wrote in message
oups.com...
"There is no money in the chess world. There is no serious company
that will be willing to show itself on the stage with Ilyumzhinov.
Chess represents strategic management, handling foresightful, exact
thinking, making decisions.
These are qualities those responsible in FIDE do not have" -- Hans-
Walter Schmitt, organizer of the Chess Classic Mainz 2007.

Dear Larry Parr,

I put the following 2 newsclips and original sources including another
German one, http://www.russia-ic.com/news/show/4516/ and Neues Deutschland,
in my column, just out, on what the election... no! I mean what
post-election Fide is now about.

While the first one is straight international politics, oil & hotels & the
usual, the second is altogether peculiar! You might even think there was a
conflict of interest in that one, but to the spaceman's credit he has never
put chess first, so obviously /he/ has is not conflicted.

Phil Innes
---

Check the date - its not April 1st:
Here is a report of what Fide have "in mind" see
http://www.russia-ic.com/news/show/4516/

The world's second largest chess federation (FIDE) intends to build hotels
in 165 countries. All hotels are said to be in the shape of chess figures.
FIDE plans to build 150 hotels and chess centres within the nearest four
years. According to FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, at the first stage
nearly US$1 billion is to be allotted for bringing the plans to life.

The total cost of the project is estimated at US$50 billion. It is already
known that a number of chess centres and hotel complexes will first appear
in Chisinau (Moldova), People's Republic of China, and such Russian cities
as Samara, Yekaterinburg, and Khanty-Mansiysk.

Another grandiose part of the FIDE project is building of a chess city that
will consist of 32 hotels in the shape of chess in the UAE. It is an
expensive project but FIDE has already arranged a settlement with several
investors.

In associated news equally strange is this explanation of a new commercial
enterprise - Bessel Kok is being interviewed by a Herr Dr. Gralla of Neues
Deutschland:

Dr. Gralla: In 2006 you ran a campaign for the presidency of FIDE, against
the incumbent Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. That campaign was bitter and sometimes
very polemic. After you lost the election at Torino it comes as a big
surprise that you have started to work together with Mr. Ilyumzhinov, and
that you have even agreed to run the commercial arm of FIDE, "Global Chess
BV". Can you explain this decision to us?

Bessel Kok: Firstly, "Global Chess BV" is not the commercial arm of FIDE.
It is a private company, in majority funded by Mr. Ilyumzhinov.