The bitterly fought election campaign for the presidency of the global chess body Fide will be decided on 3 October by the votes of 186 national delegates during the Fide congress at Batumi, Georgia. The issues were discussed in this column on 15 June and in Andrew Roth’s article on 2 September – but who will win?
A basic difficulty for election pundits is that Greece’s Georgios Makropoulos, the establishment candidate and current Fide deputy president, claims to have 114 votes in the bag. Russia’s Arkady Dvorkovich, who comes to Fide fresh from his success as chief organiser for the Fifa World Cup, reckons he is sure of more than 90 delegates. England’s Nigel Short, standing as an anti-corruption candidate, has not stated a total but is believed to have 30-35 in his camp.
Although some chess federations may have pledged twice, there is still clearly creative arithmetic by at least one frontrunner.
Such a murky situation has naturally led to thoughts of alliances and pacts. The hostility between Short and Makropoulos seems mutual and deep. Makropoulos and Dvorkovich met at Bucharest in July, when the Russian turned up at a Fide board meeting and they talked for many hours deep into the night before negotiations collapsed.
Then last week two photos appeared on Short’s Twitter page, showing Nigel and Dvorkovich at Simpson’s-in-the-Strand, a major venue for chess in the 19th century, They were shaking hands beneath the iconic chessboard on which Howard Staunton, Paul Morphy, Wilhelm Steinitz, Emanuel Lasker and other legends played. The caption to the second photo read: “What’s the Greek word for checkmate?”
Nigel Short (@nigelshortchess)
What’s the Greek word for “checkmate”? pic.twitter.com/FpYGgCndhf
A Short-Dvorkovich pact is evidently a done deal, although even after a second meeting in Helsinki details are lacking. The expectation is that Short’s votes will switch to Dvorkovich on the second ballot, yet such an outcome is far from guaranteed. Voters ready to take a stand against corruption may be less willing to opt for soft power from Moscow.
This week the battle became brutal, as Makropoulos announced he was asking the Fide and IOC Ethics Committees to ban Dvorkovich for alleged bribery and political pressure on the Serbian and Israeli federations. Dvorkovich has stated his innocence, and in turn accused his opponent of spending more than half of Fide’s income on its office and “untraceable spending”.
The latest development may solve the arithmetical mystery. If Makropoulos really has 114 sure votes and a clear majority, he could win the election by normal means without controversy, as occurred in 2014 when Garry Kasparov predictably lost the vote and was then referred to the Fide Ethics Committee.
So what will happen on 3 October? Dvorkovich-Short are probably now favourites to win the count, but if the result is close and lawyers become seriously involved there is the potential for a messy and prolonged struggle.
A new competitive season opened last Saturday with an innovatory and instantly popular event. The UK Open Blitz championship, eight regional one-day qualifiers for a December final and a £5,000 prize fund, attracted nearly 350 players ranging in skill from grandmasters to novices. Many of them had been inactive for years. The time limit was three minutes for the entire game plus a two-second increment per move.
There were a few glitches. London had 10 times as many entrants as Belfast for two open qualifying places. England’s best female players nearly all stayed away, so that France’s No2 IM Sophie Milliet is the strong favourite for the women’s final, with her rivals likely from Latvia, Luxembourg and Slovakia. The pairing system was stretched in Newcastle and Cardiff, where the final round leaders were downfloated to opponents seven and 11.5 points worse off.
Overall, though, the impression is that the UK Blitz is a winner which could really take off in 2019 and 2020 in the way that weekend congresses did when they helped spark the English chess explosion in the early 1970s.
London had another new tournament on Sunday, the Peter Poobalasingh Memorial at Harrow in honour of a gifted and well-liked talent who died young at 27. A strong field led by 11 GMs and IMs produced a tie on 5.5/6 between the three-time British champion David Howell and GM Stephen Gordon.
Howell won this interesting miniature where he introduced a clever finesse into a hackneyed attack against Black’s castled king. By abstaining from d2-d4 and keeping his light-squared bishop at f1, the England No3 was able to speed up his assault and smash the black defences using just queen, dark squared bishop, knight, and Harry the h pawn.
Black was a touch passive on moves 9 (Ba6!) and 10 (Na6! ready to give up the c7 pawn for counterplay) but the big mistake was 11…Bb7?? (h6) after which Black is simply lost due to 12 Ng5! and 13 Qc3! when White’s attack plays itself and Black’s game falls apart.
David Howell v James Jackson
1 Nf3 d5 2 c4 e6 3 e3 Nf6 4 b3 Be7 5 Bb2 O-O 6 Nc3 b6 7 cxd5 Nxd5 8 Nxd5 Qxd5?! 9 Qc2!? Qd8?! 10 Rc1 c6? 11 h4! Bb7?? 12 Ng5! g6 13 Qc3! e5 14 Qxe5 f6 15 Qe6+ Kg7 16 h5 h6 17 Qe4 hxg5 18 Qxg6+ Kh8 19 Bc4 1-0
3584 (by Tony Lewis, BCM 1986). 1 Qf1! If Kd5 2 Qc4 mate, or d5 2 Qa6 mate, or Bh7 2 Qf7 mate, or Bf7 2 Qxf7 mate, or g5 2 Qf5 mate.