Team BEST MOVE: Candidates for the positions of President and Deputy President of FIDE
On behalf of the BEST MOVE Team, we, Inal Sheripov and Lewis Ncube, as confirmed candidates for the posts of President and Deputy President of the International Chess Federation (FIDE), respectively, address the world chess community with the following statement:
On June 7, 2022, the FIDE Electoral Commission approved the candidature of FOUR valid FIDE Presidential Candidacies of which the BEST MOVE Ticket of Inal Sheripov and Lewis Ncube was one.
We would like to sincerely thank the Federations of Barbados, Sierra Leone, Timor Leste, Ukraine, and Zambia for their endorsement.
Additionally, we would also like to thank all the other Federations and members of the global chess community that have expressed their support for our candidature.
The BEST MOVE Team wishes to welcome the Vice President of the Togolese Chess Federation, Enyonam Sewa Fumey (popularly known as Noel) to our fold and we offer him the position of Vice President Designate to oversee the Development activities of FIDE.
Noel is a former FIDE General Secretary and former Secretary General of the African Chess Confederation.
A major part of his responsibility in this role will be the supervision of the FIDE Planning and Development Commission.
The BEST MOVE Team will move to restructure the FIDE Planning and Development Commission to “depoliticize” it and make it more focused on balanced chess developmental activities across the global chess community.
Noel will be most suited for this assignment, with the Team’s development tasks ranging from grassroots and small nation areas of development to working with marginalized communities across the global chess community.
Added to the supervision of the FIDE Planning and Development Commission, Noel will also continue working with the FIDE Social Commission, whose developmental aspects are critical to the overall global goals FIDE will focus on under the leadership of Team BEST MOVE.
We are confident that the multi-lingual Noel will be an excellent addition to the varied members of Team BEST MOVE.
Noel joins the President of the Ukrainian Chess Federation, Victor Kapustin, who will head the section of our Team that will be working on concepts of FIDE reforms as another FIDE Vice President Designate.
The BEST MOVE Team continues to grow and encompass the global chess community that has bought into our vision.
As we countdown to the FIDE Presidential Elections in Chennai, we urge the global chess community to critically analyse the current state of our beautiful game and work with us to change the narrative to the FIDE we want.
Let us work towards being the solution to our needs and not to continue being part of the problem.
All those of us that have been present at political gatherings under the guise of consultative FIDE Planning and Development Commission funded meetings should use our chess acumen to read between the lines and see through the charades being presented to us.
The latest political gathering was organised under the guise of an Orientation Meeting for new Presidents of the Americas Continent on the sidelines of the start of the 2022 World School Chess Championships in Panama City.
Rather than gather newly elected Presidents, shouldn’t FIDE be organising a Conference for Chess in Schools, or a similar event tailored to add value to the knowledge of those that have sacrificed valuable resources and taken the challenge to honour the hosts with their presence at this global event and ensure the participation of their talented chess wards?
Many parents, coaches, and other Federation officials have traveled to Panama to accompany their young chess players to this global chess event for our deserving chess playing schoolchildren.
Furthermore, shouldn’t the Orientation Programme be better suited AFTER the Chennai elections?
Unless of course the orientation was on the voting aspect of the invited Presidents’ expected responsibilities at the upcoming FIDE elections in Chennai.
In any event, we urge the genuine observance of the concept of “FREE AND FAIR” elections to be practiced not only in pronouncements but in the “DEEDS” carried out by the sitting FIDE President and his Team.
Objective Federation officials that attended the recent FIDE Planning and Development Commission funded Meetings in Mexico, Kampala and Bangkok were clearly cognisant of the political motives behind the meetings.
The concerned Federation officials also raised relevant questions regarding the scheduling of these meetings just months before the FIDE elections.
In this regard, we urge restraint in the abuse of Planning and Development resources for political ends.
The countdown to the Chennai 2022 FIDE Presidential Election provides the global chess community with the opportunity to introspect and make the BEST MOVE.
VOTE TEAM BEST MOVE!