AS A RULE, I try to steer well clear of chess politics, but

sometimes the feeling of impending disaster is so strong that it is

hard to keep away.
Last month FIDE issued a "Memorandum on the
Commercialisation of FIDE", a twelve-page document signed by
his holiness the president. This memo outlined rather sweeping
plans, and seemed to come as rather a shock to large chunks of the
chess world. Although it was signed by Ilyumzhinov, it is not clear
who compiled it, but the head of the recently formed FIDE
Commerce PLC, Artiom Tarasov, seems to be a fairly central
figure.
According to the great memo, FIDE Commerce was created last
year "to exploit chess on a commercial basis". Those words worry
me.
As far as I know Mr. Tarasov had no prior involvement with chess
- something to do with the Russian lottery I believe. My first
encounter with him was at the opening ceremony of the World
Championship in Las Vegas, where he distributed "FIDE Club
International " cards with VISA emblems on them (I still have
mine, though I have yet to find anyone gullible enough to take it),
and promised to make all the players "very rich".
Perhaps making half the prize cheques bounce was not the most
impressive way to start.
Kirsan's document further informs us that "Another project is FIDE
Inform (a computerised linking system for all national
federations)". And.. " Arrangements have almost been concluded
for an international chess magazine for FIDE [news to me... aren't
there rather a lot of those around already?] and for TV programmes
on chess. I am aware that more than $500,000 US has been spent
on developing these projects."
It is phrased so casually that the reader might easily pass over this
last sentence, but... Half a million?? How? Where? And more
importantly whose???
Anyway the document goes on to propose that "all chess rights
belonging to FIDE be assigned to FIDE Commerce PLC for the
purpose of commercial exploitation..." with the proceeds to be
carved up between FIDE, FIDE Commerce and the W.C.F.
W.C.F? Oh, that's the World Chess Foundation, as opposed to the
W.C.C ( Council - an invention of Kasparov) or W.C.N ( Network
- an internet site, worth a visit if you are in the area) or W.C.Fields,
which I presume is where we play if they haven't finished building
the playing hall in time.
In case you wondered, page one explains that the WCF has covered
all the costs of the last two World Championships and "I (his
holiness) in turn have funded the WCF". Other than that I don't
know too much about it.
Curiously, in a company profile for FIDE Commerce, Tarasov
refers to it as the World Chess Fund. I guess that clarifies his
attitude. Still, with all these WCS around, it's no great surprise the
state that chess is in.
The memo also proposes that all National and Continental
Federations should assist FIDE Commerce as required, on a
commercial basis. As a sweetener it adds that when FIDE
Commerce goes public some of the shares should be made
available to FIDE officials, federations and individual members.
Ahhh... that would be the making us all very rich bit... Where did I
leave that card?? Well, so far, give or take a bit of skepticism, not
entirely unreasonable, but now we go on to the "Strategy of
Action"
"In order to achieve commercial success... we need to take certain
decisions... crucial for our collective survival... I shall explain the
two reasons why we must take them. The first.. is that FIDE has
just been appointed by the International Olympic Committee as the
sole body responsible for the game of Chess and its
Championships. [Really?? What exactly was FIDE before then??]
MY predecessor... and I can tell you... that the IOC expects total
order and discipline in our organisation. [Oops!] If we are to make
real progress in this field we have to streamline [Interesting choice
of word] our activities, like in other successful International
Federations. [Boxing maybe?]"
"The second reason is borne out by the fact that we have
competitors, who are actively taking steps to erode the financial
and economic benefits that should accrue to FIDE and its affiliate
organs/members.[ Boo! Hiss!! The ENEMY!! Errr... do you mean
the Great Gonzo and Tolya??] These people in concert with some
organisations are prepared to continue weakening us as an
organisation, until it could be said that FIDE is no longer viable
and that would indeed be a sad day for chess." [Gulp... Sorry Your
Holiness, I didn't mean to be frivolous Sir...]
"In our approaches to big corporate sponsors... they have
emphasized that... FIDE must have total management and control
of all activities related to chess." It is the proposals for dealing with
these aspects where things really get out of hand "(1) All
international tournaments must obtain prior approval... depending
on the... category of the tournament; (2) FIDE will require prior
approval for all tournaments with an average Elo of 2500+; (3)
FIDE shall... revise the fees payable for each level of tournament;
[Hmmmm... no guidelines mentioned... worrying!] (4) An annual
meeting... shall be held... to stabilize the calendar at least one year
in advance..."
This last point reminds me irresistibly of a GMA (remember that
one?) meeting in Moscow where the then president Jan Timman
carelessly stated that there was not room for a proposed new event
because "the calendar was already full". This brought the withering
response from Curt Hansen "I would like to point out to Mr.
Timman that though his calendar might be full, mine isn't!"
The same point here still seems valid... Isn't this extra regulation
going to discourage organizers??
The "Consequences of Failure to Obtain FIDE Approval for
Tournaments and Matches" does not make pleasant reading either
".. FIDE shall view such attempts as going against the principles
and interest of our organisation. The event will merely be classified
as a friendly or training event... not recognized for rating and title
purposes... FIDE and... National Federations shall... publicise their
negative reaction... and prevent their players from participating..."
Perhaps it is just the language used, but one has visions of kids
having their chess sets confiscated if they are not fully paid up
members of FIDE Club International, and when it subsequently
goes on about suspensions, bans and censures from FIDE. I get the
nasty feeling I could easily get banned from playing chess for...
errr... playing chess.
Also there is a clear misjudgment of the attitude of national
federations. Both the British and German Federations (and no
doubt many more by now) have already replied hostilely to the
threat of greater FIDE control over chess in their countries. Such
an unconditional surrender of sovereignty to a relatively unknown
organisation is not going to go down well anywhere much, whether
the federation in question is competent and responsible or not.
Personally I would much appreciate better central organization. By
way of illustration, in the last few months I have tried to play in
tournaments in Trinidad, Hawaii and Ecuador. All three events
were cancelled. Whilst the Hawaiian organisers were very correct
and agreed to compensate me, the Trinidadians simply ignored all
communications, and it was only by accident that I heard of the
cancellation. The real nightmare was Ecuador though. As it was a
round-robin event, sponsored by the Ecuadorian airline SAETA,
and all the players were known, I hardly thought it could go wrong.
However, two days before the event, when I was already in the
USA on my way, I received a phone call from Martha Fierro,
whose mother Elsie was the main organiser telling me that it had
been cancelled. She proposed that , since I could not change my
ticket, I would give some simuls and press conferences in return
for which they would cover my expenses and reimburse my ticket.
Skipping the gory details, I did the simuls, but I am still waiting for
my ticket to be reimbursed. Under such circumstances one would
expect the Ecuadorian federation to be of some help. In real life
though, they, like the Trinidadians, just ignore complaints.
Igor Nataf, who was also supposed to play in this abortive event,
and was also considerably inconvenienced by the Fierros,
commented to me in disgust that "they (the Fierros) treat players
like animals! They are only interested in money."
Back at the dreaded document, the next proposal is to create a
Grand Prix circuit of tournaments, known as "Big Helmet
Tournaments". (I guess this must sound better in Russian!)
However, it is not at all clear if this is intended to be made up of
the top closed tournaments - and therefore only of interest to ten or
so players - or if it will emulate the PCA series of some years ago.
The latter would of course be very welcome, and from what I have
heard from other sources I believe that this is the idea. Perhaps we
can have a second section, including the events I mentioned above,
to be known as the Crash Helmet Tournaments...
Things do not get any less contentious. Next comes a "Central
Finance System for FIDE". Here the solution to the worlds
problems is that "all members of FIDE will be encouraged to open
their accounts in the same financial institution." Hmmmm... a Bank
of FIDE... This one is really going to take a while to gain any
credibility. Not so long ago it would have conjured up images of
banknotes with a picture of a small smiling Filipino running off
into the distance with a bag marked "Swag" over his shoulder.
A final dubious proposal is to widen the Elo list down to 1500.
Presumably the intention is to increase revenue from rating fees.
But the Elo list is already pretty much unpublishably large. What
on earth would happen with millions more names added to it? And
why stop at 1500? Why not go down to zero?? Or maybe that is the
next step. Alternatively we could just move the Elo rating
department to Myanmar and forget it completely...
Well... it is nice to know that someone in FIDE has a vision, but I
fear very little of this document will be implemented in the
foreseeable future. In the meantime, there are rumours that the
forthcoming Istanbul Olympiad is seriously short of financial
backing and that Kasparov (Boo! Hiss!) will play a match against
Anand (or a victim of his own choosing) in London later this year...
(Heaven help the British Federation if they don't immediately shoot
all those involved!)
It does not seem at all unlikely that when Ilyumzhinov's plans get
blocked by the national federations, he could easily give up and go
back to Kalmykia, where there is less opposition, leaving the chess
world in bigger chaos than ever and seriously bankrupt both
financially and ideologically, leaving as a lasting memorial only a
steady stream of urine samples for the International Olympic
Committee.
Copyright 2000 Tony Miles. All rights reserved.