Tuesday 7 September 2010

Kirsan Quits

But only from the post of President of Kalmykia. At this stage he is still running for President of FIDE, although this may depend on a legal challenge from the Karpov camp concerning his nomination.
I'm not sure how this will play out in terms of the FIDE election, as on one hand he (theoretically) no longer can fall back on the Kalmyikian state as a resource of last resort, but on the other, he has more time to concentrate on FIDE and his campaign. It also seems to cut out a potential exit from FIDE, as 4 years ago there were rumours that he was lobbying hard for the job of Russian Ambassador to Japan, and if he got that job, he was standing down as FIDE President. For the moment I haven't seen any talk of a 'reward' for not re contesting the Kalmykian presidency, but this may surface one the outcome of the FIDE elections are known.
Plenty of news reports on this issue, but here is one from a non-chess source.

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