TWIC is 30. First issue 17th September 1994.
Turkish Chess Federation (Auditors Report)
Turkish Bribes to FIDE Delegates Officially Audited
Mark Crowther - Thursday 25th November 2010
Dylan Loeb McClain the Chess blogger at the New York Times claims that a recent report on the Turkish Chess Federation details bribes ( £76,000) that the Federation had to pay in 2008 to secure the 2012 Olympiad. President of the Turksh Chess Federation Ali Nihat Yazici says that these were just expenses for the campaign and the unfavourable appearance in the report are part of an internal campaign against him. Probably the most useful part of the whole story is the position that FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov has placed on record that "Paying for votes is not allowed by FIDE and by its members."
Dylan Loeb McClain is the chess blogger for the New York Times. Always worth a read he has recently published a number of articles based on interviews with Kirsan Ilyumzhinov (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4) but as a kicker he then produced a translation of an auditors report for the Turkish Chess Federation which appears on their website where McClain claims it shows about £76,000 is listed as being spent on expenses of FIDE delegates presumably in return for voting for the Istanbul Olympiad at the meeting in Dresden to decide the venue.
McClain has also elicited from FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov the following claim "Paying for votes is not allowed by FIDE and by its members." which is not at all the impression outsiders gain from watching FIDE affairs, and it has certainly been claimed that bribes are a matter of course during all FIDE elections. However what constitutes bribery and what constitutes normal political haggling might a point where FIDE and outsiders part company. Anyhow DYLAN LOEB MCCLAIN's Gambit Blog story on Turkish Olympiad Bid for 2010 is well worth a read.
A ChessBase Report quotes Ali Nihat Yazici as saying " no money was given to a FIDE delegate, and none of their expenses were reimbursed. The reality behind this news that is currently being circulated is that there is a very destructive opposition to my Presidency of the TCF, which I have faced in the last six years." Suggest this may be a storm in a teacup. But Ilyumzhinov's claim that bribes can't be paid in FIDE elections is on record now and may be subject to some contradiction.
