Dear chess friends,
As the FIDE elections of 3 October are approaching, we are pleased to announce the launch of our “FIDE Forward” campaign website. Together with our social media accounts, it will be our main tool for direct communication with all FIDE delegates and for promoting the principles and values of our team.
On the 4th of July the three competing tickets were announced by FIDE, together with the list of Federation Presidents that nominated each ticket. The numbers confirm what is already known within our organization and the international chess community: that National Chess Federations do not tolerate the practice of “Money for Control” and instead opt for our main principle of “Dignity Above Money”.
The federations nominating each candidate were as follows on 4 July:
Ticket of Georgios Makropoulos - 64 federation presidents
Ticket of Arkady Dvorkovich - 13 federation presidents
Ticket of Nigel Short - 6 federation presidents
We are in the pleasant position to confirm that today, 26 July, the number of federations nominating our ticket has increased to more than 80 and we are confident that we will win the elections in the first round!
As expected, our opponents, some chess websites and the Russian press tried to downplay the significance of our public support and even eliminated it completely from their reports. The Russian Chess Federation took this practice to an extreme and mentioned only that the Russian candidate was nominated by 13 federations, conveniently omitting to mention our 64 nominations!
The overwhelming support that we have received forced Arkady Dvorkovich to go to any lengths to try and carry out the order he has been given from the Kremlin: to bring FIDE under Russian control at any cost. Suddenly we learn about invitations to the football World Cup for certain delegates from Africa, with expenses paid of course. There have been offers of free charter flights for African and delegations from the Americas to the Chess Olympiad, African chess forums are full of talk about 100’000 euros for “buying African dreams”.
We have seen numerous interventions of Russian government officials and ambassadors demanding support for Dvorkovich and pressing National Olympic Committees and Ministries of other countries. This is of course major interference by a foreign government in the internal affairs of national sport federations, and in the election process of an independent international organization, and it will be dealt with soon as it is a clear violation of IOC and FIDE principles.
What is at stake today is the political and financial independence of FIDE from any foreign government. Arkady Dvorkovich is the continuation of the old practice “Money for Control” and, unfortunately, FIDE today is in danger of becoming the tool of a certain government for achieving its geopolitical aims which have nothing to do with chess.
During the last two years, with Georgios Makropoulos as acting President, we have proven that FIDE can evolve into a stable and healthy organization. The reserve funds of FIDE have reached a high of 1.7 million euros through our hard work and commitment and by the end of the year we expect that the reserve funds will reach to 2.2 million euros. The whole Presidential and Executive Board of FIDE as well as the members of the FIDE Forward ticket have proven their integrity by turning their back to the “Money for Control” logic and taking all the right decisions to keep FIDE financially healthy and independent.
Unfortunately, as always, after Arkady Dvorkovich announced his candidacy, there are a few that have followed the smell of easy money, and try to secure financial deals for themselves. There are announcements on the internet which call for “negotiating” votes and other shady acts. These people are the same who were hoping that our team would be honest (and we are!) so they can be dishonest and negotiate their own improper deals.
We will remain honest until the end and we will fight for, and secure, the financial and political independence of FIDE so that each and every delegate will be proud to be a member of our organization. This is our dream and you cannot buy dreams, you should work for them!
The FIDE Forward team