Incredible mess about Afghanistan team in Turin. National Chess Federation announced full support for Bessel Kok in the forthcoming Presidency elections. Then sharp response from the other side - via National Olympic committee, the entire executive board of Afghani Chess Federation has been changed as well as all members of the men's team. Players who came first where kicked from the Olympic village to make space for the new team. Guess who will new Afghanistan vote for...
(Ne) pravi Avganistan (in serbian)
1 comment:
This is corroborated by Australian IM David Smerdon's account in his daily email newsletter. Here is what he wrote:
"The other big controversy of the day was the withdrawal of the Afghan women's team, who were in tears at the board when their arbiter [Australian] Gary Bekker was forced to tell them that they were not allowed to play. Apparently the Afghan Chess Federation had just acquired a new President who claimed that he would get in trouble back home if he let the women's team play because they were not Afghan residents. (They were registerd with FIDE as Afghans and one had represented Afghanistan before at a World Age Championship.) His credibility was further reduced when he told took a place in the Open team while other stronger Afghan players were told they could not compete. As you might have guessed, the Afghan Chess Federation coup has installed a Kirsan Iljumzhinov supporter ahead of Olympic veteran Jamshedi who was planning to vote for Bessel Kok at the upcoming FIDE Presidential election."
TCG
Post a Comment