So after the fireworks of the previous FIDE Presidential Board meeting, the latest news to come out of Athens is somewhat underwhelming. Apparently the previous resignation of Kirsan Ilyumzhinov as FIDE Presdient was all a misunderstanding, and he is now staying on until the next election in 2018. The powers that he had handed over to FIDE Deputy President Georgios Makropoulos to allow FIDE to dodge US sanctions remain handed over to the FIDE Deputy President, so nothing has changed there either. In fact, to quote John Cleese, 'blessed is just about everyone with a vested interest in the status quo, as far as I can tell'.
For all the name calling, lawyers at 10 paces, and 'he said, she said', FIDE is still in the situation is was 2 weeks ago, with a President who has no power, an executive who does as they please, a lot of people with their eye on the next election. I guess the PB got another trip to Athens out of it, but unless the real goal was to increase the number of hits on the FIDE website, the whole exercise served no purpose.
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Well... looks like they made it positively clear that if the Russian Chess Federations says "Jump", FIDE will respond with "how high?". Or should we read something else from the "Mr Makropoulos stated that FIDE always wants to maintain excellent relations with the Russian Chess Federation"?
Actually, no. Makro told the Russians in the crudest terms to eff off. Not before time, but I suppose he had to wait until the PB was unanimously behind him, which they now are.
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