Karpov FIDE presidential campaign

[Ian Thompson]

I note that the 'winners' also state "Despite this positive outcome, FIDE deeply regrets the FIDE resources spent on its efforts to have this frivolous claim dismissed."

Surely people running for re-election to an office cannot use the resources of that office to aid their cause? It's a bit like Labour using the public purse to fight it's election campaign.

I don't think so. Karpov's action would have been against FIDE for incorrectly accepting the nomination of Ilyumzhinov, so its up to FIDE to demonstrate to the court that it did follow due process when accepting Ilyumzhinov's nomination.

[Wilf Arnold]

Good point.

[Matthew Turner]

So Ilyumzhinov has won again and won convincingly. I'm disappointed, but I think we have to put things into perspective and you might also bear in mind Kevin Spraggett's comments

"Rather than throw in the towel, Karpov and Kasparov began a campaign of character assassination of internationally respected chess personalities who would not join or support their campaign; they systematically worked to undermine democratically elected chess officials in Peru and Argentina by using the tremendous influence that they wielded by way of their cult personalities, and celebrity status to gain easy access to political figures who were ignorant of chess affairs and of chess politics. These campaign tactics were nasty, abusive and unprecedented in FIDE's long history"

So perhaps Karpov was not the messiah that we had hoped. Karpov made great play of the support he could bring to chess; Well he still can and if he is able to use his immense influence bring more resources to chess, he and the broader chess community can still emerge as winners.

It is hard to put a good spin on the other election!

"Silvio Danailov won the European Chess Union presidential elections"

[Roger de Coverly]

; they systematically worked to undermine democratically elected chess officials in Peru

Without knowing the full story, it was also suggested that the Peruvian president got his federation suspended from FIDE for not paying the bills (That presumably is a matter of record). On investigation the Peruvian equivalent of the DCMS were unhappy about how their grants had been spent.

[Paul McKeown]

I would be quite happy if the federations of countries where chess was actually played simply walked out of FIDE, formed their own international federation and told FIDE where to shove its invoices to them (not the letter box presumably). I have thought this ever since Ilyumzhinov was first elected. FIDE would soon be bankrupted if this were to happen. It won't happen, though, because too many people in those federations can be bought off with snout in the trough sinecures, or their players worry about the titles they have been awarded, or they simply have ridiculously romantic ideas of the value of FIDE. For me, FIDE is corrupt, undemocratic and broken beyond redemption. I find it an embarassment and a fraud and I pity (or am repulsed by some of) its apologists. No doubt I will be barraged with condemnatory responses, but, frankly, I really couldn't give a f***.

[Alex Holowczak]

No doubt I will be barraged with condemnatory responses

Actually, from CJ's version of events, I think your succinct summary was pretty good.

[Mick Norris]

I would be quite happy if the federations of countries where chess was actually played simply walked out of FIDE, formed their own international federation and told FIDE where to shove its invoices to them (not the letter box presumably). I have thought this ever since Ilyumzhinov was first elected. FIDE would soon be bankrupted if this were to happen. It won't happen, though, because too many people in those federations can be bought off with snout in the trough sinecures, or their players worry about the titles they have been awarded, or they simply have ridiculously romantic ideas of the value of FIDE. For me, FIDE is corrupt, undemocratic and broken beyond redemption. I find it an embarassment and a fraud and I pity (or am repulsed by some of) its apologists. No doubt I will be barraged with condemnatory responses, but, frankly, I really couldn't give a f***.

Paul

You might think that, but I couldn't possibly comment

I suggest we wait for the safe return from Siberia of all our players and officials before we say anything else