Today’s photos
TWENTY YEARS AGO TODAY!
Left to Right: Kouatly, Kirsan, Campomanes, Durao
That is right! November 24, 1995, at a FIDE meeting held in Paris, Campomanes invited a relatively unknown (to the chess world) individual to become FIDE president. The REST, as they say, is history…WHAT I DID NOT KNOW is that Kirsan needed to get Yeltsin’s approval to finalize the deal, as Kirsan himself revealed not so long ago.
For those critics who complain about how any international organization can have so few Presidents (FIDE, in all of it’s history since being created in 1924, has had only 6 leaders). The TRUTH, however, is that MOST big international sporting organizations follow the much the same trend. The IOC, for example, created in 1894 by Coubertin, has had just 10 presidents! The first president (Coubertin) served for not less than 29 years; Samaranch for 21 years. Today the IOC has put a limit to how long a president may serve: 12 years.
———————-
SELFIE OF THE WEEK
—————————
CONGRATULATIONS to both Russian teams for dominating the European Team Championship that was held in Iceland. It has been a LONG time since we have seen Russia do something similar…
The final classification. On the left are the results of the Men competition, and on the right the Women competition.
———————
BEAUTY AND BRAINS
Members of the Spanish Team in Iceland. Sabrina Vega (left), Yudina Hernandez (centre) and Ana Matnadze. I know them all, quite well, having played with them at one time or other in Spain. Sabrina and I first played back in 1998 when she was a plump ten year old…
————————
click on image to enlarge
—————————————
THINGS ARE LIKELY TO GET UGLY NOW…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlnx_OfOdhE
