Repercussions / Fallout from FIDE Elections?

[JustinHorton]

The ECF Directors had no particular obligation or reason to support Nigel. If they were going to support an English candidate there was already a ticket with English participation.

They did however agree to nominate him

But not to support him, as has been discussed here previously and as was known to Nigel himself, and he must also have known that once he dceclared, informally or otherwise, for Dvorkovich, that they weren't going to support him.

[JustinHorton]

I mean I'm well aware that there are a lot of absurd clowns on ECF Council who see no contradiction between lously squawking about Putin at one moment and then squawking equally loudly the next about how the Board should have supported his man, and they see no contradiction in it because that's how they've behaved for years and years and if their hold on reality is pretty tenuous, their hold on ECF Council votes is rather more firm, alas.

Out here in reality, there was no way the Board were going to endorse the former Deputy Prime Minister of Russia as the President of FIDE, because do I have to spell it out. That won't stop the squawking, because nothing ever does, but it does reduce my interest in taking any notice of it when it happens, or it would do so, had the needle on that particular meter not been pointing to zero for a number of years already.

[Jonathan Rogers]

The ECF Directors had no particular obligation or reason to support Nigel. If they were going to support an English candidate there was already a ticket with English participation.

They did however agree to nominate him

But not to support him, as has been discussed here previously and as was known to Nigel himself, and he must also have known that once he declared, informally or otherwise, for Dvorkovich, that they weren't going to support him.

Before then. Even if Malcolm recused himself and left the room when the decision was to be taken, who really doubted the ECF Board would support his ticket? But if there really were no dissenters, no one even arguing for abstention, I do find that a bit worrying. Nine independent minds should surely be differing somewhat on such a difficut decision.

[Roger de Coverly]

Out here in reality, there was no way the Board were going to endorse the former Deputy Prime Minister of Russia as the President of FIDE

There's a difference between not endorsing and the outright hostility that some of Malcolm's friends seem to be demonstrating. Reserve judgement until we see what the new President does and how he does it.

Hopefully some of the more ridiculous decisions of the Kirsan/Makro era such as denying access to rating histories unless you sign for FIDE's unused online playing service can be reversed.

[JustinHorton]

Before then. Even if Malcolm recused himself and left the room when the decision was to be taken, who really doubted the ECF Board would support his ticket? But if there really were no dissenters, no one even arguing for abstention, I do find that a bit worrying. Nine independent minds should surely be differing somewhat on such a difficult decision.

Sure, but as we've discussed on here before and quite recently, since when was that any kind of priority for anybody?

But not to support him, as has been discussed here previously and as was known to Nigel himself, and he must also have known that once he declared, informally or otherwise, for Dvorkovich, that they weren't going to support him.

Before then

Short had already declared informally for Dvorkovich before the Board decision was made, no? I mean it was clear to all of us what was going to happen, even if not exactly how.

[Brian Towers]

Hopefully some of the more ridiculous decisions of the Kirsan/Makro era such as denying access to rating histories unless you sign for FIDE's unused online playing service can be reversed.

I realise the solution I'm about to suggest is practical only for computer software engineers / database experts but the data is all there if you want.

You can download all the FIDE rating data dating back as far as January 2001. If you want to go back further the excellent Olimpbase site has data going back to 1967. Of the remaining tasks of
1) Design your database
2) Clean the underlying data
3) Load the data into your database
4) Write access code to allow you to pull up required data in nice formats
far and away the most problematic is cleaning the data (see my slightly hysterical related topic) but it's all doable and the rewards extend beyond just being independent of FIDE's whim. Extensive data mining is possible and on a practical point such a database would allow very large tournaments with rating limits to easily and quickly verify if any players had too high a rating over the previous year, for instance.

[Michael Farthing]

The ECF Directors had no particular obligation or reason to support Nigel. If they were going to support an English candidate there was already a ticket with English participation.

They did however agree to nominate him and then withdrew support shortly before the election, much to the delight of the Makro camp. The other thing they could have done, but didn't, was to ask Malcolm to stand down temporarily from being the Delegate, so he wouldn't have to vote against himself.

I find that a very bizarre understanding of what "nominate" means. It is not a commitment to vote in a particular way or to support. It simply affirms that you consider someone is worthy of standing as a candidate. For example, most of the MPs who nominated Jeremy Corbyn to stand for the Labour leadership did not vote for him, but they considered it right and proper that his point of view should feature in the election.

[John Foley]

I thought you were backing Makro and assisting his campaign.

JT, if you were to read the thread you would see that I was not connected with the ECF delegation and nor was I part of any campaign group. As an official with the ECU, I refrain from expressing political opinions. I had conversations with key people on all sides including the candidates. Like everybody else in Batumi, I want chess to thrive. There are many ways to improve the governance of FIDE and it looks as if at least the problems around proxy voting and "paper" federations are to be addressed.

Now that the champagne corks have finished popping, which campaign promises will be kept? The V-P posts have been handed out; next the heads of the Commissions will be appointed. If Mr. Dvorkovic is categorised as a PEP (Politically Exposed Person) for financial regulation purposes, then his international travels could be limited e.g. will he be given a visa to attend the World Chess Championships in London?

[Roger de Coverly]

If Mr. Dvorkovic is categorised as a PEP (Politically Exposed Person) for financial regulation purposes, then his international travels could be limited e.g. will he be given a visa to attend the World Chess Championships in London?

Given that he's been pictured with Nigel at Simpsons, his ability to visit the UK doesn't seem restricted. The UK let Kirsan in, even after he was on the US sanctions list.

https://twitter.com/nigelshortchess/sta ... 1335963649
http://kirsan.today/en/news/item/2057-i ... ondon.html

[Nick Grey]

It is fair to say that travel issues will happen at any time from government.
If Chelsea Football Club's owner can have issues in travelling. Then anyone can.

[JustinHorton]

I thought you were backing Makro and assisting his campaign.

JT, if you were to read the thread you would see that I was not connected with the ECF delegation and nor was I part of any campaign group.

He would also know that you work for Malcolm, or "have collaborated with Malcolm and CSC for many years" as you prefer to put it. Nobody thinks you're independent of Malcolm's camp John, and while that doesn't in any way disqualify your opinion, pretending otherwise doesn't do it any favours either.

[John Foley]

Justin, the pertinent question is whether Arkady works for Vladimir.

[Mick Norris]

If Mr. Dvorkovic is categorised as a PEP (Politically Exposed Person) for financial regulation purposes, then his international travels could be limited e.g. will he be given a visa to attend the World Chess Championships in London?

It's not difficult to check, and yes Arkady Dvorkovich is a PEP but he's not on the Treasury sanctions list

We have FCA guidance about how to deal with a PEP

I've not seen anything to suggest that PEPs might be refused a visa

[J T Melsom]

John I may have been guilty of using broad brush phrasing to describe your role, but there is no doubt which candidate had your support. So can you answer the question as to what 'clear and principled platform Makro and Pein represented'. Just for the record as it were. I have read the thread (thanks!) and you seem to have endorsed this position from the ECF board. I can obviously ask the board at Birmingham, but I'm interested in what you think, as you clearly have views that you are choosing to express in this thread.

[Alex Holowczak]

I read this on ChessBase: https://en.chessbase.com/post/fide-elec ... ovich-wins

In his address, Nigel said "More than incompetence, and the lack of transparency...is the open culture of bullying. In this administration 'gens una sumus' only applies to those who voted for the administration. Everyone else gets shafted. This mean-spirited vindictiveness has to stop".

England did not vote for the new administration, but it would seem to suggest that England would not be the victim of any "mean-spirited vindictiveness".