The mission of the Kalev Pugi Fund, administered within the Chess Foundation of Canada, is to generate funds to assist promising juniors to compete in major tournaments in order to advance their chess progress. Three elected trustees receive applications and award grants every year.
The Pugi Fund was initiated in 1986 by a $10,000 bequest from the estate of Kalev Pugi. There were several fund-raising tournaments in subsequent years that increased the equity to $20,500. The capital is invested and retained. The income generated goes toward the junior travel grants.
In 2021, Kalev’s son Andres donated an additional $10,000 increasing the equity to $30,500. Income generated from this donation will be used to create an annual grant to promising young women players.
Kalev Pugi himself was an inspirational figure during the early days of the CFC. In 1973 he presented the Pugi Report, a wide-sweeping modernization of the CFC. He was subsequently elected President in order to implement his recommendations. As a result, the CFC went from a loosely-organized volunteer organization with a fragile balance sheet, infrequently updated ratings, and no concept of individual memberships to a professional organization.