Thursday, June 5, 2014

Pestaño: PHL’s win-win situation in Fide election

Chessmoso
Thursday, June 5, 2014

THE Fide elections will be held this August between Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and Gary Kasparov during the Chess Olympiad in Norway and whatever the results, it will be good for the Philippines.
Both Kirsan and Garry are controversial figures. Kirsan is famous for claiming personal contact with aliens, alleging that they took him on a mystical tour of the galaxy in their spaceship in 1997. He also said aliens introduced chess to the world in the past. Gary is a fierce critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin and has been arrested several times.
If Kirsan is reelected, his secretary general is Pinoy Abraham Tolentino, who also wields tremendous powers in the Fide hierarchy. Kirsan has always been partial to the Philippines, having been personally chosen by the former president Florencio, Campomanes to succeed him.
Here is the ticket of Kirsan: Georgios Makropoulos (deputy president), Tolentino (general secretary) Aguinaldo Jaime (vice president), Martha Fierro Baquero (vice president) and Adrian Siegel ( Treasurer.)
And here are the members of Kasparov`s ticket Jan Callewaert (deputy president), Ignatius Leong (general secretary), Afrika Msimang (vice president), Ian Wilkinson (vice president), and Rex Sinquefield (treasurer.)
If Kasparov wins, he will support NCFP president Prospero Pichay as the next Asian Chess Federation president.
Kasparov and Leong also negotiated a deal in which Leong would help Kasparov’s presidential run in exchange for $500,000. Kasparov also agreed, after his election, to open a new federation office in Singapore, to be run by Leong.
Leong, who is the current secretary general of Kirsan but has switched sides, runs Intchess Asia which promotes chess in the Asean region and needs the financial support.
He employs a lot of Pinoys including Cebuanos NM Lingky Yap and IM Rico Mascarinas.
Other Pinoys working there are NM Robert Suelo, IM Domingo Ramos and NM Arlan Cabe.
They are working as trainers, while lingky is also a Fide arbiter during tournaments.
Lingky is the father of IM Kimkim Yap.
Since November 1995, Ilyumzhinov has been president of the World Chess Federation, investing a large amount of his private fortune—estimated at $80 million--into the game.
He easily won reelection in 2002 against GM Jaime Sunye- Neto of Brazil, 87–46. Jaime was my guest for dinner back in 1992 together with Eugene Torre.
Ilyumzhinov was again re-elected as president in 2006 by a margin of 96–54 against his opponent, the famous Bessel Kok.
In 2010, Kirsan was reelected as president of Fide over his rival, Anatoly Karpov. He decisively won that election by 95 votes to 55.
Garry has promised comprehensive changes if he is elected as the new president of Fide. He believes he has a good chance to be elected.
There are 181 national federations who has registered for the Olympiad. So he needs at least 91 votes to be elected. It’s a tall order indeed considering that Kirsan is popular among micro-organizations.
Kirsan has a big lead - he has been nominated by 56 federations, while Gary got nominated by 20 federations.
Kalunasan tournament. The venue is at the Barangay hall in Guadalupe and starts tomorrow at 1 p.m. The games on Sunday will start at 10am.
The format is 7 rounds Swiss with a time control of 30 minutes plus 5-second increments.
Registration is P100 and the prizes are P3,000 for the champion and P1,500 and P1,000 for second and third, all with trophies. The fourth to 10th placers will get P200 each.
The sponsor is Barangay Kalunasan and sports chairman Nestor Gabunada.
For details, contact the tournament organizer Cepcan Boy Gallardo at 5113900 and Marvin Ruelan 09267352951.
(boypestano@gmail.com,www.chessmoso.blogspot.com)

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