The Turkish Chess Federation (TCF) has tried to show a good management style
in the last seven years. No need to explain what has happened in Turkey for
chess as, I believe everybody knows. As a part of this development, we always
tried to give the best service to FIDE and the European Chess Union (ECU). We
were always candidate for any kind of event whether it was profitable or non-profitable.
To exemplify this, I have to mention that in Turkey we have organized the World
Junior Championships 2005, World Youth Under 16 Chess Olympiad (1998, 2003,
2006), FIDE Presidential Board (1999, 2007), World Chess Olympiad 2000.
Also for Europe, we have organized; 2002 European Club Cup for women, 2004
European Club Cup, 2007 European Club Cup, 2003 European Individual Chess Championships,
2004 European Youth Championships, 2004 European Individual Chess Championships,
2006 European Individual Chess Championships, and two times the ECU Board meeting.
I can assure everyone that a large number of these events were organized by
the TCF simply as a form of assistance to FIDE or the ECU.
Only one more example of what we do for chess in Turkey: by the start of next
month, the Istanbul Great Municipality will distribute one million chess sets
and one million books to one million children. This will be done in each primary
school, face to face. The aim is to create a web site for training kids for
chess and other subjects. Also this will go to a result opening a real chess
academy in Istanbul managed by GMs for creating idols for the future. The project
cost will be more than 10.000.000 USD, we expect. This is not a planned project!
This is an accepted project. So you may understand what happens in Turkey for
chess, and how hard we try to develop chess in this country. This will make
all readers understanding our sensitivity for protecting our rights.
I have given the above information to explain that we do not mind losing a
candidacy for organising an event when we make bids. Who is the best host city
bidding, should be granted the organisation. Considering the reason for this
open letter, I had to explain this in advance.
Time to resign for Mr. Boris Kutin!
In the rest of the lengthy missive the Turkish Chess Federation explains
in detail why they are suing the European Chess Union in the judicial court
in Lausanne. Here is a summary.
The matter was brought to a head by decisions taken in the last board meeting
in Novi Sad on 24 August 2007 on the staging of the 2009 European Championships.
The TCF was bidding for three events: the 2009 European Individual Chess Championships
(Men and Women – Antalya Kemer), the 2009 European Club Cup (Men and Women
– Antalya, Kemer) and the 2009 European Youth Chess Championships (Cappadocia).
For the European Individual Championships the TCF was offering a 140.000€
prize fund. However they were suddenly told that the US $120.000 that FIDE contributes
to this event was no longer available "for European countries." Also
the number of World Cup qualification places had been reduced from 34 to 23.
What ired the TCF most was that the ECU and its president Boris Kutin awarded
them only the Individual Championships, on the basis that there was only one
bidder for this one (the other two were given to Italy and Macedonia). The bids
of the rivals were kept strictly secret, while the TCF has published its own
bids in PDF format. "At no point in time during the board in Novi Sad did
anyone from the Board invite me and ask me which tournament I wanted to host,"
writes Ali Nihat Yazici, the President of the Turkish Chess Federation. "I
was sitting about 20 meters away."
Yazici complains that the decision to restrict the federations to one bid per
year – Kutin had introduced this at a board meeting at Novi Sad –
was not announced in advance, resulting in a waste of funds and efforts in preparing
multiple bids. Also that the most expensive event was awarded to Turkey without
consultation. "If I put this 140.000€, or even half of it, into the
European Youth Chess Championships, or the European Club Cup, you could only
imagine what a nice event would be organized," Yazici writes. "Can
you imagine what is the loss for chess and for top professionals of such decisions?"
For the above reasons the TCF has requested in the judicial court in Lausanne:
- to cancel all decisions taken by the ECU in Novi Sad related to these
three tournaments;
- to compensate the TCF for the expenses for preparing the three bids
which were not taken even under consideration due to ECU’s illegal decision
in Novi Sad.
The TCF is claiming 50.000 CHF in damages and demanding the resignation of
Boris Kutin as ECU President, whom it considers incapable of managing this huge
organization. "We invite Mr Kutin to resign," writes Yazici. "The
TCF Board supports the decision of Georgian Chess Federation to raise a no-confidence
vote in General Assembly of ECU in Creta, Greece next month. We hope that everyone
in the world loving chess will understand our position."
