One of the important decisions at the upcoming FIDE Congress during the Chess Olympiad 2024 is the resolution by the Kyrgyzstan Chess Federation to restore the full membership rights of the Russian Chess Federation. Several sources of Chessdom.com confirmed that Russia “most probably” has the needed votes for the resolution to pass.
The resolution was proposed by Babur Tolbaev, the President of the Chess Federation of Kyrgyzstan. David Llada talks about systematically to reward submission and in this FIDE Congress we see Babur Tolbaev among the candidates for FIDE Ethics Commission chairman.
This is a major crossroad for chess. In view of the coming vote, BBC published an article, titled “Russia squares up to Ukraine on battle for control of chess” Will Vernon from BBC interviewed Malcolm Pein from the English Chess Federation.
Malcolm Pein said, “Russia’s control of Fide is absolute […] We have a sort of a manifestation of what used to be known in Soviet days as a power vertical. Any vote that Russia wants passed always gets passed. ”
Malcolm Pein fears that if Russia is let back into the chess fold, it would be a “huge propaganda coup”.
“They’ll be able to point to it and say, look, we’ve been allowed back into chess. They could demonstrate to their citizens they don’t have to suffer as many privations as they should be suffering because of the war.”
Malcolm Pein is, among many things, a major supporter of Ukrainian chess. Just recently Malcolm Pein and CSC donate to Ukrainian chess players.
BBC also adds a statement by the German Chess Federation head Ingrid Lauterbach, who are strictly against the Kyrgyz resolution. “You can see [pro-Russians] are trying to take over. It’s really worrying.”
The biggest worry for Dvorkovich and Russia is the entrance on the chess scene of Alexander Kamyshin. Just recently, Kamyshin said, ““I am starting my work at the Ukrainian Chess Federation with a challenging and important battle on the international front. Yes, it’s again about Russia. And no, we will not let them prevail, as we don’t let it on the battlefield.” Read the full statements and following actions here. For BBC Kamyshin said, “We’ve had 21 chess players killed in this war. It’s not fair to raise this issue in the agenda while Russia is killing our civilians, our chess players in Ukraine.”
Read the full BBC article here
