A Game of Chess -- and Politics
Carl Schreck, Staff Writer of the Moscow Times, writes:
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov is facing one of the toughest political battles of his life.
In his republic of Kalmykia, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov has never allowed for much in
the way of democratic opposition. But on Friday the mercurial president could
face his toughest political battle yet in an ostensibly free and fair election
that could see him toppled from his throne – not in the Russian republic
but as head of the chess world.
Delegates from more than 150 national chess federations will cast their ballots
Friday in Turin, Italy, to elect the president of the International Chess Federation,
or FIDE, in the most serious challenge to Ilyumzhinov's presidency of that organization
since he assumed the post 11 years ago.
Under his tenure, Ilyumzhinov has failed to secure stable corporate sponsorship
for FIDE. Now, Dutch-born businessman and chess benefactor Bessel Kok is trying
to defeat the incumbent, whom President Vladimir Putin re-appointed as president
of Kalmykia in October.
Russian newspapers have hinted that Western chess federations are plotting
to make sure the Russian loses. In a Komsomolskaya Pravda article Tuesday, Alexei
Gulf said the "NATO of chess" – the United States, Western Europe
and Turkey – had Russia in its crosshairs. "Remember," Gulf
wrote, "how our figure skater Irina Slutskaya was robbed [of a gold medal]
at the Winter Olympics in the same city – Turin."
As of Thursday evening, Ilyumzhinov said he had the support of 86 national
federations while Kok said he had pledges from 41 federations, according to
their campaign web sites. International master David Levy, a former FIDE delegate
from Scotland, said Thursday that Ilyumzhinov appeared to be heading for victory.
"It is well known that in FIDE elections many promises are broken, so no
one can be really certain," Levy said. "But the people who are most
genuinely in the know, those on the two election teams, paint a picture of a
Kirsan victory. His guys are all smiles, while those I have seen today from
the Bessel camp have an air of doom about them."
Full
Moscow Times article (in English)
