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

[Chris Rice]

http://www.fide.com/images/stories/NEWS ... ration.pdf

They seem to have found Serbia guilty of something untoward, but it's about the minimum sanction, namely that their delegate isn't allowed to participate in and vote at the current Congress.

Looks to me the intention of the Serbs was to shakedown FIDE by selling their vote to the highest bidder. They cannot have been the only federation to pull something like this. But Makro's complaint was that Dvorkovich promised the Serbs something in return for their vote but the EC wasn't presented with any or enough evidence to show that. The EC have come out of this well with no accusations that they have swayed the upcoming election one way or another.

[Chris Rice]

All three sides claiming the decision is good for them:

Nigel:

"Breaking news from Ethics Commission:FIDE presidential election still a 3 horse race. Serbia excluded from voting."

Makro:

"An important first legal win for our FIDEForward team on ETH case 5/2018 against the methods used by our rivals: Cogoljevic is sanctioned & excluded as delegate of the Serbian Chess Federation from the FIDE elections 2018. Case 6/2018 examines now the other delegates in question."

Dvorkovich:

"Not guilty. And everyone knew that. Confident in the last phase of the FIDE elections!"

[Chris Rice]

Emil Sutovsky with a prediction on FB:

"After the detailed review, Ethics declares - Dvorkovich is not guilty - and ridiculous request from Mr. Makropulos to ban his rival for eight years is dismissed. I expect Dvorkovich to win the election handily already in the first ballot with around 100 votes (93 is required for the victory.)"

The winning tally seems to have decreased once more. Guess that's due to Serbia being excluded from voting.

[Chris Rice]

Excellent ChessBase article by Macauley Peterson Serbian delegate suspended after he "sold his vote to himself"

[Andrew Martin]

Thank goodness it will soon be over and the chess community will get the leadership it deserves.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3WShMzwT-nM

[David Sedgwick]

Nigel:

"Exciting Development Commission meeting this morning. At some point the atmosphere became mutinous when it became pretty clear that no one - not even the FIDE Treasurer - knew exactly how the large budget had been spent."

I'm sure Dr Siegel will respond shortly in his usual calm manner...

The meeting of the Development Commission was the unexpected location of the first ever meeting between Nigel Short and Adrian Siegel. They shook hands and Short invited Siegel to vote for him.

[David Robertson]

Excellent ChessBase article by Macauley Peterson Serbian delegate suspended after he "sold his vote to himself"

Sheesh! Just check out that haircut on the legal bloke with Dvorkovich's team. No way can the others compete with style like that!

[JustinHorton]

Interesting that Berik Balgabaev is now working with Dvorkovich. I thought it was Makrov and Malcolm working with all the old regime.

[Kevin Thurlow]

"Thank goodness it will soon be over and the chess community will get the leadership it deserves.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3WShMzwT-nM"

Will it be that good?

[David Sedgwick]

Interesting that Berik Balgabaev is now working with Dvorkovich. I thought it was Makrov and Malcolm working with all the old regime.

Balgabaev was an Ilyumzhinov loyalist, so his switch to Dvorkovich is not surprising.

[Roger de Coverly]

Interesting that Berik Balgabaev is now working with Dvorkovich.

Did anyone really know what Balgabaev's role was apart from being Kirsan's bagman? Perhaps he represents the Kremlin, although he was sufficiently close to the centres of power to be named as a "consultant" with a fee to match on the draft Agon document.

[Chris Rice]

Peter Doggers also has written a report on the EC ruling but with a further twist Dvorkovich Survives Ethics Ruling; Lawyer "Steals" Flyers.

"Turmoil in the Expo

On the same day of the commission's rulings, the Expo hall of the Olympiad saw a scene of turmoil at the elections booth of Makropoulos. In short: someone from the Dvorkovich team removed a pile of flyers, against the will of the Makropoulos team. A heated discussion followed.

That someone was Alexander Martynov, legal advisor of the Dvorkovich team and lawyer of Berik Balgabaev, former assistant of Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and now working for the Dvorkovich team. Martynov had brought a document to the Makropoulos booth with the verdict of a court case, in which Balgabaev had successfully protested against a flyer for damaging his reputation.

That flyer had been printed a few days ago, and could be found at Makropoulos' elections booth. It suggests that Balgabaev has tried to bribe Arab federations."

There is photographic evidence and further information in the report to back this up as well. But if you haven't got the time, no problem, a journalist captured the whole incident in a seven minute video, just scroll to the bottom of the report and fill your boots.

[Nick Grey]

It's not over until the fat lady sings.

When will that be?

[Chris Rice]

It's not over until the fat lady sings.

When will that be?

Wednesday 3rd October I believe.

[David Sedgwick]

It's not over until the fat lady sings.

When will that be?

Wednesday 3rd October I believe.

Well, maybe.

After the result is announced, the loser may congratulate the winner and wish him and his team well for the next five years.

But I have my doubts.