Kasparov vs Ilyumzhinov: the FIDE Presidency battle begins

[Roger de Coverly]

A simple question, because I don't know the answer. Does the ECF Board have such a person?

Those who have been Board members have suggested that a frequent debating point is "What will Council say when they find out". That's not quite the same of course. The role of the non-exec directors was a debating point on this forum when there were four candidates for two posts.

It appears the Paulson-Short row has kept the ECF quiet for the last few months as the one set of minutes published since the elections contains lots of plans and working parties, few of which have reported any activity over the last three months.

The ECF does however have three posts which exist in part to answer the "are we allowed to do this" question. First is the Company Secretary, second is the Chairman of the Governance Committee and third the Chairman of the Finance Committee. You had add as a fourth the non-elected but long standing legal adviser.

I don't think many in England would be over-excited about whether Kirsan was financing Agon or not, were it not for AP standing as ECF President. He or his backers may not have realised quite how toxic for his election prospects being seen as FIDE's representative to the ECF would be.

[Sean Hewitt]

What the Presidential Board needs is just one person who looks as their decisions as they are made and asks "are we allowed to do this?". Not holding my breath.

A simple question, because I don't know the answer. Does the ECF Board have such a person?

It has a Company Secretary, a Chairman of Governance and two non-executive Directors who all do this!

[NickFaulks]

The ECF does however have three posts which exist in part to answer the "are we allowed to do this" question.

That's not an answer. FIDE has such posts too, but the trouble is that they don't think the question is even worth asking, let alone answer it.

[JustinHorton]

On the question of why people voted for Andrew Paulson - really, how much did people know about him before they voted for him? Weren't they projecting onto him their idea of what they wanted him to be?

It appears the Paulson-Short row has kept the ECF quiet for the last few months as the one set of minutes published since the elections contains lots of plans and working parties, few of which have reported any activity over the last three months.

Yes, how is the Hall of Fame going?

Yes. A FIDE President who rides roughshod over the organisation's statutes ought to be brought to heel, if not ousted from office.

Or indeed a FIDE Delegate who decides not to tell ECF Council about court cases carried out in their name.

[Roger de Coverly]

Global Chess MFZE is a name that pops up in connection to FIDE. The CEO is Geoffrey Borg and it's also mentioned in the draft Agon agreement and AP's comments.

It also gets a mention in other FIDE events
http://wrbc2013.fide.com/wp-content/upl ... .html?l=en

11.10 The Organiser shall pay additional commercial costs of 15,000 USD to Global Chess MFZE for assistance in the setup, administration, organisation and management of the Blitz & Rapid Championships. The amount will be transferred directly to FIDE on behalf of Global Chess MFZE.

MFZE I think indicates that it would be based in Dubai, but it's not an acronym I am familiar with.

I believe it is 100% owned by Kirsan, so there's at least one Kirsan company, if not making money from, then getting business at FIDE licensed events.

The relationship between Agon and Global Chess was never particularly clear, as they both seemed to have been awarded the same or very similar rights.

[NickFaulks]

Global Chess, it's a while since I've heard about that one. Thought it was dead.

This was the JV between Kirsan and Bessel Kok.

http://en.chessbase.com/post/ilyumzhino ... global-che

I have an idea Bessel never even put up his allocation of the share capital. As is usual with Kirsan's ventures, it achieved nothing, he lost his money and his partner walked away.

[Angus French]

FIDE has issued a statement about the Chessvibes story on the Paulson-Ilyumzhinov deal. Attached to the statement is a PDF file of an email exchange between Chessvibes journalist, Peter Doggers, and FIDE Deputy President, Georgios Makropolous.

I'm not sure if this has been said before but it struck me that a weird thing about the memorandum between Andrew Paulson and Kirsan Ilyumzhinov - as presented on Kevin Spraggett's blog - is that it's between AP and KI and yet involves organisations (FIDE and Global Chess) and a number of other individuals (Ilya Merenzon, Berik Balgabaev, Geoffrey Borg and (Georgios?) Makropoulos). I'm wondering: what right did AP and KI have to sign on behalf of those other parties? Could this have affected the legal status of the memorandum?

[Roger de Coverly]

FIDE has issued a statement about the Chessvibes story on the Paulson-Ilyumzhinov deal. Attached to the statement is a PDF file of an email exchange between Chessvibes journalist, Peter Doggers, and FIDE Deputy President, Georgios Makropolous.

You get the impression sometimes that FIDE insiders regard themselves as defenders of faith and that critics, particularly journalists, are heretics and unbelievers. In this case though the "what would Kasparov say" test won through and they dropped the idea of shared ownership of Agon or found a more subtle less public means of achieving their aims.

Those paid for their work at the London Grand Prix or London Candidates have yet to reveal who or what paid them. It is an important piece of the jigsaw, since it is plausible that Agon remained a dormant Company and the profits if there were any, or the financing, emerged elsewhere.

[John McKenna]

A word of warning? Andrew & Phil were also regarded as new top management brooms ....

by whom?

I'm not saying that either or both don't deserve the label you give, nor that some/many or perhaps even most wouldn't agree with what you say. It just feels a bit sweeping to me. (see what I did there?)


And I'm going to assume the Kirsan/Buddhist reference was a joke.

Does what follows sound like a joke? It could be one.

Ilyumzhinov has spent millions of dollars on chess and supporting religion, building a Catholic church at the instigation of the Pope John Paul II. He has also built a mosque, a synagogue, 22 Orthodox churches, and 30 Buddhist temples... The 14th Dalai Lama has visited Kirsan Ilyumzhinov on many occasions and has blessed a number of the temples in Elista, as well as Kalmyk Buddhist temples overseas. (Wikipedia)

RdC(in previous post)>... You get the impression sometimes that FIDE insiders regard themselves as defenders of faith and that critics, particularly journalists, are heretics and unbelievers...<

No wonder Roger gets that impression - Kirsan makes Charles look like a princeling when it comes to faiths.

It is not something new either -

The religion of Buraty (now a region of Siberian Russia, its name derives from its early inhabitants - the Buryat Mongols) seems to be the same with that of the Kalmucks (Kalmyks)... They have two high priests.. one is called Dalai Lama the other Kutukhtu... The hierarchy of which the Dalai or Great Lama is generally considered to be the head, was not established until so late as about the year 1426... The Kutukhtus stand in the same relation as to the Dalai Lama as cardinals... to the Pope. (Bell's Travels)

Jonathan B>by whom?< (see quote above)

It may have been just me who got the impression that Andrew & Phil were going to make sweeping (I saw what you did above and I can do it, too) changes from the sweeping (encore) statements in Andrew's election address -

[Re: Nominations for the elections at the ECF AGM Posted: Thu Sep 19, 2013 7:32 am by John McKenna

But, in his election address Mr. Paulson - the Cinderella Man - says that he wants to transform the ECF from the inside out -

Beyond its day-to-day activities, the ECF needs a grand purpose; I propose that it become the moral vanguard of functional and honest chess administration...
The ECF -- often engaging in undignified squabbles over minutiae -- suffers from the Narcissism of Minor
Differences. I will make sure that henceforth we focus on the large areas about which we agree,
rather than be paralyzed by the details that hold us back.
After years of estrangement from and conflict with FIDE which has achieved nothing, the ECF should engage with FIDE and urge upon it a new tone of transparency and collegiality which will improve the commercial prospects of chess worldwide. My experience with FIDE should help us achieve this.]

That extract sounds very hollow to me now but perhaps Phil will emerge as the great peacemaker?

He could try - ''Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the...''

No, wait. That's supposed to be the President's line.

I give up.

[Chris Rice]

Global Chess MFZE is a name that pops up in connection to FIDE. The CEO is Geoffrey Borg and it's also mentioned in the draft Agon agreement and AP's comments.

It also gets a mention in other FIDE events
http://wrbc2013.fide.com/wp-content/upl ... .html?l=en

11.10 The Organiser shall pay additional commercial costs of 15,000 USD to Global Chess MFZE for assistance in the setup, administration, organisation and management of the Blitz & Rapid Championships. The amount will be transferred directly to FIDE on behalf of Global Chess MFZE.

MFZE I think indicates that it would be based in Dubai, but it's not an acronym I am familiar with.

I believe it is 100% owned by Kirsan, so there's at least one Kirsan company, if not making money from, then getting business at FIDE licensed events.

The relationship between Agon and Global Chess was never particularly clear, as they both seemed to have been awarded the same or very similar rights.

MFZE is indicative of a firm based in the Ras Al Khaimah Freezone. This is another Emirate, like Dubai that makes up the United Arab Emirates. The free zones are set up often with say 50 year tax breaks to encourage businesses to the area. However, a lot of the free zones are unregulated and it can be difficult to trace company records etc. I'll give it a go anyway and see if we can get some confirmation that this is where Global Chess was incorporated.

Update: The MFZE could indicate the Ras Al Khaimah Media Free Zone but can't find any registries or much in the way of online information at all and getting a bit bored. It does make sense if Global chess did set up there though as its 100% tax free and I did note in the FIDE minutes that there were queries as to why monies were routed through this entity first.

While I was searching I came across references to FIDE Commerce International set up in Dubai Internet City (Bill Gates was instrumental in setting this zone up not that anybody cares I guess). The only information I could find was the following, not much detail, but a staggering number of listed employees!
http://www.tradebanq.com/company/957541 ... IONAL.html

[Chris Rice]

FIDE has issued a statement about the Chessvibes story on the Paulson-Ilyumzhinov deal. Attached to the statement is a PDF file of an email exchange between Chessvibes journalist, Peter Doggers, and FIDE Deputy President, Georgios Makropolous.

You get the impression sometimes that FIDE insiders regard themselves as defenders of faith and that critics, particularly journalists, are heretics and unbelievers. In this case though the "what would Kasparov say" test won through and they dropped the idea of shared ownership of Agon or found a more subtle less public means of achieving their aims.

Those paid for their work at the London Grand Prix or London Candidates have yet to reveal who or what paid them. It is an important piece of the jigsaw, since it is plausible that Agon remained a dormant Company and the profits if there were any, or the financing, emerged elsewhere.

Yes an interesting response from FIDE to the smoking herring agreement. it seemed to be along the lines of "how dare you question our integrity!" I don't think Peter Doggers questions were difficult to answer or indicate he's a GK-lover. Probably the only notable highlight of the response was the clear implication that Kirsan doesn't know what's he's doing and will sign anything.

[Jonathan Bryant]

Does what follows sound like a joke?

Ah Wiki. Well let's say for the sake of argument this is all true. If somebody steals a bunch of money (from poor people) then spends it on places of religious worship is that a joke?

Anyhoo, my eyebrow was raised not by this as much as by your assertion that religious faith (of whatever flavour) some how gets you points on a Are You Redeemably Hot or Not score chart.

... perhaps Phil will emerge as the great peacemaker?

For what it's worth, I've spent time with Phil and I greatly enjoyed his company. The closest I've come to personal contact with AP is standing behind him at the queue for the cloakroom at the Classic where I observed him interact with the member of staff with genuine warmth - as if she were a real person and not some venue employed drone put there to do his bidding. And that's more than you can say for a lot of people at chess events. For that matter I've yet to meet (face to face or online) a member of council who didn't seem to be some variety of good egg.


I'm very far from convinced that the problems with the ECF are related to the failings of individuals. It's more what happens when those individuals come together and act collectively. An analogy I've drawn in the past is with English cricket and Allen Stanford. The problem there not being what Stanford did but that the English Cricket Board let him do it.

[Chris Rice]

Ali Nihat Yazici has been under the spotlight by the Kasparov camp as to who was paying his expenses which led to the rebuttal by FIDE a few days ago which I mentioned up thread. His reaction on Facebook to the latest press release from FIDE on the FIDE/Agon memo was emotional shall we say:

(about an hour ago near Ankara, Turkey)

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov give them a lesson that they never forget!

Kirsan, show them that their dirty money will not work in democracy.

Kirsan, show them that accusing innocent people will not clean their dirty clothes!

The democracy will shut the dirty mouth of that group in August in Trömsö! They will get a slap on their face with clean hands of federations! Their dirty money will not work to purchase the votes neither in Asia nor in Africa!

Their purchased media will not be able to change the realities!

[NickFaulks]

With friends like that Kirsan really doesn't need enemies. Ali seems to be having a good run at replacing Leong within FIDE as The Man in Charge of Everything. Since the Istanbul Olympiad shambles, he has certainly come back from the dead.

[NickFaulks]

]

Does what follows sound like a joke? It could be one.

Ilyumzhinov has spent millions of dollars on chess and supporting religion, building a Catholic church at the instigation of the Pope John Paul II. He has also built a mosque, a synagogue, 22 Orthodox churches, and 30 Buddhist temples... The 14th Dalai Lama has visited Kirsan Ilyumzhinov on many occasions and has blessed a number of the temples in Elista, as well as Kalmyk Buddhist temples overseas. (Wikipedia)

Why would anyone think this might be a joke? I can't personally confirm the exact numbers, but would expect all of the above information to be factually correct. Which part is in doubt?