Press release
Sulaiman Al Fahim & UAE Support Karpov
August 4, 2010
Big news from the United Arab Emirates, where Anatoly Karpov just had a successful
meeting with renowned businessman and sports patron Sulaiman Al Fahim, who among
his many titles is also the president of the UAE Chess Federation. The UAE has
pledged its support for Karpov’s candidacy and Sulaiman Al Fahim has accepted
the offer of a FIDE Vice President position in the Karpov administration to
focus on developing chess in the Arab world and all of Asia. They also announced
a $320,000 chess development package for the region.
Anatoly Karpov and Sulaiman Al Fahim
Below is the letter to Karpov from Sulaiman Al Fahim and the Federation and
the full press release issued after the meeting. More details to come on this
exciting development and what it means for chess in the region and the campaign.
Sulaiman Al-Fahim is a renowned global entrepreneur and lifelong chessplayer
who is also the president of the UAE Chess Federation. World Champion Karpov
expressed his gratitude and added, “an important element in our plans
to promote chess in the region will be Sulaiman Al-Fahim’s role as a Vice-President
in my new FIDE administration. He is a visionary, full of ideas and capable
of leading a renewal of chess in the Arab world and Asia. There is also a poetic
element, as Europe first learned chess from the Arabs, who were the game’s
first great practitioners.”
They also announced an $80,000/yr. development package for Arab chess federations,
$320,000 over the four years of Karpov’s first term of office. These funds
will go to youth programs, training camps, and local and regional events, among
other activities. In a joint statement, Sulaiman Al-Fahim and Karpov said, “The
UAE is already becoming one of the most vibrant hosts for chess activity in
Asia. This funding will help it to become a center for development and push
that progress to a new level.”
Dr. Sulaiman Al-Fahim (born in 1977) is the current president of the Arab
Union for Real Estate Development. He’s also a UN Goodwill Ambassador
for IIMSAM, the permanent observer of the Economic & Social Council of United
Nations. He has worked for two years with a UN group focusing on malnutrition
issues in Africa and worldwide. He made headlines in 2009 when he purchased
the English Premier League club Portsmouth, quickly selling it off at a profit
and remaining the head director. He is the former CEO of Hydra Properties.
Anatoly Karpov (b.1951) was world chess champion from 1975-1985 and possesses
the greatest tournament record in chess history. He won the team gold medal
with the USSR team at the 1986 Chess Olympiad hosted in Dubai. Karpov is running
for the FIDE presidency against incumbent Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.
Cyprus President Christofias Supports Karpov
During a trip to the beautiful island of Cyprus, Anatoly Karpov met with President
Dimitris Christofias. The President offered his full support to Karpov’s
efforts to win the presidency of FIDE and reform the chess world. Karpov gave
a simultaneous exhibition during his visit and also gave several interviews.
Here are several excerpts from his talk with the Russian-language paper Evropa
Kipr.
It is not easy to fight against a team that has been in charge of FIDE for
15 years. First of all, many people simply do not believe you can win. The
second problem is that people are scared, they are constantly under threat,
and that’s hard. I am traveling extensively and meeting many people
who receive nothing from FIDE, but they are still afraid of something. The
conversations we have are remarkable: “What have you received from FIDE?”
– “Nothing.” – “And you are still afraid?”
– “Yes.” – And what are you afraid of?” –
“We are afraid.”
What can you offer small federations, such as Cyprus?
We will solve problems for the federations, conduct general training seminars
for coaches, trainers, and arbiters. These are programs I have been working
on for 22 years and they will apply to countries both small and large. It
is very important to repeal or reduce title payments for many federations.
Why are these fees imposed, just to collect money from the federations, including
the smallest ones? The meaning of FIDE is to bring the national federations
and the players, not extract money from them.
Press release
The Chess Federation of Cyprus has announced
its open support to the ticket of Kirsan Ilyumzhinov!
81 National Federations now support the “One World. One Vision.”
Team!
Anatoly Karpov, Nigel Short and Gary Kasparov had insistently put pressure
on board members of the Cypriot Federation in order not to support Kirsan. To
such a point that someone could wonder if the Cypriot vote would by itself determine
the election result for Karpov…
The truth is that the former world champion lacks more than 60 votes to even
hope for a tie!
The only aim of Karpov’s team was to divide the Greeks between Greece
and Cyprus because the president of the Greek Chess Federation Mr Georgios Makropoulos
is elected with the ticket of Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.
The policy of dissension and the continuous undermining of the chess world’s
unity, which Karpov’s team has been promoting from the first day of his
campaign, produced no results in Cyprus! We attach the letter of support to
Kirsan by the President of the Chess Federation of Cyprus Mr Christoforos Tornaritis:
All ChessBase
report on the FIDE Elections 2010
