Third World countries ten trainers that will be coaching their teams during Olympiads and preparing them before the Olympiads,” GM Mikhalchishin told us. During the first days of the Congress,
corridor discussions were heated by con- troversial proposals on chess finance coming from Ignatius Leong (Singapore), FIDE general secretary. Firstly, he pro- posed to license all FIDE rated players with the license fee amounting to EUR 500 ($690) for the life license (with rebates for developing countries). Secondly, he proposed to change the rules related to the registration fees payable by organizers of the FIDE rated tournaments: fees on Swiss events would increase seven times (now the relevant fee amounts to EUR 1 per player). Both proposals faced strong oppo- sition and were withdrawn before the executive board could decide upon them. Another pro-fiscal, but more moder-
ate proposal, came from Nigel Freeman (Bermuda), FIDE treasurer. Mr. Freeman suggested removing the annual ceiling on the above registration fees, which is now at the level of EUR 15.00 ($20.50) per federation. The EB decided to set up a four-member commission to work on this proposal further. “The ceiling amount is negotiable, but I would like to keep the principle alive,” reported Herman Hamers, an EB member from the Netherlands who was elected to the mentioned commis- sion. “I believe at least two other members will share my view,” he added. The large U.S. contingent—led by new
USCF President Ruth Haring and includ- ing Sophia Rohde, Walter Brown, Franc Guadalupe, Bill Hall, Michael Khodark- ovsky, Sevan Muradian and Tony Rich— was making a concerted effort to con- vince FIDE officials of some of the distinctive features of American tourna- ment chess. The major issue are time controls utilizing the five-second delay, which is at odds with the FIDE require- ments for international titles. Following Ruth Haring’s written clari- fications, FIDE agreed to award all titles that were previously put on hold due to the delay-related controversy, but the controversy continues to exist. FIDE authorities are expected to decide on it in a definite way at the 2012 Istanbul Con- gress. Similar controversy relates to tournaments with two schedules merging to become one. The FIDE Qualification Commission accepted the suggestion from Nigel Freeman that such tournaments should be valid for FIDE purposes until FIDE and the USCF find a compromise subject that it should be found before July 1, 2013. On the penultimate day of the Con-
FIDE Delegate Michael Khodarkovsky and USCF President Ruth Haring in Krakow
gress, Mr. Ilyumzhinov opened the EB meeting delivering a speech on his vision to promote chess all over the world through the ambitious Chess in Schools program, building monumental chess centers and meeting heads of state. There are 500 million people playing chess at the moment, said Mr. Ilymzhinov, and he declared that his goal is to duplicate the number so that there are “one billion clever people on this planet.” Some delegates were still pondering this
figure when Herman Hamers asked for an explanation of another one, no less impressive. He mentioned that FIDE spent approximately EUR 837,000 ($1,141,000) on lawyers defending Mr. Ilyumzhinov against the lawsuit filed by his recent presidential campaign opponent, Anatoly Karpov (Mr. Karpov tried to prove that Mr. Ilyumzhinov’s candidacy was not prop- erly endorsed and thus invalid, but the court in Lausanne dismissed the claim). Now Mr. Hamers wanted to see a break- down of the above cost. Mr. Ilyumzhinov was not ready to meet
the request. Instead, he entered into an hour and a half diatribe, which quite unexpectedly focused on attacking Garry Kasparov. According to the president, Mr. Kasparov is to blame for FIDE’s legal expenses because he was a player in the
Karpov 2010 campaign and used the law- suit to carry out his old plan to bankrupt FIDE. Mr. Ilyumzhinov also implied, with no justification whatsoever, that Mr. Kas- parov is responsible for yet another lawsuit, which aimed to challenge the number of vice presidents (VPs) (FIDE has three VPs in excess of its statutes, but the court case is still unsettled). Finally, the delegates were lectured on Mr. Kas- parov’s failure in Russian politics and the improved ways of Mr. Karpov, who joined the ruling party and is likely to become a member of Parliament. “It’s all very interesting,” summarized
Tomasz Sielicki, president of the Polish Chess Federation, “but my colleague Her- man raised a simple question about the cost split and this simple question was not addressed.” Following this intervention, Georgios Makropoulos, FIDE deputy pres- ident, promised that the requested split will be published on the Internet. Unfor- tunately, when we later approached the president, we found that the publication may face some obstacles. “Before publish- ing such data, we need to ask the other party for permission. However, it is not a secret information. You can visit the FIDE office in Athens and you will be shown the relevant documents,” was Ilyumzhinov’s comment on the matter.
.
See more on the FIDE meeting in USCF President Ruth Haring’s “Across the Board” report on page 8 and on Chess Life Online at
uschess.org, October archives.
uschess.org Chess Life — January 2012 35
PHOTOS BY TONY RICH
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