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Thread: FIDE election, some thoughts

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    Default FIDE election, some thoughts

    Here are my somewhat preliminary thoughts on the FIDE election.

    Arkady Dvorkovich

    Mr. Dvorkovich is obviously a very capable individual. I am given to understand that he is a lover of chess. He has high level responsibilities in the Russian government. In all likelihood he will delegate many of his responsibilities to capable individuals if he wins the election. I do have concerns about possible sanctions from the U.S. Treasury department in the event that he wins as he is even closer to Putin than Kirsan. Obviously he is a very high profile and capable candidate. I have not seen any contacts to the CFC from his campaign.

    Nigel Short

    Mr. Short is running as a reform candidate. His one and only contact with federations seems to be setting himself up as a kingmaker who will force the other candidates to embrace some reforms in the way FIDE conducts itself.

    The issues I have with Mr. Short are that he is not exactly the most diplomatic person in the world if we put the best spin on the situation. His obituary for Tony Miles which was somewhat of a low point where he confessed to extracting revenge on Miles by sleeping with his girlfriend was somewhat interesting but perhaps better left to some tell all book rather than an obituary potentially read by millions.

    His mocking attacks on Wesley So for his Christian beliefs are problematic. I would like to see better judgement and tolerance from a potential FIDE president.

    Even more problematic are his pronouncements on women and chess and his behaviour around women. Compiling information from a number of sources including interviews, articles, books and discussions with chess players and organizers seem to promote an impression of someone who is misogynistic and obsessed with conquest. Perhaps this is simply a public persona which is not a reflection of the private individual. His behavior in this area seems juvenile and may be a calculated attempt to draw attention on the theory that it is easier to convert anger and hate into a useful outcome (in terms of conquest) than it is to convert indifference. I don't know. His pronouncements and behaviour offend women and especially young women. I am not sure that we can afford to offend half the population if we want growth in chess.

    George Makropoulos

    It seems to me that what you see is what you get in terms of Mr. Makropoulos. When the choice is a sanction hobbled Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and Mr. Makropoulos then the choice was obvious and the CFC board unanimously supported Mr. Makropoulos who seemed a somewhat reluctant candidate at the time. Mr. Makropoulos has held things together during the time of Kirsan and he gets some criticism for that. I am not sure that is fair. I would say that we continue to lean in his direction but nothing is set in stone and that could change when we cast our vote in the light of any new developments. I did fill out a nomination form for him and if we had to vote today we would vote for him based on the currently available information.
    Last edited by Vladimir Drkulec; 07-12-2018 at 10:37 AM.

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