Coffee Today!
Cool Monday’s Coffee
The World Cup in Russia seems to be dominating world headlines. Even Trump’s daily dose of Twitter nonsense is having difficulty competing. Nobody is complaining, though. Football is a phenomenon that seems to protect the rest of the world against the narcissism of politicians.
God knows they tried to sabotage the 2018 Russia event, though. Syria in April brought us closer to WWIII than any time in the past 50 years. Now these same politicos can only gaze on with frustrated impotence as billions of football fans come together in a celebration of unity, where neither color, nationality nor conflict have any place.
Classy photo!
I found this photo over on Anna Rudolf’s excellent twitter. Everyone in the photo has something to do with the recently concluded chess tournament in Norway:
Left to right: Juga: singer, songwriter; Anemone: chief arbiter ; Benedicte: main organiser (sitting); Maria: photographer; Anna: commentator ; Anastastia: press officer.
The author of the photo, I believe, is Lennart Ootes. Nicely done!
2018 FIDE election
It is no longer the circus that it had been up to now. Friday’s surprise announcement that billionaire Arkady Dvorkovich will be standing for the presidency of FIDE has everyone waiting to see what will happen next.
On June 26 the RCF has scheduled a meeting where it is expected Dvorkovich’s nomination will become official, where he will likely announce his team and where Kirsan Ilyumzhinov will – barring any change of mind – effectively retire from chess politics, though he will probably have some ‘honorary’ role in FIDE, much like Campomanes’ role in his last years.
How the race has changed
Despite statements to the contrary by Short and Pein, everything has changed since Friday’s announcement. Especially for the voters. A new face is what everyone wants, and Dvorkovich will likely be seen as a sort of saviour.
I suspect that Makro will want to quickly reach some sort of a compromise with Dvorkovich before June 26 so that he can safely withdraw from the race yet still maintain a prominent role in the new FIDE presidential board.
The big question is whether Dvorkovich will instead prefer to clean house. I think that the voters, in general, would like to see this happen as FIDE moves forward into a new era.
If this is the case, then no doubt tens of millions of dollars will be injected into his campaign to create chess projects, new tournaments and what not to win over voters.
Does Dvorkovich have to promise a lot to win over the voters? No, I don’t think so. People are tired of the status quo. Of the nastiness. Of the continual conflicts and back stabbing. Of the perpetual instability that Makro & Co. have installed, intentionally or not.
And what of Nigel Short’s campaign? With Dvorkovich in the race, there is no room for a 3rd candidate, nor is there any need for a Nigel Short. And of Malcolm Pein’s personal ambitions? Put on hold, ofcourse. There are more serious issues for the chess world to consider. One of them is rebuilding FIDE’s self-confidence, visibility and prestige.
To be continued…