Yasser Seirawan on FIDE
Dear Alex,
I'm writing you regarding your
editorial in Chess Today about the upcoming FIDE elections. I
wanted to point out a historical inaccuracy and to offer the readers my own
perspective.
In 1994 at the Moscow Olympiad, Florencio Campomanes was reelected in the
most dubious FIDE election ever held. You will recall the famous speech of
Andrei Makarov, the Russian delegate, threatening Anatoly Karpov with having
his legs broken in an open session of the FIDE Congress. The same delegate
spoke passionately about his love for democracy and why all delegates must
vote for Campomanes. Or else!
By the time of the 1995 FIDE Congress in Paris, attending delegates had become
ashamed about the 1994 election and were seeking amends. The revolt was in
full swing and Campomanes was asked to step down. Karpov had brought his friend
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov to the 1995 FIDE Congress. With the pressure building, Campomanes
decided upon a graceful exit and resigned in favour of Ilyumzhinov rather than
endure the old heave ho. Campomanes became FIDE's "Honorary Chairman",
while Ilyumzhinov replaced him as FIDE President in 1995.
Grandmaster Yasser Seirawan
The FIDE Congress in Yerevan 1996 was an Olympiad year where many delegates
met. During the non-Olympiad years, fewer delegates come to the FIDE Congress.
It was decided to hold a new election or rather to confirm the results of the
1995 Congress. Ilyumzhinov was reelected, unopposed. There was the famous story
of Ignatius Leong (Singapore) hiding in the American delegates hotel room fearing
for his life. In Elista 1998, FIDE was back to its normal schedule of elections
every four years. A member of the opposition, Bachar Kouatly (France), withdrew
and fled Elista, out of fear of physical reprisals. Again, Ilyumzhinov was
re-elected, unopposed. In Bled 2002, Ilyumzhinov was re-elected unopposed when
Leong withdrew his ticket at the last moment. Amazingly enough, Ilyumzhinov
and his ticket of professional chess politicians have never faced a contested
FIDE election. Turin 2006 will be a first.
2006 will mark the eleventh year that Ilyumzhinov has held the FIDE Presidency
post. The "reign of error" as I call it, has been securely in place
for these very long years. During this time we have witnessed the decline of
FIDE as a respectable chess organization. Each year seems to have brought a
new scandal. We have careened from one piece of bad news to another. The rank
and file doubt the integrity of FIDE and its reputation is at an all time low.
Newspaper articles about FIDE tend to focus mostly on the negative, highlighting
the eccentric behaviour of its leader. Our friend Robert Huntington, the Associated
Press chess reporter, resigned his post in disgust in 2002. In his goodbye
letter, posted on the TWIC website, Robert wrote that the acronym FIDE had
changed. The new meaning had become, "Federation International for the
Destruction of Echecs". FIDE was plumbing new lows and destroying the
very institutions that made chess a revered sport.
The five K's in Prague, 2002: Vladimir Kramnik, Bessel Kok (standing),
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, Garry Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov [Photo John Henderson]
Certainly, the prestigious title of FIDE World Champion has been degraded
if not destroyed. While San Luis did much to restore some of the lost cache
of our highest title, the chaos caused by the split over the last thirteen
years continues unabated. Following the Prague Agreement of 2002, FIDE broke
every promise it had made to the players, to our host Bessel Kok and to the
chess world. Knockout events that were to become World Championship matches
were switched to double round robin tournament finals. Can anyone guarantee
that the rules for the new cycle won't change in midstream? FIDE's leaders
do not abide by the statutes of the organization, rules of play nor contractual
agreements signed and executed. Recently, Ilyumzhinov demanded that anyone
seeking FIDE Presidential offices post one million dollars to FIDE's accounts.
Try to find that one in the FIDE statutes! Ridiculous whimsy or standard operating
procedure? The ruse was clear enough: "This is my fiefdom, no one else
is welcome!"
I suppose we should be grateful, FIDE no longer threatens physical reprisals,
sanctions and fines will do nicely. (Hmm, my blunder, I forgot Calvia.) Today's
chess professionals can be barred if they test positive for steroids. Bans
include two year and lifetime sanctions as well as extravagant monetary penalties.
FIDE's chairperson of the Medical Committee assures that she only seeks fair
play so that no player has a physically drug induced advantage over another.
For the life of me I cannot understand how using steroids will revive my cherished
Caro-Kann. Common sense has flown out of the window!
FIDE has stopped to become a prospective partner for major sponsors. In truth,
it is an organization they no longer even think about. I know this from personal
experience that corporate sponsors won't touch our sport for the simple reason
they do not want the name of their company and its products tainted by association
with the FIDE organization. That is pretty damning. Outside of the one-time-only
sponsorship of municipalities and other government agents I can't think of
a single major corporate sponsor that has supported FIDE in ages. Can you?
It is Kirsan's money that has supported the FIDE organization, his rules, his
formats and his administration. Again, I can't think of another single sports
body where the President has to personally financially guarantee his vision
for the "growth" of the sport. FIDE is addicted to the money of one
person. It is not the product, chess, which is lacking it is the lack of capable,
competent, professional administrators selling that product. Our cherished,
noble sport that once held such high cultural importance has morphed. We have
become a band of beggars.
FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov
Can anyone think of a single FIDE initiative introduced in the last eleven
years that hasn't been tainted by scandal or mishap? To much fanfare, FIDE
announced that the new Knockout World Championships would be five million dollar
events held every year. This changed to three million dollar events held every
other year, to one and a half million dollar events. How about the FIDE Rapid
Chess events that were summarily cancelled? The aborted matches in Baghdad,
Buenos Aires and Yalta? The FIDE time control and its announcement that a "majority"
of top players polled favoured ninety minutes plus thirty seconds for the whole
game? Other personal favourites include FIDE Commerce President Artyom Tarasov
explaining that FIDE was in a "war" with chess organizers. That this
war mandated that FIDE hold competing events against "private" tournaments
such as Wijk Aan Zee and others.
The bouncing checks in Las Vegas was a low light. If memory serves, the winners
Alexander Khalifman had to wait over six months for full payment. By the way,
in the United States to knowingly write a check without sufficient funds in
the account is a banking fraud. A felonious act. A recent FIDE declaration
that Kasparov was a "liar" during a press conference was a good one.
FIDE Deputy President Markopoulos had to write an open letter of apology trying
to explain which side spoke with the greatest integrity. That had me laughing
for ages. What a paradigm of virtue he is! Is it any wonder that Garry had
decided enough was enough? Others will have their own favourites such as fixed
tournaments and awarding Grandmaster titles to players no one had ever seen
compete. The list of mistakes seems nearly endless.
Recently, I think Karpov misspoke when he talked about chess disappearing
in the next four years. What Tolya likely meant was, "professional chess".
Viewed from this qualification he is of course right. A large number of our
colleagues have quit. Matthew Sadler of the UK, Jeroen Piket from the Netherlands
were both top national players when they stopped. Kasparov's retirement was
the biggest blow of all to the professional class. If professional chess is
to survive, a change of FIDE leaders is a mandatory first step. Despite the
efforts of the FIDE to damage chess, it will live for another hundred years,
at least. Today's professionals are more likely to be chess teachers than players.
This trend will continue as long as the current FIDE "leadership"
remains in place.
FIDE presidential candidate Bessel Kok being interviews by Yasser Seirawan
My view is that the 2006 FIDE elections is going to be the biggest chess story
of the year. Either we get four more years of the reign of error or we get
a breath of fresh air and a chance to get off our knees. I've known Bessel
Kok for twenty years and I can't think of a more highly qualified, respected
and capable candidate for change. If professional chess players care about
the survival of their sport, they will enthusiastically encourage their federations
to vote for Bessel Kok and a new future.
If the above makes for uncomfortable reading, just imagine the reactions of
corporate sponsorships. After making personal contact with a top officer of
a company to offer a written proposal, the officer takes the written proposal
to his team and tells them, "Chess is cool! My kids play chess. Let us
have some fun and host a chess event." The proposal gets passed around
the office and ends up on the desk of some internal marketing division. The
marketing people do a quick Google search, which spits out different versions
of the above history and informs that on top of everything else, the "Honorary
Chairman" of the FIDE is a convicted embezzler. A felon is an Honorary
Chairman of a world organization?! Exasperation is the order of the day. Along
with the rest of the stories, the immediate reaction is an alarmed, "Time
out! We don't want to get involved with this group. Hell, the chess players
don't even know who their own world champion is! We can't guarantee that coverage
of our event will even be positive. Let us just keep to the tried and true
and take a pass." In no time, the company team has nixed our proposal
in order to spend its marketing dollars on other sports. This is the legacy
that the reign of error has brought us. If chess has a future for professional
players we are going to have to rebuild the credibility of our damaged image
and get our own house in order. Otherwise chess is going to have the most over
qualified teachers of any sport. Ever.
With kind regards,
Yasser Seirawan
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