Kirsan on the campaign trail

The Ilyumzhinov ticket is running its campaign through a dedicated web site, while the official FIDE site remains neutral, announcing the new campaign site of its president together with that of his rival:

The campaign site maintains a friendly atmosphere with the slogan "Chess, FIDE, Fidelity" – an answer to the rival's "For a bona FIDE...". The two sites are different in design and execution, but similar in structure. Both have a section introducing the team, one for documenting the support they have received so far, pictures, links, etc.

FIDE is claiming the support of 40 federations, including Russia, but none from Western Europe (except Greece, where Deputy President Georgios Makropoulos is the delegate). The Right Move campaign has 30 federations, including the US and most European countries. Both sides claim Afghanistan. We hear (unconfirmed) that the Israeli Chess Federation will join Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and other Arab states to support Ilyumzhinov. Palestine will vote for Bessel Kok and the Right Move.

The main Fidelity candidate, His Excellency Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, President of the Republic of Kalmykia, who has been in office as FIDE President since 1995, is presented on the website simply as "Kirsan". The surname hardly ever appears, the titles never. It is, as the homepage says, "Kirsan's Presidential Campaign 2006".

“All new attempts to split the Chess World are doomed to failure” – Kirsan Ilyumzhinov

Karpov interview

• On hobbies: I am really good at Russian billiards, rather good at pool and a bit worse at snooker. I haven’t got a plane, but I have navigated many planes of Russian and foreign air companies. As a passenger I have flown about 7 million kilometers.

• 

  On Fischer: Thank God he is not in American or Japanese jail today, even though he was kept for sometime in Japanese jail for no reason whatsoever. But praiseworthy Icelanders demonstrated courage, persistence and bravery and got Fisher out of scrape. The not- yet-played match with Fisher is a gap in my career. Fischer is an interesting person. And it's intriguing to learn what he is up to now. [There is also a section on Kasparov, but the translation makes it difficult to understand the gist of Karpov's views].

• On the FIDE elections: There are two candidates, Ilyumzhinov and the representative of Holland and Belgium, Bessel Kok. I personally think that Ilyumzhinov's chances for success are close to 100% today. The major reason is that Bessel Kok only looks at chess from the point of view of the professional chess players. But Chess Federation incorporates much more than this. And professional chess is only tiny part of entire range of events and activities which take place the World of Chess. Certainly Ilyumzhinov will have to pay attention to demands of professional chess players. As far as I know the agreement for match between Kramnik and Topalov has already been signed. This is a part of Ilyumzhinov's election programme and a response to the professional chess players demands.

• On computer matches: I strongly disapprove of computer inclusion in chess tournaments. If we look on the results of such games, I think that most Grandmasters who play computer chess see it as additional earnings. They should be aware that computer matches may cause adverse social effect and provoke negative attitude especially when Grandmasters make poor performance.

• On his weight: When I won my first game with Korchnoi [in 1974] I was 47 kilograms. I gained a kilogram per year, but when I got 72 kilograms I decided it was the time to stop. Since then my weigh is constant, 72 kilograms.

Chess Fidelity Links

• The Ticket – President: Kirsan Ilyumzhinov (Russia); Deputy President: Georgios Makropoulos
  (Greece); Vice President: Lewis Ncube (Zambia); General Secretary: Ignatius Leong (Singapore); Treasurer: Nigel Freeman (Bermuda).

• Supporting Chess Federations – The full list of (40) supporting countries: Afghanistan, Algeria, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Barbados, Bermuda, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Georgia, Greece, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritius, Moldova, Morocco, Nigeria, Panama; Quatar, Russia, Singapore, Sudan, Surinam, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, US Virgin Islands, Uzbekistan, Yemen, Zambia.

• List of FIDE events in the past 10 years.

• Republic of Kalmykia – 76.1 thousand square km (0.4% of Russia's territory) in the steppe, semidesert and desert zones; continental climate, hot and dry summers and cold winters with little snow; population 315,000, high natural population growth 26,4% higher than Russian average); capital Elista, population 110,000; agriculture: cattle breeding, crop growing; industry: food and light industries.

• Interview with Anatoly Karpov – extracts from the interview Anatoly Karpov gave to the popular Russian radio station ‘Ekho Moskvy’ on March 9th, 2006.

• Right Move – the rival campaign site of Bessel Kok and Ali Nihat Yazici.