English Chess Forum

Incidentally, did Kirsan come through with his funding promise for African chess?

Nigel Short wrote:I suspect the recent Guardian revelations came as a surprise to almost everyone, except for a handful of insiders, such as Nick

I'm hardly an insider, but I do attend meetings, pay attention and sometimes ask pointed questions. Isn't that what you're supposed to do?

In Halkidiki, others who raised queries along similar lines to my own were Bill Kelleher and Bashar Kouatly. Do you consider them to have been FIDE mouthpieces too?

If nobody in England was aware of these facts until the Guardian scoop, that is hardly FIDE's fault. The wording of the agreement ( including the BVI connection ) was distributed to all federations some months in advance of the 2009 Executive Board, discussed there in detail and reported accurately in the minutes, which are easily found on the website. What more are they supposed to do? Has the ECF always held itself to this standard?

benedgell wrote:Incidentally, did Kirsan come through with his funding promise for African chess?

I don't imagine that anyone on the ECF forum could be expected to know that. A man who should is Lewis Ncube, the African Continental President, [email protected].

I shall be interested to hear how he replies to your query.

I should know, because Kirsan publicly promised to make me head of this Africa fund (which I accepted publicly). I am still waiting, of course

Nigel Short wrote:I should know, because Kirsan publicly promised to make me head of this Africa fund (which I accepted publicly). I am still waiting, of course

I was guessing the offer was either a wind-up or a test. Did you talk seriously?

It was a public pledge, along the lines of his "$20million today!" that he promised during his election speech. I accepted in the General Assembly the following day. Kirsan immediately tried to withdraw the offer.