Monday, May 15, 2006

FIDE Presidency

The campaign is heating up and will culminate in two weeks during the Turin Olympiad.

When Ali Nihat Yazici and I, announced the launch of The Right Move back in November 2005, the FIDE incumbents reacted with a typical cocktail of arrogance, apathy and ignorance. Deputy President Makropoulos, kindly rang up his Turkish counterpart to inform him “We will f*** you.” That delicate expression neatly encapsulated their “strategy” over the following months. They had no programs, no principles and no website and the situation is hardly different today, six months later.

...wrote Bessel Kok in an
article for ChessBase. In addition, few days ago GM Yasser Seirawan, Advisor to the Right Move campaign, sent another open letter to all chess federations.


Much of the controversy arose from the Statement of Support to Kirsan Ilyumzhinov signed by ECU President Boris Kutin. Kutin later "stated that he was not conscious of the contents of the paper he had been requested to sign by the current incumbents running FIDE during the Presidential Board in Al Ain". If you look at
the document posted on the Chess Fidelity website, Boris Kutin must be having very poor eyesight to blunder the huge document title. Consequence: "Taking all this into consideration, TRM has decided to give its full support to Mr Javier Ochoa de Echaguen, the President of the Spanish Chess Federation, who is running for Continental President in Torino 2006."


Another scandal is connected with FIDE Rating Administrator and Webmaster Casto Abundo. He had announced the Philippines Federation's support for the Kirsan Ilyumzhinov ticket before the actual NCFP board meeting. Read more about this issue on
The Closet Grandmaster weblog.


Whom SCG chess federation will support?
Latest executive board meeting was dealing with captain and team for the Olympiad only. At least, that's what was officially announced. Offering no transparency in work, I'm afraid our officials might be subjects of making deal behind the curtains. This is an interesting reading, but is it indicative enough?



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