Monday Coffee

 

Coffee, Chess, FIDE and other Nonsense

Good Monday, readers! The first week of June is always a good sign of warmer and sunnier things coming our way. I was impressed this past weekend with Carlsen’s example of sportsmanship after he lost his game to Wesley So. It was mature, but more than that, it was a fine example for young players to follow. 

Canadians at the XIII Continental in Montevideo

Today will be the 5th round of the Continental in Montevideo. Both Shiyam Thavandiran and Raja Panjwani are doing well, with 3.5/4 and 3.0/4 respectively. (RESULTS)

Today Shiyam will play GM Christian Cruz, having defeated GM Henriquez yesterday. Raja will play FM Kapitanchuk, having drawn 2 GMs, Cruz and Pichot, back to back in the previous rounds. Both Canadians are on track for success in the is qualification tourament for the World Cup. Keep up the good work and good luck today!

2018 FIDE election notes

This past weekend only Nigel Short was on the campaign trail, in a tour of some 7 African countries, sponsored by the Kasparov Foundation. Kirsan, no doubt, was resting from a busy week, while Makro apparently stayed home, struggling to find a sponsor for his own campaign. So far, anyway. One might yet appear.

Money is going to be, once more, the decisive factor in success in this election. Right now it is not so important, but as the summer develops, the many promises made by Makro and Kirsan will have to be kept.  According to my source inside the Kirsan camp, this is likely where the Short and Makro camp will fall behind. You can not run an election campaign without money, and Kirsan has already publicly mentioned sums exceeding more than $10,000,000 just for the main part of his own campaign.

And no one should doubt that Kirsan is very serious about winning the election in October. My source (whose name will be revealed only later this summer) mentioned to me that he thinks that should the vote go into a second round, (that is, Kirsan not getting 51% of the vote in the first round), then most of Short’s votes are expected to switch over to Kirsan.

This I found a bit odd at first, but there is a lot of sense behind it. One of the prevailing beliefs over on the English Chess Forum for example, is that ‘none of the above’ is a fairly large minority this time around as opposed to previous FIDE elections. All of Short, Makro and Kirsan have numerous ‘natural’  detractors.

The first round of voting will likely see this as the predominant sentiment, the reasoning goes. When Short is eliminated (and assuming Makro is still hanging in) then the predominant sentiment loses its edge and … turns into sympathy for Kirsan’s long and generous reign as president since 1995.

Of course, this is all theorizing. Or wishful thinking. In any case, it is going to be a long, hot summer! Makro clearly believes he is the favourite regardless of lack of financial backers, little of anything for a campaign as of yet and mercifully ignoring his history as being Kirsan’s most loyal supporter. Kirsan’s enforcer, rumour has it. (If not fact.)

We will just have to see how right Makro is … personally I think the entire presidential board is deluding itself somewhat. There are too many like-minded voices. Not enough objectivity. No one polling, except amongst themselves!

Money can not be ignored, or invented. Money is very likely going to buy this election, like almost all elections when money is abundant on one side and lacking on the other(s).

Reputation is also important. Few are likely to believe in any religious miracle that Makro has been born again… or that he suddenly discovered the error of his ways. While Kirsan can run on his reputation, Makro can not!

Hence all the more important that Makro starts a serious election campaign very soon.

To be continued…