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"I visited twelve countries in fifteen days – not going from one Caribbean island or one European country to another; it started from China, going to Malaysia, Europe, Faeroe Islands, Israel and Palestine, etc. A trip with long distances."
"We have close to 70 countries supporting us, but we have stopped announcing countries, because Ilyumzhinov is applying psychological pressure. When we started to publish names we realised we had opened targets for the other team. They contacted the countries that were on our list and offered something to change their position. Nowadays when we don't publish Kirsan has to follow me to every country I visit. For the last one-and-a-half months he has been following me and offering anything he can – official deals, unofficial deals, promises, promises, promises. The people do not remember promises from the past, they believe only in future promises."
"In many countries we have a situation of financial slavery, on the American continent, in some Asian countries..."
"They say that Kirsan spent millions and millions of dollars for chess, but then I don't understand why they charge for titles, for instance. That brings them 120-130 thousand Euros per year. Payments for the titles of FIDE Masters, International Master, International Grandmaster are one time, but for FIDE Arbiters you have to pay many times, like a licence fee."
"At the beginning of the campaign [Ignatius] Leong and [Jorge] Vega were threatening people and trying to prevent them from meeting with me."
"I visited Khanty-Mansiysk, which is a province where I have a lot of chess contacts. People there are very nice, very open. So the atmosphere of the Olympiad will be good. But people must realise that there are two organisers: the local people and FIDE. FIDE must give full information to the local organisers, who must then provide charter flights to come to Khanty-Mansiysk. They must provide accommodation, according to information which FIDE gave them. The initial information was that there would be one and a half thousand participants. At the moment we have around 1,900 people. FIDE forgot about spectators, so this will be an Olympiad without spectators, because they have no place to stay. Probably they even forgot countries and delegates. I don't know if they remembered journalists – I don't see where journalists can stay."
On August 10, Head of Republic of Kalmykia, FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov arrived on a working visit to Ramallah, Palestine, where he met with the leadership of this country, as well as with the Chairman of the National Olympic Committee of Palestine Dzhabrail Rajoub to discuss the development of chess in Palestine. As Mr. Rajoub said, NOC of Palestine is interested in developing and strengthening the closest ties with FIDE. He noted that chess is one of the most popular sports in Palestine. At the press conference Mr. Rajoub said that Palestine supports Kirsan Ilyumzhinov in the upcoming Presidential elections and noted that he intends to express the position of Palestine’s NOC on introduction of chess into the Olympic Games at the meeting with IOC President Jacques Rogge, who plans to visit Palestine in this October.
The same day Kirsan ILyumzhinov met with the President of the Palestinian National Authority, Chairman of Fatah movement Mahmoud Abbas. At the beginning of the meeting the leaders discussed the development of chess in Palestine. The Palestinian leader noted that he is a big fan of this royal game and is interested in Kalmykia’s experience on the introduction of chess into the school curriculum, on this occasion he expressed his intention to send a delegation to Kalmykia, as well as to invite Kalmyk specialists to Palestine. After all these preparations the President of the Palestinian National Authority will sign a decree on the introduction of chess into the school curriculum.
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov proposed to the Palestinian leader to hold the world chess match between the Palestinian and Israeli children on a hundred boards. As was noted by FIDE President, this match may be a symbol of solving the contradictions with the help of sports and at the peace table.”In this case, it is a chess table can become a table of peace and friendship,” said Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. Mahmoud Abbas has endorsed this proposal and suggested to hold the match in the place of the separation wall, which is currently being constructed in accordance with previous decisions. Mahmoud Abbas stressed that the Palestinian leadership will do everything possible to organize this match, which will become a truly international event. It is planned to hold the world chess match during the IOC President Jacques Rogge’s visit to Palestine.
...asks Silvio Danailov , Candidate for ECU President. On his campaign site "I know..." the Bulgarian says
"What I see are two of the candidates becoming victims of political games, tying themselves and the future of European chess with the choice of one or another personality for FIDE President. As to clarify, Mr. Ali Nihat Yazici does not keep his relationship with Mr. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov secret and neither does Mr.Robert von Weizsacker with the other candidate for FIDE Presidency – Mr. Anatoly Karpov.
Is this what we want – political equilibrists, puppets on strings, whose decisions and actions will follow third party interests, remaining deaf to the actual needs of the European federations? Is this what we want – the faith of the ECU to be decided not by the European federations, but by FIDE clerks? Apart from being contrary to common sense, an eventual choice of one of the two politically dependent candidates is in full dissonance with the characteristic of the EU geopolitical emancipation – Europe to solve its problems not under the command of, but with the cooperation of the other world factors."
Rival candidate for the ECU Presidency, Ali-Nihat Yazici, says that his campaign "We R Europe" will bring a new approach to the European Championships. "In the European Individual Chess Championship (both Open and Women), one free entry with accommodation will be offered to each national chess federation. The aim of this move is to have all 54 flags present for the top European individual event and to increase its prestige.
‘We R Europe’ Team takes as an example football's UEFA Cup. The same goal will be achieved for our European Individual Championships. Each national federation will be invited to send their reigning national individual champions (both male and female) for these events. The champions of those who accept, and we hope it will be all, will stay, in single rooms, as the guest of the organizers. Considering the cost of accommodation for these events, we are effectively looking at a grant of around €1200 for each federation."
