Friday Coffee, FIDE and other NONSENSE
Friday Coffee
Psychologists tell us that the day before the weekend is always the happiest day of the week. And for obvious reasons. I hope this Friday, so far, is everything that you have come to want and expect!
In America alone, apparently, the first thing more than 200 million people do when they wake up is make a cup of coffee. Each of these, on average, will drink atleast two more cups of coffee before the day is over. At the end of the year each will, on average, spend more than $1,000 supporting this habit.
That is a lot of coffee and an AWFUL lot of money! And analysts tell us that this coffee market is growing every day.
As such, it is not surprising that numerous health-related studies have been conducted and are being conducted as I write. My readers can find many of these findings discussed here on this blog. The latest study that MSM seems to be focused on right now is a study published in JAMA that indicates that coffee drinkers’ lifespans can be extended compared to non-coffee drinkers.
According to this study – which involved some 500,000 people – merely drinking one cup of coffee a day can extend your life by 8%. Drinking between 6 to 8 cups a day can extend your life by 16%!
I think this study goes to show what we coffee drinkers have always understood intuitively: coffee makes LIFE better.
2018 FIDE election update
With Arkady Dvorkovich’s responsibilities as head of FIFA’s World Cup in Russia coming to an end in the next week to 10 days, the chess world is anxious to see him go on campaign for the FIDE presidency.
Especially, the chess world will want to see what concrete FIDE-projects he intends to undertake. Dvorkovich has indicated that he already has some new corporate sponsors in mind. Reforming FIDE is also on the agenda. It is expected that details and more will soon be made public, and that a website will be put online as part of this election campaign.
A campaign of contradictions
Neither Makro nor Short should be proud of their campaigns up to now. Lacking openness and deliberately evasive, neither of them have attempted to respond to the types of questions that the voters will want answered before casting votes in October.
In Makro’s defence, the less he says is probably the best policy. He has been Kirsan’s most staunch supporter for decades and knows where all the bodies are buried. He has not explained why voters should think any better of him than of Kirsan, yet he EXPECTS that undecided voters will somehow see him as a necessary part of any FIDE future.
Pretty naive, in my opinion, but recently having eliminated all opposition to his ideas and surrounding himself with like minded cronies, he has probably just lost touch with the real chess community.
Makro has cleverly made use of Malcolm Pein’s own political ambitions to try to remove some of the stench of his own past roles in Kirsan’s FIDE, or atleast to distract from the questions I mentioned above. Is Makro tryng to hide behind Pein’s squeaky clean aura?
Infact, as Short pointed out in a recent interview, Makro’s election campaign on social media seems to limit itself to re-tweeting Pein’s tweets! But this can not last for long. Pein is losing the PR-game trying to deflect or gloss over his association with Makro’s past record in the Kirsan years. Unfortunately, the more he tweets the more it is clear that Pein is little more than a russophobe.
As Short pointed out (again from that same interview) Makro probably has no intention of handing over the reigns of power in 2022, and is only using Pein’s naivety for short term gains.
Principally, today as a sort of deodorant. Trying to mask the stench of campaigning with a team that is virtually 100% from the Kirsan years. One almost feels sorry for Malcolm.
Nigel’s campaign is little better. Filled with contradictions and cheap political spinning. He attacks Kirsan saying that any Google search will come up with a shit load of embarrassment, deliberately ignoring that the same can be said of a Google search on himself! The FIDE-1993 split. Sexism. Obituaries. Scandals.
Nigel only does ‘interviews’ if he is not asked tough questions. Nobody is allowed to ask “What are your qualifications for running FIDE?”. Or “Who are your backers, and how much are they paying you to run?”. Or any number of a dozen questions about scandals that he has been involved with thru the past 25 years.
This campaign of Nigel has limited itself to trying to ignore reality. Who would want to vote for the real Nigel? But the voters will not, come October, assuming that Nigel is still even in the race at that point.
The New Kid in Town
It is clear that Makro and Short have neither the desire nor the intention to address the really important issues in this election. The issues that the vast majority of voters want honest answers to.
Kirsan’s withdrawal has taken away the raison d’etre to the publicly stated reason for them initially getting involved the election. Now all that rests is , as Short himself termed it, ‘naked personal ambition‘. Neither Makro nor Short can hide from the truth much longer.
Where does that leave us today? Even before Dvorkovich announced his ticket last week, he was way ahead in the race, lacking just about a dozen votes to get 51%. Ofcourse, he inherits all of Kirsan’s votes. Then he will get about 50% of Makro’s declared supporters. And then we still have to factor in the undecided.
HOWEVER, the most important thing is that voters are fed up with the status quo. There can be no better time to change FIDE than today.
To be continued…