Originally Posted by
Victor Itkin
It has been a long time since we at the CFC have seen such high pre-election activity. As it was already noted, all three candidates have done a number of good things for Canadian chess, and all have significant experience in chess life.
I would like to share my thoughts on the candidacy of Vadim Tsypin. I’ve been in touch with him personally, as far as I can remember, only once - at 2018 Canadian Open in Quebec City, where he was one of the organizers. I have very good memories of this tournament, and personally of Vadim as a knowledgeable professional and as a pleasant person. I think that from qualifications standpoint Vadim is a good candidate.
However, I am concerned by one caveat: Vadim is part of FIDE Management Board (which includes 11 members only) and receives certain financial compensation for this work. Unlike Mahmud Hassain, I am not certain if this fact is a personal conflict of interest. Yet I look at this situation from a different angle.
I am worried that FIDE executive team could pressure Vadim, as CFC representative, to make certain decisions (or even vote) in their favour – in a way that may be detrimental to Canadian chess – by exploiting the fact that Vadim is essentially their paid employee.
It’s no secret that GAZPROM – majority state-owned Russian global energy monopoly – recently became the General Partner of FIDE (this is stated on FIDE website), and that the current FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich – former Deputy Prime Minister of Russia – is a person from the inner circle of Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin (this in itself in no way diminishes Dvorkovich’s merits as FIDE President; he has managed to make several positive changes in FIDE since his election). Nevertheless, from my many years of experience in the USSR, structures with such leaders and general partners typically resolve many issues according to the principle “you for me and I for you”.
When voting in FIDE, the vote of a national federation in many cases is determined solely by its representative (in some important situations there may be a joint decision of CFC Executives). By placing Vadim Tsypin in two chairs at the same time, CFC will put itself in a vulnerable position. In such a scenario, won’t the CFC vote (voice) lose its independence?
In couple of his posts in this thread, Vadim, as an argument in his favour, noted that currently 3 FIDE Management Board members are simultaneously official representatives in FIDE of their respectful countries. These are representatives of Moldova, Qatar, and Kazakhstan. Not the most democratic countries in the world, let’s face it. I have little doubt that in exchange for the good for their national chess federations, these representatives “correctly” vote on all slippery issues. I’m not confident I’d want Canada to become the fourth country on this dubious list.
Thus, in my opinion, Vadim’s position on the FIDE Management Board serves as a detriment to his candidacy rather than strength. From this point of view, Victor Plotkin, as a candidate for this position, has an obvious advantage over other two candidates: he is financially independent from chess. Victor has never lived on chess earnings (on the contrary, from time to time he finances some chess projects with his own funds). As such, Victor will be able to represent CFC in FIDE without fear of financial repercussions. There is no doubt about that.
At the same time, Vadim Tsypin can successfully continue supporting Canadian chess just as he has done until now, holding a very honorable (paid) position at FIDE. In such an outcome, Canada will only benefit, as essentially it will have two representatives in FIDE instead of one.