In the history of FIDE, there has been only two Grandmasters — Max Euwe (1970-78) and Friorick Olafsson (1978-82) — who have been presidents of the world chess body. Maybe a few more vice-presidents in the game’s administration
However, in the last two decades or so, the influence of player-administrator in FIDE has been minimal. Britain’s GM Nigel Short, who is the current vice-president of FIDE, is keen to change it for the better of the sport.
The 54-year-old who fought the last FIDE presidential election (in October 2018) on an anti-corruption plank, said, at a press conference here on Thursday that the current body is walking the talk on a lot of issues.
Proxies abolished
He said one of the first things that FIDE, under new president Arkady Dvorkovich did, was to abolish proxies. “Since 2006, India has been casting the vote of Pakistan. So in the last four presidential elections, Pakistan’s votes were in the the pockets of India and the All India Chess Federation (AICF).
“This is actually keeping a federation in a state of subjugation. We have also introduced forensic audit. We [FIDE] are changing. It is a process and is not complete [yet].
“We are making FIDE a cleaner, more transparent and more democratic organisation,” said Short.
Bad reputation
The Grandmaster recalled how FIDE’s reputation took a beating when its bank account was closed by the Swiss USB Bank in February 2018 because of the more than two-year old sanctions of the US Treasury against the then FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.
“I think FIDE is improving. It had a reputation problem for a number of years,” he said.
On Viswanathan Anand’s future, Short said it unfair to expect the five-time World champion to keep winning always. “Chess is a young person’s game. People reach their peak like in other sports in their 20s and 30s.
“Vishy will be touching 50 in a few days. You simply cannot expect the guy to go on indefinitely.
“He is still in the top 10 in the world and to have such a relatively small decline shows what dedication, perseverance he has [shown] to stay at a very very high level.”
The three-time Commonwealth champion and World Championship challenger was critical of AICF for its anti-player policy and seeking to control everything.
“There are people within the AICF who are anti-player, if you ask me personally. And I know of people who don’t even like chess, who are in the AICF.
“I think AICF has veered too much towards total control,” observed Short.
