Post
by skweezit » Wed Aug 13, 2014 3:43 am
read this in the new york times newspaper today. semi-interesting.
"Kasparov Is Soundly Defeated in Bid to Lead Chess Federation"
Garry Kasparov, the former world chess champion, rarely tasted defeat in his long playing career. But on Monday, in an election for the presidency of the World Chess Federation, the game’s governing body, Mr. Kasparov received a stinging rebuke in his effort to unseat the incumbent, Kirsan N. Ilyumzhinov. Mr. Ilyumzhinov won handily, by a vote of 110 to 61, in Tromso, Norway.
Mr. Ilyumzhinov, 52, a native of Kalmykia, a poor Russian republic on the Caspian Sea, has led the chess federation since 1995, but not without controversy. He cultivated friendships with Saddam Hussein, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi and Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, and claims that he was abducted by space aliens one night in 1997. He also claims the game was invented by extraterrestrials.
Mr. Kasparov, 51, who lived in and played for Russia for many years, retired from competition in 2005. He has complained for years that Mr. Ilyumzhinov’s stewardship of the federation has discouraged corporate sponsorship and brought the group disrepute.
After the election, Mr. Ilyumzhinov issued a statement through a spokesman. “We have big differences with my opponent: I believe that chess should be clear of politics, while he thinks that they are a political tool.”
Mr. Kasparov has long been a critic of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and has sought to find ways to force him from power. Some people saw Mr. Kasparov’s running for the presidency of the federation as part of an effort to gain a more visible platform for his views.
In a pre-emptive move in the months leading up to the election, Russian embassies in many countries called chess officials in an effort to help the candidacy of Mr. Ilyumzhinov. Among those who said they had been contacted were officials in the Czech Republic, Ireland, Jamaica, Kenya, Myanmar, Nigeria, Norway and Singapore.
The election was held during the Chess Olympiad, a biennial competition that will end Thursday, and each of the participating countries had one vote.
The candidates crisscrossed the globe in a long, bitter campaign for support. Each side charged the other with trying to secure votes through dirty dealing and bribery, charges that were elevated after secret contracts signed by the candidates were put online this year.
One contract was between Mr. Kasparov and Ignatius Leong, a Singaporean chess official who was the general secretary of the federation and Mr. Ilyumzhinov’s lieutenant. In the contract, Mr. Kasparov, through his foundation, agreed to pay a scholastic chess foundation run by Mr. Leong up to $1 million in return for Mr. Leong’s securing votes for Mr. Kasparov’s election.
The other contract was between Mr. Ilyumzhinov and Andrew Paulson, the founder of an organization called Agon that was given the exclusive right to organize all top chess events. In the contract, Mr. Ilyumzhinov would have owned 51 percent of Agon and Mr. Paulson the rest. Both men said the contract was real but never went into effect.
Mr. Kasparov’s campaign also accused Mr. Ilyumzhinov, through his control of the federation, of replacing chess officials in some countries who were loyal to Mr. Kasparov with officials who supported Mr. Ilyumzhinov. Among the countries where Mr. Kasparov said this had happened were Afghanistan and Gabon.
In the end, all of the jockeying did not make a big difference, as the vote was no closer than it was in 2010, when Mr. Ilyumzhinov beat back a challenge by Anatoly Karpov, Mr. Kasparov’s longtime nemesis and his predecessor as world champion. In that election, Mr. Kasparov supported Mr. Karpov, but Mr. Ilyumzhinov won 95 to 55.
