Reports | September 28, 2010 19:53

CAS court case against Ilyumzhinov dismissed

Ilyumzhinov vs KarpovThe case against Kirsan Ilyumzhinov at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland has been dismissed. The court decided that FIDE failed to properly verify the validity of the nominations, but ruled against Karpov and its backing federations because the wording of the FIDE regulations is insufficiently specific on the matter of nomination requirements.

As we reported last week, the CAS hearings started on Wednesday, September 15th in Lausanne, Switzerland. The Karpov team questioned the validity of Ilyumzhinov's ticket. Backed by the chess federations of the United States, France, Germany, Switzerland and Ukraine, Karpov asked the court to check the validity of Ilyumzhinov’s claim to have been nominated by the Russian Chess Federation as their candidate for the FIDE presidential elections. Moreover, the validity of Ilyumzhinov’s nomination by Argentina and Mexico was also questioned, as was Ms. Beatriz Marinello’s nomination by Chile and Brazil (relevant because a team must include a female delegate). Remarkably, the CAS in Lausanne still doesn't mention the case in their list of hearings. Last week we spoke with one of the CAS people involved in the case, but the only thing she could say was that "everything is confidential". Asked about when the ruling would be, the lady replied: "That I cannot tell you either, and even after there has been a ruling, the case might remain confidential."

Case dismissed

As it turned out, the ruling took place yesterday. It hasn't been published by the CAS itself yet, but both parties involved have confirmed the decision by the court and last night it was published on the FIDE website. Interestingly, the FIDE report ends with a link to the official CAS document (PDF, 27 pages), despite the fact that the first page says:

The parties are advised that this matter shall remain confidential pursuant to the provisions of Article R43 of the CAS Code, save for the publication of the award, further to the parties' agreement. The CAS anticipates publishing the award on its website tomorrow morning, Tuesday, 28 September 2010.

In its report, FIDE claims victory ("FIDE won the case against Karpov 2010 Inc. and five national federations") and on the Ilyumzhinov campaign site, the crowd goes wild:

The lawsuit, which was filed by White & Case, a Manhattan firm, sought to have the ticket of Kirsan Ilyumzhinov disqualified. BUT…JUSTICE PREVAILED.


It has been a testing time for the “One World. One Vision.” Team. We have had to face countless attacks by the Karpov Team.  We have had to defend ourselves in court, we have had to defend ourselves against malicious rumors and verbal attacks, we have had to face enormous pressure – but….AGAIN…WE PREVAILED.

We have succeeded in the face of adversity and with 94 National Federations supporting us so far, WE WILL WIN!

However, it seems highly inaccurate to speak of a victory. As can be read in the PDF document, the CAS has determined that FIDE has failed to exercise its duty to verify the validity of the nominations. This is best demonstrated by a logical inconsistency in the FIDE Statutes (we quote the CAS document):

Finally, the Panel's conclusion [that FIDE has failed to exercise its duty to verify the validity of the nominations - CV] is confirmed by the following considerations: Article 16.3 of the FIDE Statutes provides that decisions made by the GA "concerning [...] the electoral regulations will come into effect on the last day of the General Assembly, after the General Assembly is closed [...]". On this basis alone, the GA cannot be the proper forum to make decisions respecting the eligibility of nominations, the reason being that the decision regarding eligibility would not become effective until after the vote on the election would have to take place.

Besides, Ilyumzhinov's claim above that "The court in Lausanne confirmed legitimacy [sic] of my nomination to the post of the President of FIDE by the Russian Chess Federation" is not true. The CAS specifically declined to test the Russian nominations, declaring it irrelevant for reasons that will become clear below.

FIDE regulations insufficiently specific

Nonetheless, the CAS had to rule against Karpov and its backing federations because the wording of the FIDE regulations is insufficiently specific on the matter of nomination requirements. According to the FIDE Electorial Regulations a nominated person has to be a member of the nominating federation for at least a year. But the wording in section 1.2 of the Electorial Regulations is crucial, as it has three different ways of indicating the "duty" to be fulfilled:

- "nominations [...] must reach the FIDE Secretariat [...]" - "to be elected, each candidate shall be nominated [...]" and - "he/she should have been a member [...]" [emphasis added]

So the Karpov side was right in most of its claims, but because of the above, the CAS Panel decided:

Contrary to what has been suggested at the hearing, one cannot ignore that according to the text of Section 1.2 of the EL membership is a "should-requirement" as opposed to "must" or "shall". The Panel therefore considers that the requirement of a one-year membership is not mandatory but recommendatory.


"Mr Ilyumzhimov has been properly nominated by the federations of Mexico/Argentina" [...] "Ms. Marinello has been validly nominated by the federations of Chile and Brazil".

In other words: Ilyumzhinov's ticket wasn't disqualified by the CAS in Lausanne because of poor formulated regulations, which was never discovered before because thus far nobody needed to check these regulations. And it seems the chess world got stuck in a Catch-22 in that it might need a new FIDE President to improve the regulations that kept the incumbent one for running for a new term.

Elections - when?

The FIDE Presidential elections are scheduled for tomorrow, but the CAS PDF document speaks of "September 30th". In fact it wouldn't be the first time if the elections were moved from the first day of the General Assembly to the last, and so it's possible that it won't take place until next Saturday, October 2nd. Despite the unfortunate result in Lausanne, the Karpov team seems confident. In their reaction to the court's decision, on the Karpov campaign site they write in bold:

While we are disappointed that Kirsan’s administration will not be directly punished for abusing FIDE powers and ignoring regulations, we look forward to winning the vote in Khanty-Mansiysk!

'The kings are making the FIDE officials nervous'

Sergey Shipov, who is a close friend of Garry Kasprov, yesterday wrote the following at his LiveJournal blog (text translated by Colin).

"By the way, on the kings. They’re there, in Khanty. They’re walking around the tournament hall, collecting crowds of admirers and making the arbiters and FIDE officials nervous. They’re using their personal grandeur to save a pile of money in the election campaign. After all, the FIDE Congress has begun and the warring sides are fighting over the votes of the delegates. FIDE, i.e. Ilyumzhinov’s team, are giving out presents, as usual. In their hands they’ve got the administrative resources, and money. While the KarKas team has new hopes, the grandeur of champions, the negative impression years of Ilyumzhinov rule have left and… I hope, also money. Yes, actually, I’m sure of that. Without the damned stuff you can’t get anywhere. One of the greats is confident of victory. Saying they’ll do it even without the Court in Lausanne. An optimist, both in chess and in life! The other, as I understand it, is more cautious in his evaluations. He’s more cautious in general… However, he’s very active. It’s clear that there are serious positional justifications for an attack. And if Karpov attacks it means that it’s been calculated."

Peter Doggers's picture
Author: Peter Doggers



kees's picture

@ Colin: I have followed the campaign as well as possible meaning that I have followed all relevant publications on chessbase, chessvibes, the blog of kevin spraggett, chessdom, onefide. fide, karpov2010, chess in translation and the daily dirt of mig greencard so my opinion is not based on a short impression but on quite a balanced bucket of sources. What strikes me is that one camp is completely allergic to Ilyumzhinov. If the man were radio-active, he would not provoke stronger reactions. It is very bon ton to bash Ilyumzhinov and his colourful quotes, plans and projects. From a chess perspective, his contribution or that of his board has been substantial. Quite a solid track record in organizing or if necessary 'saving' important tournaments. Olympiads have only gotten bigger. Tromso is talking about a 20 million budget. Chess in school is agressively being promoted worldwide. The number of federations has grown. Not much to despise the man about. So far, the so called high profile fund raisers in New York and London combined only cover about half the campaign cost (100.000) of the Karpov campaign. The live auction in New York (very entertaining by the way) and the sale of the Karpov-week in Moscow several thousands of euros below the intrinsic value did not give a very promising perspective on the fund-raising possibilities.

Fide should look forward and not backward. The future or the growth market does not lay in London, Paris or New York but indeed in Baghdad, Beijing, Brasilia and Bamako. The enormous fame of the two K's in those days and in those cities is something that was. It is not healthy or rational to expect it to come back just because two chess pensionados and a lot of chess fans who cherish their great history want it to. Maybe those days and that kind of success and prestige will come back when the (western) chess world stops wanting to relive the past and let's the rest of the world grow and share in the fun.

Lastly I do agree that is also not good to have the most important tournaments only in a relatively confined part of the world. Looking at the productive worldtrips by the two presidential candidates, FIDE should be able to find more diverse locations in the long run.

Bert de Bruut's picture

Karpov is not a crook but a pragmatic opportunist, Ilyumzhinov is a criminal and a lunatic.

kees's picture

When only looking at the summary of the pdf in the end and the financial consequences that are distributed among the claimant and respondent, it seems that there is probably a bit more to this ruling than just the word play described in this article. An interesting detail that is now only published in the ruling and that untill now was not reveiled by either the Karpov or the Ilyumzhinov campaign (while both were very well aware of it) is that Karpov appears not to have been a member of the Swiss federation and therefore, his candadacy from this federation was not legitimate. Funny...

Anyhow, as a non-chess player (or Karpov or Ilyumzhinov associate) I find it interesting to see how the 'camps' deal with their campaigns and for the moment strongly prefer the Ilyumzhinov approach to the campaign.

When looking at the chessbase report on the General Assemblee, the degree of international organization of FIDE with so limited means is quite impressive. Other than a remarkable and not attributed quote by Kasparov, the Ilyumzhinov campaign seems to have refrained from negative campaigning and has relied on outbidding and outperforming the Karpov campaign both before and during the election campaign. In worldwide chess organization, looking at the growing number of associated federations and their development, Ilyumzhinov has been quite succesful after and despite of the opportunistic but not very professional moves of the 13th world chess champion that split the (then even smaller) chessworld. What remains is a (according to some modestly) positive track record in chess for Ilyumzhinov. The advancements of fide are fact, not speculation. What is speculation and indeed quite fascinating is everything around the person of Ilyumzhinov. He does participate in interviews run by critical western media and he is not afraid to say what he seems to sincerely believe.

Western federations and politicians could every now and then look further than just their perception of reality and refrain from judging too fast. Worldwide (chess) development must always be seen in a historical context.

This is a in many aspects fascinating campaign and (just) one of these aspects is the almost fundamental selfrighteousness of some western federations, one western campaign and some western (chess) media.

A succesful presidential campaign in 2014 will depend on the ability to conduct a truly
global campaign and in accepting and embracing global differences. The rest of the world doest not accept being treated as secondary and run from Europe and / or the United States. With the upcoming of economies such as Brazil, India and China, the economic / power ground for such an outdated political model is vanishing everywhere and apparently has already vanished in chess. The world has become bigger than Europe, not in the last place thanks to the FIDE of Ilyumzhinov.

By the way, it would however not be a bad idea to have some sort of term limit. In The Netherlands, a term limit of 12 years is becoming quite comon / the standard.

reality check's picture

If both these guys are crooks, illyumzhinov appears tp be the more saavy.

Arne Moll's picture

The court has officially ruled that the regulations are vague and ambiguous. No wonder Ilyumzhinov regards this as a victory, after all everything he ever says or promises is vague and ambiguous.

Bert de Bruut's picture

@Kees: To call the track record of Ilyumzhinov "positive" is preposterous.

Colin McGourty's picture

@Kees: "the Ilyumzhinov campaign seems to have refrained from negative campaigning"

Having followed this campaign very closely I can assure you that nothing could possibly be further from the truth than that statement. Just have a look at the website - or if you want I can drag up an almost limitless number of insults and misrepresentations coming from Ilyumzhinov and such pleasant characters as Makropoulos.

Actually one of the most successful bits of negative campaigning has been to pretend that while Karpov has been negative Ilyumzhinov has somehow fought a constructive campaign. Which is patently absurd.

Zooty's picture

"From a chess perspective, his contribution or that of his board has been substantial."
Kees - you got to be joking. Chess was never in such a terrible state than it is today. Even if Kirsan opens a new "chess school" in Bamako every day.

Tommy_1's picture

@Arne Moll: Are you sure that your comments are not completely biased? Where does it say that the court "has officially ruled that the regulations are vague and ambiguous"?

noyb's picture

Sounds like the court said "You're right, but FIDE's so lame we can't help you do anything about it."

kees's picture

@ Zooty: maybe you can elaborate on that terrible state. Economic growth has given people more choice and the internet has made the real size of the chess world visible (not only to the chess fans themselves). But it is also making visible that chess is being grown in places that we 30 or 40 years ago had not heard of and the world number ones are getting younger and younger!

If you mean by terrible state that there is no more cold war to propel chess and no more western economic boom combined with underdeveloped competing sports(organizations) to subsidize the hobby of a happy few you are right. But the global chess organization (despite giants such as euwe) was in that day was no way match for the FIDE organization nowadays. It's life was just a little bit more easy.

The world has changed. Fide has achieved a lot. And Ilyumzhinov .... I don't know.

kees's picture

By the way I took the trouble of reading the entire pdf and I am not relying on the interpretations of the Karpov or Ilyumzhinov camp and the media on both sides....
I can recommend it to everyone, interesting stuff!

Zooty's picture

Chess is in the western countries close to non-existent these days.
And you can keep praising Ilyumzhinov for "developing" chess in some obscure countries as long as you like to - it does not really have any relevance.
Also your laudation of FIDE's organisational skills sound strange - just have a look at the recent world cup series. For me that looked more like a disaster.
Not to speak of candidates tournaments, junior events, etc. etc .......

test's picture

A case based on a technicality was thrown out because of a technicality. Poetic justice.

Get them to court for rigging the election: now that is a case.

kees's picture

@Zooty: Chess never was that big. Again, the internet and growing competition from other sports in the media are responsible. Besides that, of course there also has been a negative trend. But only from a small fraction of society to a smaller fraction of society.

Obscure: you illustrate exactly the point I have been making. Calling countries obscure and thinking of them as passive entities without a history, without a future, without people capable of appreciating the game of chess seems shortsighted.

When complaining about the tournament cycles, look at how many tournaments FIDE is organizing now and how many tournaments there were then. I agree that changes should be implemented wisely. It should be noted however that Karpov and Kasparov are not exactly the people who should attack FIDE on the continuity of the world championship cycle........(!!!)

kees's picture

@test: Very well put. Let the elections come!

test's picture

@ kees; Thx but I can't say I agree with most of your comments. You seem very apologetic towards Kirsan. He has a history of corruption; buying votes or threatening delegates his preferred method to win the elections is just one example.

Was just told by sweet delegate he "hopes to God Karpov wins" but he can't vote or Kirsan's man will have him fired from his govt job. Nice.
Kirsan to Peru Fed: "Put my guy back in charge or your teams don't play the Olympiad they already registered for." Classy stuff.

Guillaume's picture

@kees: It sounds like you're living in this fantasy world where all of Iliumjinov's promises were fulfilled. Lucky you.

Unfortunately for us, here on this planet they all evaporated into thin air.

Arne Moll's picture

@kees: even if Kirsan only had positive chess events to boast - which he definitely hasn't - you can't deny the fact that he is horrible PR for chess (in fact doesn't seem all that interested in chess as a game) and has a more than dubious track record as a president of Kalmykia and indeed president of the World Chess Federation, which he basically treated as his personal toy for 15 years.
But even if we are extremely generous and ignore this as well, there's still the suspicion of being involved in the murder of a journalist who criticized him (two of his associates were convicted for it) and for facing numerous eye-witness accounts of bribing federation members during the previous Olympiad.
Surely you'll agree that in assessing someone's qualities we shouldn't only look at the positive sides of things (however hard they may be to find) but also the negative aspects? I'd say the negative clearly outweighs the positive in Kirsan's case. One really doesn't have to be all that subjective to come to that conclusion. It's pretty much basic logic.

Castro's picture

Have you read what GM Kevin Spraggett wrote on this?
It is worthy...

Arne Moll's picture

Worthy of a good laugh, Castro? He doesn't even seem to have understood the verdict.

Gilgamesh James's picture

I really hope people don´t lose the oportunity to take Kirsan Out of the ring: he is too much in here: GO OUT KIRSAN, PLEASE!!!!!

kees's picture

I would prefer nuance. There is no nuance when people start talking about FIDE or Ilyumzhinov. It degrades the discussion and therefore the game of chess. Which is exactly what you all seem to want to prevent from happening.

A tweet with an anonymous source to me is pretty worthless information especially knowing that chessninja is in the Karpov camp and this thread proves that once in a camp, it is apparently very difficult to provide the public with some useful or objective information. Curious if Ilyumzhinov has this kind of power in 94 countries around the world.

Buying votes: what is new? The Karpov campaign is doing exactly the same. During the presidential campaign, a lot of attention and money was given (or promised) by both candidates.

@ Guillaume: I do not see much fantasy in the grand prix tournaments or the wc match or the olympiad in khanty mansiisk or the world youth championship in poland or the campomanes memorial or the cuzco tournament or the highly organized FIDE commissions.

@ Arne: I agree that in the western media he is far from the chess icon you're looking for. Here of course we like to see and hear more of Magnus Carlsen, but the same can be said of most grandmasters and maybe even most chess players. You are quite a special bread. But again, with Ilyumzhinov in this respect you guys seem to have won the lottery, I give that much to you.

With suspicion I can do not very much. I only see the interviews on tv and in newspapers and on websites with Ilyumzhinov and I have some sort of appreciation for his open mind, politeness and positiveness. The rest of his character is a mystery to me and probably most if not all other observers. Being different doesnt mean being mad and being mad doenst mean being a murderer although it doesnt exclude either. But in the west, we appreciate the principle innocent untill proven guilty.

A lot of accusations are just assumptions withouth proof. Are the accusers to lazy or to incompetent, is Ilyumzhinov that smart or is there simply no proof.

bayde's picture

My God kees, you must be one of Kirsan's extraterrestrials. The proof is the incompetence with which the FIDE team has managed the World Championship cycle for the last fifteen years. Switching formats on a whim. Switching locations when "sponsors" turn out to be fictional. Delaying and rescheduling competitions because they are left completely unorganized. Oh, and letting one WC player view videos of the other player in his restroom, unbeknownst to the other, causing total chaos! Really classy and fair, that. All of these have happened, and it is FACT. The WC is in a mess. We were supposed to have had a Candidates Tournament by now, I believe. But that depends on which "schedule" you consult. There are so many that I am not sure!

This is the most important thing that FIDE does, and it cannot successfully do it to save its life. More of the same is what you want... more of the same is what you are going to get.

Guillaume's picture

@kees: Again, in your fantasy world the grand prix tournaments and the wc championship may have beem tremendous successes, but here on planet earth several grand prix tournaments were cancelled and the world championship has been a mess when it was not a disgrace for chess (remember Elista 2006). As for the cuzco tournament... lol, the what?

Castro's picture


I'm wondering, because of course I didn't read everything, and so I can't argue with you.
But I read something --- that both Spraggett and Chessbase quote and CV didn't --- which seems to remove from Karpov & allies any posible reason on the invalidation of Kirsan's ticket.
Could you comment in few words pls (as you're surely inside, as KS and CB, and I'm not)?

Castro's picture

Ah, and with an answer also to the question

"Even if Karpov's claims were invalid because of mere tiny formal/vocabulary reasons of the regulations, wouldn't Spraggett still be right? Karpov must, in any case, then, either bluffing, either joking, either trying to fool us all, and anyway throwing out (not just his) time and money, because what the hell is he sueing?? Didn't HE and his attorneys read the regulations?

Bartleby's picture


> as a non-chess player (or Karpov or Ilyumzhinov associate)

Are you sure about that?

Bert de Bruut's picture

@Kees "is Ilyumzhinov that smart or is there simply no proof." Get out of Kirsan's ass, fanboy.

Castro's picture

Low level!
Specialy because disguising lack of answer with pseudo-smart degrading talk.

Joe's picture

Let's burn the heretic! (/sarcasm)

You could take some things kees' says seriously. He has some valid points I think. If you think he's wrong you could state so in a polite manner. I think some nuance wouldn't hurt the debate tbh.

kees's picture

I do not now 'the truth' either but it is obvious that a lot of chess players from the west are only seeing and reading what they want to see and what they want to read. Kirsan is bad, Karpov is good. Karpov president and everything is solved. Kirsan makes a pigs breakfast out of everything. I just think that the above conclusions are childish and naive. I am not a big Kirsan supporter. Also I think, that he should not eternally be president. Actually, it would be a good idea to have some (generous) term limit for example 12 or maybe even 16 years. But then it must be over because every organization must renew itself and give space to new people and creativity to take the lead. It is commendable dat Karpov is willing to dedicate himself to the presidency. But I strongly dislike his negative and childish campaign. Karpov probably wants to be somebody / something he is not. From the pictorial and video material it is obvious that he is no leadermaterial. Ilyumzhinov on the other hand seems comfortable in his role. Of course, these last remarks are my personal impression...

Arne Moll's picture

@Castro, what is it you're trying to say? The court dismissed the case because FIDE made a mess of its own regulations. It basically said to Karpov: "sorry, but we can't do anything for you because your World Federation made such a mess of things."
How can this - ever - be a victory for FIDE? If anything, it proves Karpov is right in much of his criticism.
Pretty much the same thing applies to the nominations. As the article states literally, the CAS has determined that FIDE has failed to exercise its duty to verify the validity of the nominations. Again, how can this - ever - be a victory for FIDE? How is this anything else but a validation of the criticism of the Karpov team?

ll's picture

I hear that Kirsan also has been properly nominated by the venusian and the martian chess federations. Let's hope Karpov can save the Earth!

bayde's picture

Kees: Bessel Kok tried a dignified campaign. It didn't work. It could not overcome the power of bribery. This is an attempt to fight at Kirsan's level, i.e. no holds barred, as he will not be removed otherwise.

And if Kirsan is not removed somehow, he *will* be President-for-life. He clearly thought that was his job in Kalmykia, but Dima had other ideas.

Castro's picture


As I told before, maybe you're simply right, and I just retained part of the issue. And so, forcefully, I'm not "trying to say" anything very deep.
But you're not answering either, are you?

As for your question "How can it be a victory for FIDE", I can merely try to be a bit of a "devil's attourney", by explaining that they considered having been under Karpov's (presumely vicious) atack. They call atention for the fact that Karpov failed in that. So they won, they resisted and prevailed. And now, was Karpov's move vicious or not? At least bluff and false information and triunfalism?
Who's triunfalisms is to be criticised: That of KK or this recent FIDE one?
My weak state of information tells me both are over the top, at least a little ridiculous.
But vicious/false, I don't know which is more. That's why I asked.
It looks like you're somewhat in denyal, because (ridiculous or not), I don't understand why you can see a victory for Kirsan in it! The enemy had a big drawback. It's a win! Or why not?
That Kirsan's FIDE had (lots of) faults, regulations included, sure! Why not?
But the issue here is the failing of Karpov's atempts in trial, or not?
What am I missing in that?
And why CB and KS published those "for the sake of completion" (and other) parts, and you don't?
They seem to put Karpov's claims... simply away!

Castro's picture

*why CAN'T you see a victory...

kees's picture

@bayde: if we leave the stories about aliens and accusations of corruption alone, then I agree that it is not healthy to have one president for too long. That being said, in this election it will probably be not a very bad outcome to have Ilyumzhinov for yet another and for the sake of organizational and democratic renewal last term elected. The Karpov campaign just doesn't inspire a lot of trust on pretty much every point they criticize Ilyumzhinov on. The difference is, that Ilyumzhinov - apart from ideological complaints from western perspective - has quite a reasonable chess record for the difficult market that is chess.

Maybe Kok was one or two elections too early. Also those 'obscure' chess countries develop themselves as well as FIDE develops itself. And maybe there are one or more tricks that Kok nowadays would have done differently also. Development along democratic lines takes some time especially in primitive worlds such as that of chess :-).

@ Arne: of course, the whole Karpov case in Lausanne was from a childish perspective. If we can not win on merit or on our relations with the voter, we try it on technicality / juridisation of the problem. It is a tendency we seem to see everymore often also in the real world and it is very good for lawyers but for mankind... One can never make rules for every situation. Good laws / rules leave space for human thinking. The court in Lausanne (by the way comprised of and consulted by the brightest juridical minds and philosophers) have (in my opinion wisely) decided to draw a conclusion in the spirit of the rules. Also, note that the Karpov campaign made a very basic (and for people with some judiciary background amateurish) mistake by going directly to TAS without following procedure in the competent Russian body or bodies. The court ruled that most costs are for the complaining side.
The court ruled that FIDE did not (from a partison point of view) misrepresent facts on its website. The court announced that the Karpov campaign had to retract Karpovs candidacy by the Swiss federation because Karpov was not a member of that federation. Quite funny when considering what this case was all about and who started it. The court also noted that Argentina's nomination of Ilyumzhinov could not be retracted after the June deadline so probably the same applies for the Swiss nomination of Karpov, but still....

Anyway it was interesting and fun on this day-off, have a good night everybody and let's see what the election result will be!

anonchess's picture

Karpov' team lost so badly at CAS that the judgment requires them to compensate FIDE for expenses. CHF35000 to be exact.



lefty's picture

If the vote turns out to be a tie, will karpov and Ilyumzhinov have to settle it in a blitz match? and if that turns out tied, an armageddon game perhaps?

kees's picture

Again a very interesting post on the blog of Kevin Spraggett. Also an interesting video with press conference by the Karpov campaign on Europe Echecs.

hansen's picture

i like this website but it's not too enjoyable of a read when the bias is so strong and evident on topics such as these.

kees's picture

@ DR AHMED: Please study the composition of the arbitration court for this case. Finally, some wise men (and not some biased chess fanatics) have spoken out. Ignoring their reasoning by screaming out loud is the reaction of a (young) child.

@ Everyone:

Also a not unimportant point that yet has to be made:

- In spite of the claims by the Karpov campaign in this case and on their website it is now clear that the Karpov campaign did not understand the working of the candidation from the RCF or - more likely because it did not fit into their plan - they wished to ignore that the Dvorkovich letter of late June was the only relevant voice from RCF. Almost as if living in a fantasy world...

Have a good day everyone!

CAL|Daniel's picture

How come no one ever attacks the officials that were bribed?? Remember it takes two to tango.

Zooty's picture

kees: "...that the Dvorkovich letter of late June was the only relevant voice from RCF..."

Sounds like Kirsan himself speaking. Or maybe Zurab.

kees's picture

@ Zooty: It is a simple matter of competent authority and has got nothing do with being for or against a candidate. I understand that right now there is a problem with two delegates from Peru. Also here is the question who is the competent authority. Maybe in this case, the Karpov camp is right. But I am not sure as I do not know the details of the situation and the information on the campaign websites is just too biased to base any conclusions on whereas the situation in the case of the RCF is very clear.

Zooty's picture

kees: "It is a simple matter of competent authority"

Yes it is. Just like Pinochet was the competent authority in Chile from 12.9.1973 onwards.

By the way - the one Peruvian candidate has official letters from his federation and from his ministry of sports to show - the other has Kirsan's words. Really unclear?

Martin's picture

Kees, you are ---deleted--- no need for this in the discussion, in our opinion

Or maybe you are Kirsan or his good friend and partner in crime Joseph Blatter in own person.

Close to everyone in developed chess worlds agree Kirsan represents NOTHING positive for FIDE. Only the shady small chess federations support him. Which means nothing, cuz they were bribed for years.
You surely understand that if the FIDE regulations were any competent, they would assign votes based on number of members and he would be nowhere.

By the way, I agree that the Karpov campaign was rather dirty as well. Youy're right about that. But guess what: he'll have to drag himself down to Kirsan's level to be able to beat him. And even then he might not, but we'll see.
Also, I am not 100% sure Karpov will do terrific, but for sure he can't do anything worse then Kirsan. And in any case he's an honourable figure.

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