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Just days after nominal FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov announced a somewhat mysterious ticket for his latest re-election bid on April 26th, English GM Nigel Short threw his hat into the ring. Now, roughly a month on, FIDE's Deputy President Georgios Makropoulos, who declared his candidacy in early April, has announced the members of his election team in an email circulated Monday to chess media:
I am delighted to tell you today that I have assembled an experienced and talented team with representation from each continental federation. The team has expertise in FIDE affairs, sports administration, chess sponsorship, tournament organisation/ promotion, business and finance and also experience in the political arena. With your help we can emerge from the current difficulties and transform the organisation.
Under the banner FIDE Forward we will soon publish more detailed plans.
Makropoulous' electoral ticket will consist of familiar names in the chess world:
Sundar, Jaime, Fierro and Siegel are all FIDE political veterans who were on the ticket of Kirsan Ilymzhinov during the 2014 election season.
New to the team, although certainly no stranger to FIDE politics, is Malcolm Pein, who supported Garry Kasparov in 2014, and considered running against Ilyumzhinov himself before joining Makropoulos' team.
Among Pein's many credits, he is the Chief Executive of the UK charity Chess in Schools and Communities, and originator of the London Chess Classic, now part of the Grand Chess Tour. He is the publisher of 'CHESS' Magazine, owner of the London Chess Centre, Chess4less.com and ChessBase USA, and his most recent Event Management credit is as Consultant and negotiator for FIDE for World Rapid and Blitz Championships Riyadh.
D.V. Sundar previously served as the Championship Director for the 2013 World Championship match in Chennai, under Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu J Jayalalithaa.
Aguinaldo Jaime is a former deputy prime minister of Angola, and before that Governor of the Angolan Central Bank. He is the president of the Angolan chess federation, where he was reelected in 2012 when he ran unopposed. He was also part of the campaign of Anatoly Karpov in 2010 in Karpov's failed bid to unseat Ilyumzhinov in Khanty-Mansiysk, before joining Ilyumzhinov's team as FIDE Vice-President.
Martha Fierro is an International Master, Organizer and FIDE Trainer who has been active in chess education and sports management. She was born in the United States but represents Ecuador, where she also has citizenship, and lives in Italy where she currently serves as the Consul of Ecuador in Genoa.
Correction: Aguinaldo Jaime was initially referred to with his surname and given name reversed (as 'Jaime Aguinaldo').
