D-Day Today in Turin, Italy
Sam Sloan wrote:
D-Day Today in Turin, Italy
Today is the day the vote will be taken to determine the President of
FIDE for the next four years.
I am scared and concerned. The re-election of Kirsan Ilyumzhinov as
FIDE President would be a catastrophe of un-imaginable proportions.
For one thing, there is the very real possibility that if Ilyumzhinov
is re-elected, all of the countries supporting Kok will simply walk
out of FIDE. If that happens, FIDE will collapse,
I wonder if that would be such a bad thing. FIDE is probably beyond
reforming.
because all of the
big chess playing countries support Kok and these countries provide
the money FIDE needs to run.
Countries like Germany, France, Spain,
Holland, England and the USA all support Bessel Kok. Kirsan
Ilyumzhinov is supported by Rwanda, Seychelles and Maritius, countries
that have never organized a major chess tournament.
There is the issue of proxies. Most Western countries believe that
proxies should not be allowed. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov can be expected to
arrive with a pocket full of proxies signed by non-attending delegates
from small and insignificant countries. The potential for corruption
is obvious.
The ballot is supposed to be secret. This point is critical. David
Levy, in a posting to chessbase.com , wrote that in past elections the
supposedly secret ballot has not been secret. The incumbent positioned
tellers who could look over the shoulder of the delegate to see who he
had voted for.
During the 1986 FIDE Election in Dubai, which I personally attended, I
saw Nicholi Krogius, the delegate for the USSR, vote the proxy for
Afghanistan. This is a good way to get a country to vote for your
candidate in a FIDE Election. Simply invade that country!
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov claims to have 86 votes in his pocket as compared
to 39 for Bessel Kok. However, the situation may not be that hopeless.
Kasparov has just come out sort-of endorsing Bessel Kok. Kasparov has
swung elections before and might do so again.
For example, in 1994, when Campomanes seemed doomed to defeat,
Kasparov, who had opposed him up until then, suddenly reversed and
endorsed Campomanes. When the US Delegate, Fan Adams, refused to vote
for Campomanes, Kasparov called Al Lawrence on the telephone, got
Lawrence to call a telephone meeting of the board, and got the USCF
Policy Board to order Fan Adams to vote for Campomanes. Fan Adams
obeyed the order, then immediately resigned as US delegate and ran for
the board just to stop this from happening again. This circumstance is
still being debated.
We in the free world are expecting defeat, but still there is hope.
By the end of today, we should know the answer.
Sam Sloan
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