Which Candidate Should the ECF Support in the FIDE Presidential Election? (Take 2)

The very latest International round up of English news.

Which Candidate Should the ECF Support in the FIDE Presidential Election?

Poll ended at Mon Oct 01, 2018 8:05 am

Arkady Dvorkovich
5
11%
Georgios Makropoulos
9
20%
Nigel Short
22
48%
None of the Above
10
22%
 
Total votes: 46

NickFaulks
Posts: 8453
Joined: Sat Jan 02, 2010 1:28 pm

Re: Which Candidate Should the ECF Support in the FIDE Presidential Election? (Take 2)

Post by NickFaulks » Mon Sep 10, 2018 11:07 pm

shaunpress wrote:
Mon Sep 10, 2018 10:50 pm
My initial questions went to the EIC, but I thought I should check if the EIC was even in operation.
I'm in much the same position. I tried to contact the EIC Chairman directly, but my email was bounced back as undeliverable.
If you want a picture of the future, imagine a QR code stamped on a human face — forever.

Kevin Thurlow
Posts: 5821
Joined: Wed Apr 30, 2008 12:28 pm

Re: Which Candidate Should the ECF Support in the FIDE Presidential Election? (Take 2)

Post by Kevin Thurlow » Tue Sep 11, 2018 12:40 am

"I would certainly hope they can keep this up, it's great fun"

I don't know how Surrey and Essex can compete with this.

Nick Grey
Posts: 1838
Joined: Thu Dec 01, 2011 12:16 am

Re: Which Candidate Should the ECF Support in the FIDE Presidential Election? (Take 2)

Post by Nick Grey » Tue Sep 11, 2018 1:30 am

Surrey are nowhere near competing with ECF support for FIDE elections.
Our PRESIDENT gave us one year's notice of this resignation. So we are not even close to this level of electioneering.
Even so is there likely to be any significant change in FIDE? After all ECF is small.

Chris Rice
Posts: 3417
Joined: Thu Nov 08, 2012 5:17 am

Re: Which Candidate Should the ECF Support in the FIDE Presidential Election? (Take 2)

Post by Chris Rice » Tue Sep 11, 2018 7:59 am

Malcolm's turn:

Tweet 1:

"When FIDE was Russian-controlled I was its biggest critic, we both were. Now @makro_chess actively works to end Russian control I will join him in trying to achieve that. Not hypocritical but logical. You on the other hand have evidently sold out by allying with the Kremlin."

Tweet 2:

"Let me remind you of your August 4th tweet: In 2010, Karpov was nominated by the Russian Chess Fed. This vote was overturned with the aid of an intimidating security company, the removal of Alexander Bakh, and a signature, to FIDE, by @advorkovich #lestweforget #cleanhands4fide"

Chris Rice
Posts: 3417
Joined: Thu Nov 08, 2012 5:17 am

Re: Which Candidate Should the ECF Support in the FIDE Presidential Election? (Take 2)

Post by Chris Rice » Tue Sep 11, 2018 8:27 am

David Robertson wrote:
Mon Sep 10, 2018 10:19 pm
Of course, things start to get tricky if Dvorkovich starts to claim 94+ votes. Will he honour his vows to Short then? No need to speculate on a Makro-Short alliance in any event: that will never happen
Dvorkovich claims that he has visited 95 federations, at least twice. However, in a response to a tweet from Bachar Kouatly, Australian GM, Ian Rogers, claims this is false "Two continents not visited at all - probably because they command only one vote between them!" I assume he is referring to Australia and Antarctica. Of the 95 federations Dvorkovich is indicating that it is likely 91 of them will vote for him.

Mick Norris
Posts: 10329
Joined: Tue Apr 17, 2007 10:12 am
Location: Bolton, Greater Manchester

Re: Which Candidate Should the ECF Support in the FIDE Presidential Election? (Take 2)

Post by Mick Norris » Tue Sep 11, 2018 9:23 am

Chris Rice wrote:
Tue Sep 11, 2018 8:27 am
David Robertson wrote:
Mon Sep 10, 2018 10:19 pm
Of course, things start to get tricky if Dvorkovich starts to claim 94+ votes. Will he honour his vows to Short then? No need to speculate on a Makro-Short alliance in any event: that will never happen
Dvorkovich claims that he has visited 95 federations, at least twice. However, in a response to a tweet from Bachar Kouatly, Australian GM, Ian Rogers, claims this is false "Two continents not visited at all - probably because they command only one vote between them!" I assume he is referring to Australia and Antarctica. Of the 95 federations Dvorkovich is indicating that it is likely 91 of them will vote for him.
He's not saying he has visited 95 federations personally, or even that his team have actually visited them
Over the past two and a half months, Arkady Dvorkovich and his team members have met representatives of 95 national chess Federations, each continent visited at least twice
2 and a half months includes hosting people at the football world cup in Russia

Anyway, will all be irrelevant when the votes are added up; it will be a relief when it is over
Any postings on here represent my personal views

NickFaulks
Posts: 8453
Joined: Sat Jan 02, 2010 1:28 pm

Re: Which Candidate Should the ECF Support in the FIDE Presidential Election? (Take 2)

Post by NickFaulks » Tue Sep 11, 2018 9:40 am

Mick Norris wrote:
Tue Sep 11, 2018 9:23 am
it will be a relief when it is over
Depends who wins.
If you want a picture of the future, imagine a QR code stamped on a human face — forever.

Brian Towers
Posts: 1266
Joined: Tue Nov 18, 2014 7:23 pm

Re: Which Candidate Should the ECF Support in the FIDE Presidential Election? (Take 2)

Post by Brian Towers » Tue Sep 11, 2018 10:41 pm

Chris Rice wrote:
Mon Sep 10, 2018 11:26 am
Seems like this is not so much a Presidential election but an episode from Game of Thrones.
I must lead a sheltered life as I've missed the sex and violence. Could you expand on this? Honey traps? Golden showers? Or am I getting confused between different kinds of presidential elections? The worst I've seen so far is Pein's veiled accusation of cultural appropriation when Short misspelled "chutzpah". Fascinating for the SJWs and philologists but not so much for the majority.
Ah, but I was so much older then. I'm younger than that now.

Stewart Reuben
Posts: 4542
Joined: Tue Apr 03, 2007 11:04 pm
Location: writer

Re: Which Candidate Should the ECF Support in the FIDE Presidential Election? (Take 2)

Post by Stewart Reuben » Wed Sep 12, 2018 12:18 pm

Sunday Times of 9 September. Headline
Putin sends knight to take control of world chess federation - with help of British Grandmaster. Aditional reporting by Jack Hunter
...
At stake is the presidency of an organisation about which the Russian state cares desperately and no oher government does -
Short said FIDE was worse than FIFA. 'There is an astonishing amount of cronyism'.

David Robertson

Re: Which Candidate Should the ECF Support in the FIDE Presidential Election? (Take 2)

Post by David Robertson » Wed Sep 12, 2018 1:18 pm

Stewart Reuben wrote:
Wed Sep 12, 2018 12:18 pm
Sunday Times of 9 September. Headline
Putin sends knight to take control of world chess federation - with help of British Grandmaster. Aditional reporting by Jack Hunter
...
At stake is the presidency of an organisation about which the Russian state cares desperately and no oher government does -
Short said FIDE was worse than FIFA. 'There is an astonishing amount of cronyism'
Good spot, Stewart. I missed this online. FULL TEXT follows, not that it says anything that hasn't been better dealt with here
_____________________________________

Putin sends knight to take control of world chess federation — with help of British grandmaster Nigel Short
James Gillespie, September 9 2018, Sunday Times

The novichok has not been used yet, but it cannot be far off. Another battle involving the highest realms of the Kremlin against the rest of the world is under way — but this time an Englishman is joining forces with Moscow. At stake is the presidency of an organisation about which the Russian state cares desperately and no other government does: the ruling body of world chess, known as Fide (Fédération Internationale des Échecs).

The election will take place next month to replace Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, 56, the Russian multimillionaire who has ruled the game since 1995. He is not standing again after being sanctioned by the US Treasury amid claims of links to the Syrian government. But his fellow Russian Arkady Dvorkovich is on the ballot, as are Georgios Makropoulos, a Greek who was Ilyumzhinov’s deputy, and the British grandmaster Nigel Short.

While it may seem a rather arcane body, Fide has 189 member federations, making it one of the largest sports organisations in the world. And the infighting is as vicious and ruthless as in any other sporting body. Short said Fide was “worse than Fifa”, the governing body of world football. “There is an astonishing amount of cronyism,” he said. But Short now appears to have made common cause with Dvorkovich, a former Russian deputy prime minister. The British candidate has tweeted a picture of himself shaking hands with Dvorkovich and saying they are “united in our determination to bring transparency and the rule of law and to root out cronyism and corruption”.

Vladimir Putin is understood to have lobbied the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, to persuade his chess federation to vote for the Russian.

Short and Dvorkovich are pitted against Makropoulos, whom they see as the old guard. He was, said Short, “a big part of the problem”. However, Makropoulos also has a British running mate in Malcolm Pein, one of the leading figures in British chess. “We are going to win,” Pein said. He did not mince his words, pointing out that Dvorkovich was deputy prime minister at the time of the Skripal poisoning in Salisbury. “You should not underestimate how important chess is to the Russian state,” he said. “We are determined to clean Fide up. Nigel does not have a monopoly on virtue, particularly when he has just allied himself with a high ranking official of the world’s biggest kleptocracy.”

Each country’s chess federation has one vote, so the British Virgin Islands (population 30,000) has the same weight as Russia (population 144m).

Dvorkovich has at least one other claim to fame: he was in charge of organising the 2018 World Cup — for Fifa.

Roger de Coverly
Posts: 21301
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 2:51 pm

Re: Which Candidate Should the ECF Support in the FIDE Presidential Election? (Take 2)

Post by Roger de Coverly » Wed Sep 12, 2018 1:48 pm

Sunday Times (David Robertson) wrote:
Wed Sep 12, 2018 1:18 pm
The election will take place next month to replace Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, 56, the Russian multimillionaire who has ruled the game since 1995.
The roles played by Malcolm's new friends in seeing off the challenges to Kirsan in 2006, 2010 and 2014 are seldom mentioned in such articles. Particularly the 2014 Treasurer seems to think that Kirsan's victory was nothing to do with him.

But certainly there is Kremlin influence. It's what got Kirsan finally removed, hopefully taking ideas such as zero time default and G/60 world championship matches with him.

User avatar
JustinHorton
Posts: 10364
Joined: Mon Aug 04, 2008 10:06 am
Location: Somewhere you're not

Re: Which Candidate Should the ECF Support in the FIDE Presidential Election? (Take 2)

Post by JustinHorton » Wed Sep 12, 2018 2:20 pm

Say what you like about Putin, at least he made the clocks run to proper time controls
"Do you play chess?"
"Yes, but I prefer a game with a better chance of cheating."

lostontime.blogspot.com

NickFaulks
Posts: 8453
Joined: Sat Jan 02, 2010 1:28 pm

Re: Which Candidate Should the ECF Support in the FIDE Presidential Election? (Take 2)

Post by NickFaulks » Wed Sep 12, 2018 2:39 pm

Stewart Reuben wrote:
Wed Sep 12, 2018 12:18 pm
Sunday Times of 9 September. Headline
Putin sends knight to take control of world chess federation - with help of British Grandmaster.
When I read Stewart's post I assumed the British GM was Malcolm and they had got his title wrong. While most people have never doubted that Short would at some point swing his support to Dvorkovich, I expected this to happen only after an inconclusive first ballot.

I wonder whether his soundings suggest that Dvorkovich may win on the first ballot, so if he wants to get anything he had better jump now. I still can't make that arithmetic work, but there are many uncertainties in this election.
If you want a picture of the future, imagine a QR code stamped on a human face — forever.

User avatar
Matt Mackenzie
Posts: 5205
Joined: Tue Mar 31, 2009 11:51 pm
Location: Millom, Cumbria

Re: Which Candidate Should the ECF Support in the FIDE Presidential Election? (Take 2)

Post by Matt Mackenzie » Wed Sep 12, 2018 4:20 pm

Malcolm Pein is "only" an IM though?
"Set up your attacks so that when the fire is out, it isn't out!" (H N Pillsbury)

Chris Rice
Posts: 3417
Joined: Thu Nov 08, 2012 5:17 am

Re: Which Candidate Should the ECF Support in the FIDE Presidential Election? (Take 2)

Post by Chris Rice » Wed Sep 12, 2018 8:38 pm

Makro tweets:

"The American Chess Confederation President, Mr Jorge Vega, analyses the complete failure of Dvorkovich's #FIDEelections campaign in the Americas & their disaster meeting in Panama. Even "a blitz tournament was organized just to show people in photos..." :)"

It was Nigel that responded, pictured smiling broadly with Dvorkovich tweeting:

"In Helsinki, making plans for a bright new FIDE future. The leaky Greek vessel is irreparably holed beneath the water-line."