Winning starts with what you know
The new version 18 offers completely new possibilities for chess training and analysis: playing style analysis, search for strategic themes, access to 6 billion Lichess games, player preparation by matching Lichess games, download Chess.com games with built-in API, built-in cloud engine and much more.
The letters, mainly from Russian readers, accuse us of publishing the original Ilyumzhinov letter "without checking the facts", and imply that we may be doing that out of self-interest ("do you have commercial plans with the current FIDE leadership or with David Kaplan, whom you are also promoting?"). Naturally we are not – the open letter by the current FIDE President arrived on our electronic doorstep just after midnight on Saturday and we published it as delivered. Subsequently many chess blogs have done likewise.
The main point of criticism was Ilyumzhinov's statement in the letter that "a meeting was originally [scheduled] for 5.00 p.m. in Mr Dvorkovich’s office, and it was suddenly changed by Mr Bakh notifying some of the delegates that they should meet at 4.30 p.m. at the premises of the Russian Chess Federation. The Chairman of the Russian Chess Federation was not notified at all. This clearly violates the statutes, which determine that all meetings are to be presided over by the Chairman."
Apparently this is not completely accurate. Our readers sent us links – and in fact screen shots ("in case anything is changed") of the official announcement of the Supervisory Board, delivered by the Russian Chess Federation on May 5th. It clearly states that the meeting would be held in the Central Chess Club at 5 p.m. on May 14.
This notice is still up on the RCF site. The translation of the critical passage reads
The meeting of the Supervisory Board RCF
05/05/2010 PM
Central Chess Club M. Mk Botvinnik
May 14 2010 17.00
Agenda of the meeting
1. 1. Nomination of a candidate for FIDE President of the Russian Chess Federation.
AV Dvorkovich
2. 2. Preparations for the World Chess Olympiad in 2010 in Khanty-Mansiysk.
Etc...
Executive Secretary G. Vladimirov
An updated agenda, published two days later, also give the Central Chess Club as the venue for the March 14 17:00h meeting.
Nomination
of Karpov against A New Times news page has provided full video coverage of the meeting that took place at the Central Chess Club in Moscow. "Even before it was held Arkady Dvorkovich announced the support of the RCF for the candidacy of Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. But at the same time a number of leading players around the world supported Anatoly Karpov, and the public expected Russia to support their champion. Dvorkovich tried to move the scheduled conference to another place, where the presence of the press would be limited. However the meeting in the Central Chess Club was able to collect a quorum – more than 17 of 32 board members – and the meeting began, despite a telephone warning by the Vice-Premier of Russia Alexander Zhukov that the meeting would be considered illegitimate." [Zhukov used to be the President of the Russian Chess Federation until Vladimir Putin made it impossible for high-level government officials to hold such extraneous posts.]
Delegates voting for Karpov at the meeting in the video below
The New Times provides extensive video footage of the RCF meeting that voted to nominate Karpov as the Candidate for FIDE Presidency.
There are eight more video sequences on the New Times report. They are naturally all in Russian, though we have found an English transcription of Kasparov's speech to the delegates on the Natalia Pogonina web site. The Karpov Campaign HQ have provided an English transcript of Karpov's speech to the delegates.
I am delighted to have been nominated by the Russian Chess Federation on May 14 and I will proudly stand as Russia’s nominee for the Presidency of FIDE. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov lost an open vote and now has no basis to pursue re-election under FIDE rules.
The events of May 14 are clear and well-documented. The meeting of the Supervisory Council of the RCF was called by Kirsan’s supporter Arkady Dvorkovich, the non-voting president of that body. The meeting was announced on the RCF website, weeks in advance, to take place at the MM Botvinnik Central Chess Club, where all such business has been conducted for decades.* Therefore, Ilyumzhinov’s statements in his open letter to delegates on May 15 saying the scheduled location of the meeting was changed are demonstrably false. The full story of what took place on May 14 – that it was Dvorkovich who attempted to move and then to cancel the meeting – is available here at my campaign website.
It is revealing that Ilyumzhinov insults the process by which I was nominated. Council members representing regions all across Russia met in orderly fashion in an open forum with the attendance of the media and outside observers. They listened to statements, asked questions, and debated the decision. Then they voted, again in full view of cameras and the world. It is a shame Ilyumzhinov decided not to attend, he might have learned something about democracy. Full article on the Karpov Campaign site...
|
|
Ilyumzhinov: 'I will run for FIDE President once
again' |
|
|
Breaking news: Karpov nominated by Russian Chess
Federation |
|
|
FIDE Elections: the match for FIDE President heats
up |
|
|
David Kaplan's revolution in chess |
|
|
Russian Chess Fed nominates Ilyumzhinov – sort of
|
|
|
FIDE Elections: Karpov's mission statement |
|
|
German Chess Federation nominates Karpov for FIDE
Presidency |
|
|
FIDE Elections: Support for Ilyumzhinov |
|
|
FIDE Elections: Turkish Chess Federation supports
Ilyumzhinov |
|
|
Video report: Yazici and Danailov running for ECU
President |
|
|
Karpov on his FIDE presidential campaign |
|
|
Karpov to run for FIDE President |
