Karpov Disputes Rival’s Nominations
By DYLAN LOEB MCCLAINLast week, the World Chess Federation, which is also known by the acronym FIDE (for Fédération Internationale des Échecs) announced the two slates of candidates for its top offices. The announcement said that the incumbent, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, had been nominated by Russia, Argentina and Mexico, while the challenger, Anatoly Karpov, had been nominated by France, Germany and Switzerland.
Both men are Russian and there had been a protracted and bitter fight to secure the nomination of the Russian Chess Federation.
The FIDE announcement also included minutes from a meeting of the Russian Chess Federation at which the authority to act on the federation’s behalf was given to Arkady V. Dvorkovich, a senior Kremlin advisor. The FIDE announcement included letters from Dvorkovich stating that Ilyumzhinov was the nominee of the Russian Chess Federation.
Evidently, this was all news to Karpov.
In submitting his slate to FIDE last week, Karpov indicated that he was the nominee of the Russian federation, as shown on his campaign Web site.
Unhappy about the information published on FIDE’s Web site, Karpov asked for all the nominating documents for Ilyumzhinov and his slate. He said that the request was refused, so he has ratcheted up the pressure.
Saturday, he released a letter from Ank Santens, a partner at White & Case, a Manhattan law firm, to David Jarett, FIDE’s executive director, in which Karpov’s campaign demanded proof of the nomination documentation for Ilyumzhinov and his team by Tuesday, July 6. The letter also demanded that the statements from the Russian Federation be removed from the Web site because they are partisan. If these actions are not taken, Santens wrote that there may be legal action.
What that means is not specified by the letter, but presumably Karpov might sue. Where is another question as FIDE is an international organization based in Athens, though the Court for Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland, has been the venue for previous disputes involving the federation.
Beyond questioning Ilyumzhinov’s nomination by Russia, the letter lays out a battle plan for challenging his over all nomination and his slate. It demands proof that Ilyumzhinov is a member of the Argentinian and Mexico federations, as membership in a federation for at least a year is required to be nominated by it.
More interestingly, the letter demands that Beatriz Marinello, who is running for vice president on Ilyumzhinov’s slate, provide proof that she is a member of the federations of Chile and Brazil, the countries that are listed as nominating her.
Marinello is from Chile, but she has lived in the United States for 20 years. (She is planning to play in the United States Women’s Championship starting Friday in St. Louis.) She was president of the United States Chess Federation from 2003 to 2005, but the federation’s board did not support her nomination to be vice president. Instead, it has backed Richard A. Conn Jr. as Karpov’s deputy president.
As each candidate is required to have a slate to fill each major office in the federation, and to have at least one candidate be a woman, Karpov may be hoping to invalidate Ilyumzhinov’s candidacy by trying to eliminate Marinello from his ticket.
Both men are Russian and there had been a protracted and bitter fight to secure the nomination of the Russian Chess Federation.
The FIDE announcement also included minutes from a meeting of the Russian Chess Federation at which the authority to act on the federation’s behalf was given to Arkady V. Dvorkovich, a senior Kremlin advisor. The FIDE announcement included letters from Dvorkovich stating that Ilyumzhinov was the nominee of the Russian Chess Federation.
Evidently, this was all news to Karpov.
In submitting his slate to FIDE last week, Karpov indicated that he was the nominee of the Russian federation, as shown on his campaign Web site.
Unhappy about the information published on FIDE’s Web site, Karpov asked for all the nominating documents for Ilyumzhinov and his slate. He said that the request was refused, so he has ratcheted up the pressure.
Saturday, he released a letter from Ank Santens, a partner at White & Case, a Manhattan law firm, to David Jarett, FIDE’s executive director, in which Karpov’s campaign demanded proof of the nomination documentation for Ilyumzhinov and his team by Tuesday, July 6. The letter also demanded that the statements from the Russian Federation be removed from the Web site because they are partisan. If these actions are not taken, Santens wrote that there may be legal action.
What that means is not specified by the letter, but presumably Karpov might sue. Where is another question as FIDE is an international organization based in Athens, though the Court for Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland, has been the venue for previous disputes involving the federation.
Beyond questioning Ilyumzhinov’s nomination by Russia, the letter lays out a battle plan for challenging his over all nomination and his slate. It demands proof that Ilyumzhinov is a member of the Argentinian and Mexico federations, as membership in a federation for at least a year is required to be nominated by it.
More interestingly, the letter demands that Beatriz Marinello, who is running for vice president on Ilyumzhinov’s slate, provide proof that she is a member of the federations of Chile and Brazil, the countries that are listed as nominating her.
Marinello is from Chile, but she has lived in the United States for 20 years. (She is planning to play in the United States Women’s Championship starting Friday in St. Louis.) She was president of the United States Chess Federation from 2003 to 2005, but the federation’s board did not support her nomination to be vice president. Instead, it has backed Richard A. Conn Jr. as Karpov’s deputy president.
As each candidate is required to have a slate to fill each major office in the federation, and to have at least one candidate be a woman, Karpov may be hoping to invalidate Ilyumzhinov’s candidacy by trying to eliminate Marinello from his ticket.
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