A BAD OPENING BY ANATOLY KARPOV

It is unfortunate that Anatoly Karpov’s unconstrained desire to promote himself as a potential candidate for the FIDE Presidency has driven him down a slippery path of falsification of facts and use of extremely abusive language towards his opponents. Anatoly started his political game with a very bad opening, presenting himself as a candidate with no principles who will use any unethical means in order to achieve his goals.

There are people who know Karpov better than me and they were not surprised at all by his interview, published at ChessBase.com on 6 July 2005. However, for me, as I know Karpov mainly from his enormous contribution to our sport and to a lesser extent from the rare discussions we have had, it was really surprising to see Anatoly Karpov as this kind of candidate politician. I sincerely hope that if he indeed decides to run for FIDE President that he will at least improve his middlegame play...

Deputy FIDE President Georgios Makropoulos

Anatoly alone, among the dependable chess world, advanced the version of Zurab Azmaiparashvili attacking policemen like a "madman" in Calvia. This version served better the short-sighted political vision of Anatoly and he didn't hesitate to use it in his interview. The way he has turned against one of his fellow chessplayers, shows exactly how he would behave against others when he believes that abandoning or calumniating his colleagues serves best his personal interests.

The ACP, on the contrary, had the moral fortitude to stand by Azmaiparashvili although he was not an ACP member and despite the differences between FIDE and ACP.

The court in Calvia recently did justice to Azmaiparashvili since, on the judge's initiative, the local police dropped all charges when facing the danger of actually having their own policemen being convicted for the beating of Zurab.

What will Karpov do now? Will he show any kind of moral stature and apologize to Zurab and to FIDE? If not, how does he expect chessplayers to trust him as FIDE President? And if his fellow chessplayers cannot trust him, why should the FIDE delegates do so?

For the sake of truth I also have to state that Mr Ummer Koya has not been convicted, as Karpov states in his interview. Again, Karpov uses such accusations in order to serve his short-term interest. Concerning the developments in India, FIDE has already taken all the necessary decisions and made all the necessary announcements in order to protect chess in India and worldwide.

What is this story about Crisan from Romania whom Karpov, in a very underhanded way, tries to present as an official of FIDE? Crisan has never been even in a sub-committee of FIDE. On the contrary, it is well-known that FIDE made a huge effort to protect Romanian chessplayers, trainers, arbiters and journalists who suffered from Crisan's decisions and behaviour. Where was Karpov during that period? Why was he silent? How did he support his colleagues in Romania? People like Crisan will be among the most eager supporters of Karpov's candidacy for FIDE President!

There are many fields in which criticism from a candidate could be creative and constructive. The first step is always to accept the accomplishments of your opponents. Anatoly should have recognized that, at least for the last years, FIDE has improved significantly its overall performance and at the same time FIDE expenditure has been drastically reduced while FIDE income has increased. During the last two years FIDE also secured more than 3,000,000 USD as sponsorship money for its World Championships, an amount which this time did not come from the FIDE President.

Since Karpov is talking about a "gang" which is "plundering" FIDE, and at the same time I'm personally one of the people who co-operate closely with Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, I would like to know how, according to Karpov, am I exactly "plundering" FIDE and on what grounds Anatoly bases such accusations? If Karpov cannot support his claims, then at least he should admit the very bad opening of his campaign by releasing lies and throwing mud instead of presenting arguments (if any) to support his candidacy.

At the end of the day, I personally believe that Karpov should have been more generous with Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. Kirsan is the only president in the history of FIDE, and maybe in the history of all international federations, who has contributed dozens of million dollars for the sport he loves. By the way, some of these millions went directly to Anatoly's pocket...

Georgios Makropoulos
FIDE Deputy President