tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post2863256344118791238..comments2023-12-28T02:11:22.501+00:00Comments on The Streatham & Brixton Chess Blog: Love of money will tear us apart againTom Chivershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09850710685193416732noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-10167644123355189462010-10-01T21:53:56.240+01:002010-10-01T21:53:56.240+01:00Here's my idea (which, not coincidentally, has...Here's my idea (which, not coincidentally, has some ideas in it taken from another one of my interests - that of voting theory). The way to defeat Kirsan is to field <i>more than one opponent</i>.<br /><br />Chasing the European vote, you have your Kok/Karpov "only Europe matters" figure. And then you have someone who enters the race with the express aim of hitting Kirsan in his heartlands. Get someone to do a lot of stuff to build the game up in Africa, say. Do it well, so he becomes a big name there - and then have him stand for FIDE President.<br /><br />I don't know whether it will work, but it's certainly an approach that would, if nothing else, raise the profile of the game in the region you targeted.Jack Ruddhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17433574267085964238noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-40917109089249620382010-10-01T20:03:13.186+01:002010-10-01T20:03:13.186+01:00Mark -
Thanks very much for for all of that and ...Mark - <br /><br />Thanks very much for for all of that and my apologies for not repaying sooner - once the school term gets started I tend to be away from the computer, sometimes all day and sometimes for days at a time.<br /><br />What you say about chess at the end - I've said many times, as somebody who used to write about football long before I ever wrote about chess, that basically, whatever your views and outlook, if you were writing about football it was because you were interested in watching these people trying to kick a ball into a goal. And then, pretty much all of a sudden, you had to know about accountancy and civil liberties issues and all sorts of things. Everything I know about Creditors' Voluntary Arrangements, I learned from football, and I wish I hadn't.<br /><br />It's interesting what you write about Kirsan. He wouldn't be the first person in sporting history - or recent Russian history - to make a lot of claims about his wealth in order to get to a position where those claims actually became true. Of course people should have voted him out, regarding which this, too, is highly interesting:<br /><br /><i>One thing that emerged during the elections was that there are about 20-30 Federations who pretty much exist on paper as proxy votes.</i><br /><br />For sure. But this is where it think the interesting thing would be to find chessplayers who live in the places where these paper Federations exist and ask them what they know, and what they feel about it. This can't be so hard for somebody to do - provided they're actually interested in those people, which a lot of Karpov-followers manifestly are not. That would be a good starting point.<br /><br />But of course, if we have a problem with chess federations which pretty much exist on paper....then there's certain people who aren't in a position to complain about that.ejhhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01582272075999298935noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-57271796596693188792010-10-01T08:59:59.052+01:002010-10-01T08:59:59.052+01:00After the last elections for FIDE I didn't wri...After the last elections for FIDE I didn't write anything about the organisation for such a long time. I was extremely sceptical about the Karpov campaign. <br /><br />A few months ago Malcolm Pein needed an article for his Chess Magazine and he twisted my arm as I really didn't want to do it, mostly because they take me forever to write. <br /><br />We agreed it would be something on the FIDE elections and off I toddled. The upshot was after three days of research (I'm talking extremely full days) I had an article that was hugely out of control on length, and only the start was written in something like English. What I did discover is that it was amazingly easy these days to read articles in Russian via google translate. And what a resource of new material to my eyes there was. Well the first article was on the 1994 Moscow election and the controversial nomination process by the Russian Chess Federation of their Presidential Candidate. Sadly for me I finished on the sentence the "case against Kirsan" and so I had to go and write that as well.<br /><br />I then spent three weeks researching Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. What I used as a starting point was an Australian video interview with Kirsan in 1997 and an Al-Jezera interview about 10 years later and I listened not to the commentary, but to what Ilyumzhinov actually said. I then went away and tried to verify what he said. I came to the conclusion pretty soon that what you think you know about Kirsan mostly comes from his own mouth and where accounts exist, they mostly flatly contradict what he says. <br /><br />One can go to some very wild places on the internet but when one of the very biggest portals in Russia has a page on Kirsan http://www.lenta.ru/lib/14161210/full.htm which feels that the first para should end [he has ...] "repeatedly been accused of numerous financial improprieties and violations of federal law, but [has] never [been] brought to justice." then you get the idea. <br /><br />So yes, I believe people who are voting in the FIDE elections had a duty to look at Kirsan's background and I defy anyone to tell me how this man is electable. The above page doesn't contain the most damaging material and again has a number of key facts that were in fact sourced direct from his mouth. For instance I don't believe Kirsan was so very rich when he became FIDE President, a very specific article suggests he borrowed the money to buy Kasparov's trophy, a gesture that gave him a media profile and allowed him to claim to be rich.<br /><br />The main reason to vote in Karpov this time was simply to put an end to the rule. Give Karpov four years and see what happens. At least it would break the cycle which now looks like it will last at least another 8 years, I don't believe anyone will have the money to try again in 4. <br /><br />I would simply question the competence of those who voted for him to be delegates. Unseating Kirsan is going to be a difficult task. One thing that emerged during the elections was that there are about 20-30 Federations who pretty much exist on paper as proxy votes. That's a big part of the margin.<br /><br />So its back to reporting on chess which I enjoy so much more. I get ulcers just thinking about this stuff.Mark Crowtherhttp://www.chess.co.uk/twicnoreply@blogger.com