Who controls FIDE?
By André Schulz
During the Chess Olympiad in Turin the FIDE presidential board is due to be
elected. For the first time the incumbent Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who has reigned
over the world chess federation for eleven years, will be facing a serious
challenge – in the past the elections were virtually uncontested. Sometimes
it was enough to simply include the opposing candidate in the presidential
team, as was for instance the case with Ignatius Leong. But this time the matter
is not so simple for Ilyumzhinov. The challenger, Bessel Kok, is a well-known
figure in the chess world, ever since he founded the GMA in the eighties. Also
as a successful manager of national telecommunications companies he does not
rely on any financial promises.
In the beginning there were fourteen
The world chess federation FIDE was founded in 1924 by the federations
of the following countries: Argentina, Belgium, England, France, Italy, Yugoslavia,
Canada, Netherlands, Poland, Rumania, Switzerland, Spain, Czechoslovakia and
Hungary. Most were European countries, only Argentina and Canada lent the organisation
an international air.
It is difficult to find the historical regulations for the election of the
FIDE president, but I assume that they were the same then as they are today:
each of the member countries had one delegate, who had one vote to elect the
president. The simple majority decided who was the winner.
These rules have remained in place, while the organisation grew from 14 countries
with roughly similar numbers of chess players to 140 member nations. It is
still the case that each delegate has one vote in the presidential elections,
even though there are gigantic differences in the population numbers, the chess
tradition and the popularity of the game in the individual countries. In spite
of all this, each country has exactly the same influence on the political decision.
Size does not matter.
25,000 players = 4 votes, 0 players = 4 votes
Although there are no reliable figures on the number of chess players in the
different countries, or at least none that are easily accessible, there are
certain known figures that allow us to draw relevant conclusions. The FIDE
rating lists tell us exactly how many rated players there are in each country
(active and in total), as well as the number of title holders (FMs, IMs, GMs,
etc.). Going through these numbers we find some remarkable facts.
The leading chess nation in the world, if you count the number of rated players,
is not Russia but Germany. The Russians are second, Spain is third, followed
by France. These four countries have over 25,000 tournament chess players.
In FIDE assemblies they are represented by four delegates with four votes.
This is exactly the power wielded by the federations of Madagascar, Malawi,
Belize and Uganda, who represent exactly zero tournament players. Canada and
the US, i.e. the entire North American continent, have the same power in FIDE
as the Dutch Antilles and Bermuda. China is neutralised by the British Virgin
Islands.
All nations big and small
Germany, as mentioned, has the largest number of rated players in the world,
and possibly the largest number of members in its national chess federation
of all FIDE members. Still, we get the feeling that Russia has a greater number
of chess enthusiasts than Germany, and that chess is much more deeply embedded
in the national culture and heritage there. Russia has twice as many titled
players as Germany. So it is obvious that there are fewer rated players in
Russia than there should be, and the reason for this is that there are not
enough tournaments inside the country that offer players the chance to get
an international rating.
The conclusion is that Russia has a large number of chess players, but few
tournaments, which implies that the number of rated players in a country allows
us to draw conclusions not just about the number of chess enthusiasts but also
about the tournament activity that is manifested there. This in turn allows
us to draw further conclusions about the popularity of chess in the different
countries, and also about the amount of money that is being raised for the
organisation of chess events.
The situation is even more imbalanced in the case of China, the leading women's
chess nation. If you take the average ratings of the top players, China ranks
number seven in the world. But if you consider the number of FIDE rated players
in the country (324, of whom 164 are active) China is clearly still in an early
development phase. Exactly how popular Western chess is in this giant nation
is hard to assess, but there are clearly very few international tournaments
in that country. Just compare China to India, which has 1700 rated players
who are currently active.
So regardless of whether a country is very large (India: over one billion
population) or very small (Bermuda: 65,000), whether it has many rated players
(Germany: over 9000) or very few (Belize: 0), at FIDE congresses they are all
equal, and have the same influence on FIDE politics, since each country has
the same number of voting delegates, which is exactly one. This system would
be unthinkable in regular politics, and is also not practiced in other sporting
bodies.
Elections – looking over the fence
In Germany the electoral regions are divided in such a way that each has approximately
the same number of voters. Big states have more delegates in the national parliament
than the smaller ones. The same applies to the European Parliament. Germany
has many more delegates than Luxemburg, even though the number does not exactly
represent the difference in population.
In sport federations similar structures are implemented, although not solely
based on population numbers. Ice hockey is a good example. This sport is not
uniformly popular in the world, simply because ice is not uniformly available.
In the International Ice Hockey Federation
(IIHF) the big hockey nations are represented in different groups: some members
have two delegates, others one, while the delegates of "associated members"
participate in the meetings but have no vote.
It is charming that the US Virgin Islands send a team to the Chess Olympiad,
and also quite an achievement, when you take into account that in the population
of 100,000 there are just eight rated players, of whom only five are active.
But is it logical to give this micro-federation from a country with around
20 chess enthusiasts full membership in FIDE, with the same political influence
as Russia, Ukraine or the United States?
Using a list of the participating teams at past chess Olympiads (source: www.olimpbase.org,
Mega
Database 2006) we can follow the growing number of federations that have
joined FIDE in the past years. In 1970 at the Chess Olympiad in Siegen there
were 60 countries represented in the Men's section; in 1982 in Lucern it was
92. The record was Bled 2002, with 135 countries participating. This increase
in numbers was mainly the work of the previous president Florencio Campomanes,
who recruited new countries very vigorously. But FIDE neglected to change its
statutes to reflect the very inhomogeneous representation that resulted. Now
it is probably too late to do anything to change the situation. It would require
the vote of many countries without or with very few chess players – one
would be effectively asking them to vote themselves out of political power
in the chess federation.
The 2006 elections
Before we come to the current election let us delve briefly into the history
of the presidency.
All FIDE presidents so far |
Alexander Rueb |
Netherlands |
1924-1949 |
Folke Rogard |
Sweden |
1949-1970 |
Max Euwe |
Netherlands |
1970-1978 |
Friðrik Ólafsson |
Iceland |
1978-1982 |
Florencio Campomanes |
Philippines |
1982-1995 |
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov |
Kalmykia |
since 1995 |
From 1924 until 1982 the Federation was led by Europeans. The last two presidents,
Max Euwe and Friðrik Ólafsson, were a former world champion and a world class
grandmaster respectively. Let us take a look at the candidates for the 2006
elections, which will take place in the early days of June, at the end of the
Chess Olympiad in Turin.

The current president
of FIDE, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, is also the President of
the autonomous Republic of Kalmykia, a country with a population of 289,881.
Ilyumzhinov is not just the president but also a very successful businessman
and has invested $30 million of his own funds into the game, for which
he has earned the gratitude of many chess players and functionaries.
He has managed to find funding for a world championship match between
Topalov and Kramnik, which is to be held in Elista, the capital of Kalmykia,
this October. |
|

Bessel Kok
is a very successful businessman, the co-founder of S.W.I.F.T (which
provides payment services to 110,000 banks in 124 countries), former
president of the Belgian National Telecom Operator, Chief Operating Officer
of the Czech Telecom, advisor of Morgan Stanley Czechoslovakia, board
member of the Vaclac Havel Foundation, and numerous other functions.
From 1985 until 1991 Kok was chairman of World Chess Grandmaster Association.
He speaks Dutch, English, French, German, and has a basic knowledge of
Czech. |
|
|
|
Chess
Fidelity team: |
|
Right
Move team: |
Kirsan
Ilyumzhinov |
|
Bessel
Kok |
Georgios
Makropoulos (Greece) |
|
Ali
Nihat Yazici (Turkey) |
Lewis
Ncube (Zambia) |
|
Panupand
Vijjuprabha (Thailand) |
Ignatius
Leong (Singapore) |
|
Julio
Ingolotti (Paraguay) |
Nigel
Freeman (Bermuda) |
|
Geoffrey
D Borg (Malta) |
http://www.chessfidelity.com |
|
http://www.rightmove06.com |
A quiz question: how many active chess players do these candidates represent?
The answer will be given in the table below.
Who is for whom?
The FIDE rating list recognises 140 member countries, but there must be more,
since we notice that some countries that are not on the list have pledged their
support for one of the two candidates. Unfortunately we were not able to find
an official list of all member federations on the FIDE web site, or anywhere
else for that matter. Probably the exact number of member federations fluctuates
quite a bit, since a number of members are periodically unable to pay their
dues to FIDE, which results in the membership being temporarily revoked. This
means that the candidates for the presidency do not really know how many federations
will be casting their vote during the next elections. It is possible that the
number will rise shortly before the elections, because a sponsor has been found
who pays or forgives them the debts. If this is one of the candidates then
they may be expected to show their gratitude by casting their vote in one direction
during the upcoming election.

In the above map you can see which countries are offering their support to
each candidate (Afghanistan is claimed by both sides). We can see that Europe
and North America have pledged their support to Bessel Kok, while Russia, many
former Soviet republics and Central and South America are in favour of Kirsan
Ilyumzhinov. The current president has also managed to get both Israel and
most of the Arab countries into one boat, which must be a unique display of
unity in the otherwise so hostile relationship.
But of course this graphic display is misleading. The big green and red areas
are easily outweighed by some of the tiny dots on the map. The following table
gives you an impression of how many chess players are actually represented
by these federations.
The full list of supporting countries: Stand: 15.4.2006
|
|
Players |
|
|
Country |
Population |
Active |
Total |
Titled |
Votes |
claimed by |
Afghanistan |
29,929,000 |
10 |
12 |
2 |
1 |
Ilyum./Kok |
Albania |
3,563,100 |
23 |
40 |
10 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Algeria |
32,531,900 |
54 |
89 |
20 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Andorra |
70,550 |
20 |
24 |
5 |
1 |
Kok |
Argentina |
39,537,900 |
402 |
558 |
179 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Australia |
20,090,400 |
267 |
383 |
70 |
1 |
Kok |
Azerbaijan |
7,912,000 |
109 |
189 |
48 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Bahrain |
688,300 |
10 |
18 |
1 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Barbados |
279,300 |
21 |
33 |
5 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Belgium |
10,364,400 |
395 |
440 |
58 |
1 |
Kok |
Belize |
279,500 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Bermuda |
65,370 |
8 |
14 |
0 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Botswana |
1,640,100 |
18 |
29 |
4 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Canada |
32,805,000 |
246 |
404 |
101 |
1 |
Kok |
Chile |
15,980,900 |
343 |
662 |
36 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Costa Rica |
4,016,200 |
58 |
81 |
14 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Czech Republic |
10,241,100 |
1657 |
2004 |
179 |
1 |
Kok |
Denmark |
5,432,300 |
680 |
824 |
76 |
1 |
Kok |
Dominican Republic |
8,950,000 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Ecuador |
13,363,600 |
255 |
318 |
32 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Egypt |
77,505,800 |
224 |
325 |
38 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
El Salvador |
6,704,900 |
36 |
51 |
19 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
England |
60,441,500 |
587 |
1057 |
205 |
1 |
Kok |
Ethiopia |
73,053,300 |
2 |
6 |
1 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
France |
60,656,200 |
3680 |
4226 |
241 |
1 |
Kok |
Georgia |
4,677,400 |
245 |
298 |
87 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Germany |
82,431,400 |
6957 |
9167 |
954 |
1 |
Kok |
Greece |
10,668,400 |
724 |
909 |
73 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Guatemala |
14,655,200 |
14 |
39 |
12 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Honduras |
6,975,200 |
18 |
29 |
8 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Hungary |
10,006,800 |
1870 |
2364 |
338 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Iceland |
296,700 |
143 |
195 |
46 |
1 |
Kok |
India |
1,080,264,400 |
1713 |
2209 |
96 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Iraq |
26,074,900 |
66 |
158 |
22 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Ireland |
4,015,700 |
70 |
121 |
16 |
1 |
Kok |
Israel |
6,276,900 |
435 |
651 |
132 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Jordan |
5,759,700 |
47 |
83 |
10 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Kazakhstan |
15,185,800 |
197 |
299 |
68 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Kuwait |
2,335,600 |
1 |
5 |
0 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Laos |
6,217,100 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Latvia |
2,290,200 |
136 |
197 |
37 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Lebanon |
3,826,000 |
32 |
53 |
9 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Libya |
5,765,600 |
16 |
25 |
6 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Liechtenstein |
33,720 |
9 |
12 |
2 |
1 |
Kok |
Luxembourg |
468,600 |
62 |
73 |
9 |
1 |
Kok |
Madagascar |
18,040,300 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Malawi |
12,158,900 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
Kok |
Malta |
398,500 |
18 |
28 |
2 |
1 |
Kok |
Mauritius |
1,230,600 |
4 |
7 |
0 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Moldova |
4,455,400 |
208 |
255 |
56 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Monaco |
32,410 |
15 |
17 |
4 |
1 |
Kok |
Mongolia |
2,791,300 |
52 |
88 |
23 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Morocco |
32,725,800 |
44 |
53 |
16 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Myanmar |
42,909,500 |
233 |
234 |
26 |
|
Ilyumzhinov |
Namibia |
2,030,700 |
5 |
7 |
1 |
1 |
Kok |
Netherlands |
16,407,500 |
992 |
1209 |
210 |
1 |
Kok |
Netherlands Antilles |
220,000 |
11 |
14 |
1 |
1 |
Kok |
Nicaragua |
5,465,100 |
42 |
51 |
13 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Nigeria |
128,772,000 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Norway |
4,593,000 |
290 |
397 |
65 |
1 |
Kok |
Pakistan |
162,419,900 |
7 |
29 |
3 |
1 |
Kok |
Palestine |
3,761,900 |
15 |
27 |
2 |
1 |
Kok |
Panama |
3,039,200 |
8 |
22 |
2 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Paraguay |
6,347,900 |
99 |
111 |
15 |
1 |
Kok |
Philippines |
87,857,500 |
69 |
133 |
42 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Qatar |
863,100 |
10 |
27 |
7 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Russia |
143,420,300 |
5703 |
8260 |
1588 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Rwanda |
8,440,800 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Singapore |
4,425,700 |
76 |
114 |
34 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Slovakia |
5,431,400 |
833 |
937 |
59 |
1 |
Kok |
Somali |
8,591,600 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Spain |
40,341,500 |
4220 |
4883 |
295 |
1 |
Kok |
Sudan |
40,187,500 |
9 |
13 |
0 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Surinam |
438,100 |
4 |
11 |
0 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Switzerland |
7,489,400 |
597 |
785 |
99 |
1 |
Kok |
Syria |
18,448,800 |
29 |
68 |
17 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Tajikistan |
7,163,500 |
11 |
13 |
4 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Thailand |
65,444,400 |
47 |
54 |
4 |
1 |
Kok |
Turkmenistan |
4,952,100 |
52 |
89 |
32 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Turkey |
69,660,600 |
304 |
393 |
40 |
1 |
Kok |
Uganda |
27,269,500 |
9 |
20 |
0 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
United Arab Emirates |
2,563,200 |
73 |
124 |
27 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
USA |
295,734,100 |
788 |
1614 |
455 |
1 |
Kok |
US Virgin Islands |
108,700 |
3 |
8 |
0 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Uzbekistan |
26,851,200 |
125 |
147 |
31 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Venezuela |
25,375,300 |
41 |
88 |
30 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Vietnam |
83,535,600 |
65 |
110 |
49 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Yemen |
20,727,100 |
13 |
24 |
5 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
Zambia |
11,261,800 |
9 |
18 |
3 |
1 |
Ilyumzhinov |
|
3,258,710,650 |
36920 |
49001 |
6501 |
90 |
|
Totals
|
Players |
|
|
Population |
Active |
Total |
Titled |
Votes |
claimed by |
2.248.961.970 |
13.971 |
19.711 |
3.310 |
60 |
Ilyumzhinov |
979.819.680 |
23.014 |
29.435 |
3.217 |
30 |
Kok |
As we can see from the above statistics the number of countries claimed by
the Chess Fidelity campaign under Ilyumzhinov represents more than twice the
population number as those supporting the Right Move of Bessel Kok. But the
number of active chess players represented by the Kok camp is almost twice
as high as that of his opponent, who has slightly more titled players on his
side (due to the support of the former Soviet republics).
Addendum
Since the above statistics were published on our German
language news page the numbers have changes somewhat, with at least two
new delegations pledging their support for the Right Move ticket. This brings
the total to 32 votes for the Bessel Kok side.
We also note that all 32
federations listed (on 01.05.2006) on the Right Move site are all accompanied
by a letter by the vote-casting delegate pledging support for the Bessel Kok
ticket. The Chess Fidelity site lists 60
supporting federations, but gives scanty proof of their support. We have
found eight letters
by federations actually pledging their vote on the Chess Fidelity site (Albania,
San Salvador, Hungary, Latvia, Mongolia, Philippines, Rwanda, Venezuela) and
three by continental
presidents. The Ilyumzhinov site has removed some federations previously
listed (e.g. Palestine, Tunesia), and in the case of Afghanistan the
letter published on the Right Move site would seem to indicate that support
from this country is going to Bessel Kok.
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