4.6 Nominations for FIDE Representative

[Lyle Craver]

Nominations for the Office of FIDE Representative are now open

[Vladimir Drkulec]

I nominate Hal Bond for FIDE Representative.

[Hal Bond]

Thank you Vlad. As indicated I am willing to stand.

[Sasha Starr]

Thank you Vlad. As indicated I am willing to stand.

Please explain this really quite peculiar situation. Organizers of the Olympiad in Tromso had offered you a seniors arbiter's position. You've declined and will not be an arbiter at the Olympiad! It means that you will be going there just as a delegate from CFC. Do you need a free time to campaign on site for Kirsan Ilyumzhinov?

Were you offered something else by KI: either VP position or chairmanship of the arbiters commission?

[Hal Bond]

Senior Arbiter? I received no such offer. A GK messenger offered me a junior (match arbiter) position, along with a promise of more gigs for more money, if I would butt out of the election process. The Chief Arbiter for the Olympiad, who was also Chief at the Candidates, asked me if I was interested in a Senior post (not an offer, just an inquiry) and I told him that as a Delegate and Zone President I would have to miss some rounds, which was unfair to the Chief Arbiter as well as those IA's and FA's who were hoping for one of the Arbiting spots. I was an Arbiter and Delegate/Zone President at 2 Olympiads. I concluded that I could not serve Canada adequately if I was Arbiting. Beyond the General Assembly where voting will occur, I serve on 2 Commissions (volunteer) and attend as many of the other Commission meetings as I can. Often these meetings clash with the rounds. The other problem is that I am co-organizer of the Kitchener Chess Festival and I will not arrive until August 6.

I have received no offer from KI either. Your attempts to discredit me are offensive.

[Sasha Starr]

Senior Arbiter? I received no such offer. A GK messenger offered me a junior (match arbiter) position, along with a promise of more gigs for more money, if I would butt out of the election process. The Chief Arbiter for the Olympiad, who was also Chief at the Candidates, asked me if I was interested in a Senior post (not an offer, just an inquiry) and I told him that as a Delegate and Zone President I would have to miss some rounds, which was unfair to the Chief Arbiter as well as those IA's and FA's who were hoping for one of the Arbiting spots. I was an Arbiter and Delegate/Zone President at 2 Olympiads. I concluded that I could not serve Canada adequately if I was Arbiting. Beyond the General Assembly where voting will occur, I serve on 2 Commissions (volunteer) and attend as many of the other Commission meetings as I can. Often these meetings clash with the rounds. The other problem is that I am co-organizer of the Kitchener Chess Festival and I will not arrive until August 6.

I have received no offer from KI either. Your attempts to discredit me are offensive.

Not at all. I'm trying to get to the bottom of this embarrassing endorsement. There were YOU and Vlad who pushed it through in spite of the fact that there was nobody else who really wanted it. I've carefully read all the Governors' discussions about the subject. And only two of you were stubbornly doing everything possible and impossible just to get NOT only the CFC's VOTE for KI, or to abstain, which many Governors felt the was the right thing to do, but the ENDORSEMENT! Hope you are not serious about the $80,000.00 "deal" - so there must be an explanation for yours and Vlad's efforts! I know you as a pragmatic man, and yet you've chased away the biggest sponsor of CHESS in Canada, derailed any possibility to work with Kasparov Chess Foundation! Obviously there must be very serious reasons for you to do what you've done... And in January you told me that you will not get involved in this issue because of the conflict of interest - you were getting the arbiter's assignments of the top FIDE events. I'm trying to get to the bottom of it.