FIDE Elections 2018

[Roger de Coverly]

It would appear that the current FIDE President is not intent on stepping down. He isn't though using the official FIDE site any longer. Rather the selfies which used to be a feature of his trips to meet government and chess officials have moved to his own site.

http://kirsan.today/en/

It's not a site that gives the impression that the President has stepped aside from activity on behalf of FIDE. The official FIDE site on the other hand doesn't associate the President with the recent Rapid and Blitz Championships in Saudi Arabia and the controversies over the non-inclusion of Israeli players and the insults made by a Saudi sports official to Qatar. (That's not on the FIDE site either).

[Alex Holowczak]

Rather the selfies which used to be a feature of his trips to meet government and chess officials have moved to his own site.

Reached page 5 of 90, and still not seen a selfie...

[Roger de Coverly]

Reached page 5 of 90, and still not seen a selfie...

Using the term in the loose sense of any posed shot with those he was visiting. I don't think he ever got Osama Bin Laden, but the FIDE collection had an impressive gallery of despots and dictators (enemies of the USA if you prefer).

[NickFaulks]

Chessdom has produced a summary of events so far, based heavily on Jorge Vega's interpretation.

http://www.chessdom.com/fide-elections- ... ry-so-far/

Claims that Africa is unanimously in support of Kirsan's candidacy do not seem to be holding up.

[Mick Norris]

Can someone break it to me gently; when is the election for FIDE President i.e. how much longer are we going to have to listen to these stories?

[NickFaulks]

October 3rd I believe. You are of course free to ignore the campaign.

[Mick Norris]

Thanks, I'll try

[Roger de Coverly]

Thanks, I'll try

The FIDE site is headlining the elections for President of the Russian Chess Federation. That's unusual as it doesn't usually intervene in Federations' local issues.

http://www.fide.com/component/content/a ... ation.html

I'm guessing that the FIDE site is controlled by anti-Kirsan insiders and the piece is in support of Filatov who now appears to be anti-Kirsan. Perhaps further speculation is that the Kremlin don't care who is FIDE President provided they are both Russian and not Kasparov.

[NickFaulks]

I'm guessing that the FIDE site is controlled by anti-Kirsan insiders

Seriously, you think that posts on the FIDE website may be put there by FIDE staff? That's amazing. Will your next bombshell be that posts on the ECF website are possibly put there by ECF staff?

[Roger de Coverly]

I'm guessing that the FIDE site is controlled by anti-Kirsan insiders

Seriously, you think that posts on the FIDE website may be put there by FIDE staff?

Who instructs them?

[NickFaulks]

Who instructs them?

I don't know how much they would be "instructed", but they would presumably report to the Presidential Board. Regarding the case in point, I'm not sure that simply giving a list of runners and riders really constitutes interference.

[Roger de Coverly]

Regarding the case in point, I'm not sure that simply giving a list of runners and riders really constitutes interference.

Are there previous examples of the FIDE site being bothered to cover the elections of a national federation? I cannot recall it expressing any interest in the occasional contested ECF election.

[NickFaulks]

I cannot recall it expressing any interest in the occasional contested ECF election.

Did anyone alert the webmaster to the fact that something potentially significant was going on? Even though they might be forgiven for thinking that the ECF had less global importance than its Russian counterpart, they are always keen to fill space so who knows?

[David Sedgwick]

I cannot recall it expressing any interest in the occasional contested ECF election.

Did anyone alert the webmaster to the fact that something potentially significant was going on? Even though they might be forgiven for thinking that the ECF had less global importance than its Russian counterpart, they are always keen to fill space so who knows?

Perhaps you would like to volunteer for a new ECF post of Chief FIDE Alerter. You would seem to be well qualified for the position.

[Roger de Coverly]

Not that it's of great interest, but Filatov has been re-elected as President of the Russian Chess Federation after Kirsan and others withdrew. Spassky has been elected/appointed as Honorary President.

The report, as with others, is from chessdom

http://www.chessdom.com/andrey-filatov- ... president/

Perhaps it's lost in translation but there's a comment

The subject of FIDE Presidential candidate was a part of the agenda too. The 12th World Chess Champion Anatoly Karpov and the acting FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov got a moral support.

There seems reason to believe that at least some of the FIDE establishment would like a new President, but they don't seem to have agreed on who that should be.