The other presidential elections

Thursday, April 22, 2010
Print EmailCommentShareThisSubscribe


By Frank 'Boy' Pestaño



THE presidential elections will be held this year after a long reign by the incumbent.

I am not talking about the Philippine presidential elections, but the Fide elections, which will be held in Khanty Mansiyk, Russia in conjunction with the 39th Chess Olympiad on Sept. 10 to Oct. 4 this year.

There are so far only two candidates, both Russians--incumbent Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and the 12th world champion Anatoly Karpov.

Past Fide presidents were: Alexander Rueb, 1924 to 1949 (25 years); Folke Rogard, 1949 to 1970 (21 years); Max Euwe, 1970 to 1978 (eight years); Friðrik Ólafsson, 1978 to 1982 (four years); Florencio Campomanes 1982 to 1995 (13 years); and Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, 1995-present (15 years) .

There is some sort of conflict here. According to Fide rules, only one candidate can be nominated by a member of the federation meaning, in this case, the Russian federation.

Since both are Russians, I don't know how it will proceed. What I know though is that in exceptional cases, any rule can be waived by the general assembly.

The latest news is that Kirsan will be the official candidate of the Russian Federation but Karpov may be allowed to run anyway by the General Assembly to provide an alternative viable candidate.

Another recent development is that the German Federation is nominating Karpov as its candidate since he has been a member of the German chess club 1930 Hockenheim for 16 years. Fide rules also allow this setup.

There are 169 federation members in Fide. Fide follows the one-member, one-vote policy, a la United Nations.

The last attempt to unseat Ilyumzhinov was in 2006 when Dutch businessman Bessel Kok failed in his election bid. At the time Karpov said "even a dickhead would do a better job than Ilyumzhinov."

Already, this election is turning into a Battle Royale. Big federations are already announcing their choice. US, Germany, France are going to Karpov, while the influential Turkish Federation and the Continental presidents-- Boris Kutin (Europe) Ali Nizar (Africa), Khalifa Mohammed Al-Hitmi (Asia) and Jorge Vega (Americas) confirmed their support for Kirsan and his team.

Karpov said, "Upon being elected Fide president , it is my intention to bring Fide back out into the open and raise the profile of chess throughout the world. I plan to accomplish the above agenda by relocating Fide offices to major cities of the world such as Moscow, Paris and New York."

Here is what they say about Kirsan.

"He has spent more than $50 million from his personal pocket for Fide during his presidency of over 15 years. I believe that this should be respected. Kirsan has supported several events with huge prize funds, assisted veteran grandmasters all over the World, donated sets and materials to Federations as well as hosting several key events."

"All Fide tournaments today are organized under excellent conditions, with large prize funds, an intensive calendar every year, and 169 member Federations today."

If I were to decide the Philippine vote, I would go to Kirsan.

OPON CHESS. The 2nd Mariano Dimataga Cup Open will be held from April 24 (elimination round to select the top 16 players ) to 25 at the Basketball Court beside Opon church, starting 8 am.

Format is 7 rounds Swiss with a time control of 30 minutes per player, play to finish. Registration is P200.

The prizes for the Open Category are P6,000 for the champion, P3,000 for the second placer, and P1,500 for the two losing semifinalists.

There will also be a Kiddies Section. For details call Rene Romero at 09324051689 and Aldwin Daculan, 09167175484.

Tournament Arbiter is Felix Poloyapoy Jr.

(boypestano@chess.com,www.chessmoso.blogspot.com)