TWIC is 29. First issue 17th September 1994.
FIDE Presidential Elections 2010 (Timeline)
More questions than answers in the race for FIDE President
Mark Crowther - Saturday 22nd May 2010
FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov | http://www.theweekinchess.com
The battle over the Russian Chess Federation (RCF) nomination for FIDE President has seen its President Arkady Dvorkovich come to the centre stage and has revealed the RCF as being both split and disorganised. An astonishing series of events has left many more questions than answers.
We are barely into the campaign for FIDE President and already this promising to be a long and grueling campaign, and that's just for journalists. The elections themselves take place during the General Assembly of the FIDE Congress alongside the 39th Chess Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk September 19th - October 4th 2010.
Whilst we nominally talk about a democratic process it really isn't. The votes of representatives of the 158 nations is what it is all about. The structure is roughly the same as that of the International Olympic Committee or FIFA and if you research these organisations even for a moment you see what a corrupt and corrupting process "democracy" is in these structures. I have been reading "Foul!: The Secret World of FIFA: Bribes, Vote Rigging and Ticket Scandals" by Andrew Jennings. You see double-speak, wrong-headed decisions, inappropriate leaders, lies and corruption all laid bare, often in court many years afterwards. Yet most officials are practically bullet-proof, until they are no longer useful anyhow. Football fans are no happier with the leadership of football than normal players and fans are of the leadership of chess. Sport really shouldn't be governed by these people. I really wish it were different but it isn't.
One realisation I have come to is that 8 years should be the absolute limit on the term for FIDE Presidency. At least that would one small democratising step. Once the head of organisations like FIFA and the IOC, they never want to leave.
Whilst there isn't as much money in chess I take the attitude that the political process is much the same. I find the whole process distasteful, we're pretty much not going to be told the truth from beginning to end. Nothing will be what it appears to be and we probably won't know where we are for quite a while. We've seen a whole host of events surrounding the nomination by Russia of a candidate for the FIDE Presidency. At some point I realised I had a whole bunch of questions and absolutely no answer to almost any of them. So I've put together a time-line of events so far. In place of some deep and meaningful article containing guesses as to what might be going on I have put a number of questions, many of which I don't ever expect to find the answer to.
Timeline
- 24th November 2009. Alexander Zhukov resigns after 5 years as President of Russian Chess Federation. Arkady Dvorkovich resigned as first vice-president of the RCF.extraordinary congress. A new president was supposed to be elected in Moscow on 19th February. Acting head appointed: Executive director, Alexander Bach. They resigned as Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev demanded that all government employees to leave the decision-making positions of sports federations.
- 19th February 2010. New Russian Chess Federation Charter supposed to be adopted (unclear that it has) and new president elected (doesn't seem to have happened).
- 13th March 2010. Anatoly Karpov officially launches his campaign to be elected as FIDE President.
- 21st April 2010. Arkady Dvorkovich says that the Board of Trustees had decided to "strongly support" Kirsan Ilyumzhinov in the elections.
- 22nd April 2010. Anatoly Karpov disputes the right of Dvorkovich to take this decision.
- 3rd May 2010. Death of Florencio Campomanes
- 14th May 2010. Meeting of delegates to the Russian Chess Federation addressed by Anatoly Karpov. 17 of the 17 delegates in attendence voted for Karpov. There are 32 members in total. Garry Kasparov addressed the meeting in support of Karpov. The meeting took place in the Botvinnik Central Chess Club in Gogol Boulevard, Moscow. Press Release from that meeting.. Later claims by Dvorkovich that the meeting was moved seem to be incorrect.
- 14th May 2010. Meeting of Arkady Dvorkovich and the remaining delegates at about the same time as the above meeting in a nearby Bank.
- 15th May 2010. FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov announces his intention to stand again. "I will run for FIDE President once again and I am confident that the delegates will once again put their trust in our team. I have the clear support of the majority of FIDE’s member Federations who have been waiting patiently in the background, for the Russian Chess Federation to proceed with its nomination."
- 16th May 2010. Arkady Dvorkovich interview with ChessPro. Dvorkovich states that both his meeting (lack of a quorum) and the meeting that nominated Karpov were both not legal. The latter because he as chairman was not present. Calls for the resignation of Alexander Bach. Calls Ilyumzhinov's nomination to be ratified but that nomination of Karpov by another federation to be deemed legal by FIDE if necessary. Claims former chairman Alexander D. Zhukov supports these actions. States: "I personally think his behavior is unethical and unconscionable. And working with him I will not under any circumstances."
- 17th May 2010. Karpov fundraiser in New York. Attended by Magnus Carlsen and Garry Kasparov. ChessVibes Story on the event.
- 18th May 2010. Dvorkovich is quoted on the Russian Chess Federation website that "Our candidate is Kirsan Ilyumzhinov" and that the meeting attended by Karpov has no legal force.
- 18th May 2010. Women's World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk and former champion Vladimir Kramnik support Arkady Dvorkovich. Neither mention Ilyumzhinov.
- 20th May 2010. Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov elected as the new president of the Russian Olympic Committee. Zhukov, the former president of the Russian Chess Federation has vowed to lobby for sports that Russia excel at to be included in the Olympics. Chess was specifically mentioned.
- 20th May 2010. Men from the security firm "Peper" seize the offices of the Russian Chess Federation on Gogol Boulevard allegedly at the behest of Arkady Dvorkovich. According to a Karpov press release they ejected Alexander Bach. Then there is a ChessBase Report that control of the RCF Bank Account and Website have taken place.
Links
Mig Greengard with an inside track on the Karpov campaign.
Turkish Chess Federation in support of Ilyumzhinov.
FIDE.com which is not reporting election campaigning material for reasons of neutrality.
Carl Schreck Article on the politics
Questions
Why did Arkady Dvorkovich avoid a vote of the Supervisory Board by nominating Ilyumzhinov before the meeting? After all it has only cause him grief and split the Russian Chess Federation which no-one seems to want. It also damages Dvorkovich's liberal credentials.
Is Dvorkovich representing Russian Government Policy?
Why did Dvorkovich think that Karpov would take the initial nomination without a vote lying down?
What is Arkady Dvorkovich even still a position of influence as Russian Prime-Minister Dmitry Medvedev has tried to remove political appointees from sports Federations and in fact that's why they don't have an elected president?
If he is representing Russian Policy why do they want Ilyumzhinov?
Is Ilyumzhinov seen as having better contacts with the International Olympic Committee?
If this is political why would the Kremlin care about this election?
Is it a political reward for keeping Kalmykia under control?
If there is a legal challenge to the decision by the Russian Chess Federation where would that happen?
Is Kasparov's heavy support of Karpov somehow influencing things? He is after all a well known opponent of the Russian Government and also has many enemies in the chess world.
Is Dvorkovich's opposition to Karpov personal?
Who is calling the shots? Dvorkovich, former Chess President Zhukov, or someone else?
Where do the FIDE delegates truly line up at the moment?
Does Ilyumzhinov have the majority support he claims?
Will Karpov be allowed to stand without the support of the Russian Chess Federation?
If the Dvorkovich nomination of Ilyumzhinov is not ratified what will happen then?
Are payments made to some FIDE delegates in return for votes, as is widely assumed?
If the is a legal challenge to the FIDE Elections where does that happen? The Lausanne Court for Arbitration in Sport?
Key Facts on the RCF and Arkady Vladimirovich Dvorkovich
Russian Chess Federation
Chairman of the Russian Chess Federation: Alexander Bach.
Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Russian Chess Federation: Arkady Vladimirovich Dvorkovich.
Arkady Vladimirovich Dvorkovich
Arkady Vladimirovich Dvorkovich born March 26th 1972 in Moscow Russia
Son of Vladimir Yakovlevich Dvorkovich (December 30 1937, Taganrog - June 29 2005, Moscow) International Chess Arbiter, Chairman of the Appeals Committee of the Russian Chess Federation. Part of the teams of Karpov and Kasparov.
Russian economist
2006 Board Member Russian Football Union. Programme Manager for development of Russian football.
2007 First Vice-President of the Russian Chess Federation (RCF). Supervises the development of children in the RCF chess, promotion and improvement of financial support the development of chess in Russia.
Assistant to the President of the Russian Federation from May 13th 2008.
He announced economic reforms to the taxation system of Russia on May 21st 2010.
May 19th 2008 appointed as the representative of the President of Russia for a group of leading industrialized nations and relations with the countries comprising the Group of Eight.
January 11th 2010- Member of the governmental commission on economic development and integration.
