GM Gulko and GM Seirawan on the FIDE Crisis

What GMs think

Open Letter From GM Yasser Seirwan to FIDE Preisdent Iljumzhinov

GM Gulko and GM Seirawan on the FIDE Crisis

GMs Hertneck & Baburin share their views on FIDE and the role and future of chess

Discussion Forum—share your views

The following e-mail exchange makes very interesting reading. Two well-respected American players talk about ways out of the current FIDE crisis. Published with a permission of both Grandmasters.

Letter of GM Boris Gulko to some members of USCF

Dear Mr. Smith,

I find the letter of Yasser Seirawan to FIDE President very appropriate and timely. Credibility of FIDE has been destroyed by one disastrous decision after another. Namely, destruction of titles that Yasser wrote about, alienation of strongest players, destruction of traditional system of World Championship contrary to the opinion of practically all world leading chess players. The proposed so-called commercialization of FIDE is in reality just an attempt to establish a dictatorship of incompetent FIDE bureaucrats over all chess life. The disgraceful attempts to schedule World Championships in countries like Iraq and Iran are horrible disasters in terms of public relations. All these events destroyed the image of chess and tragically suppressed interest to chess among sponsors and public. I think it largely happened because after famous Grandmasters and well respected public
persons such as Max Euwe and Frederic Olaffson the leadership of FIDE fell into incompetent hands.

But Yasser's appeal for resignation of FIDE President makes sense only if there will be offered a sound alternative. And here I see one highly qualified person who could take the position of FIDE President and try to rescue FIDE after the above-mentioned failures. I would like to propose Yasser Seirawan to be our candidate to replace Mr. Iljumzinov. Yasser is a World renowned Grandmaster, highest rated on our continent, well respected person, long-time editor of one of the best chess magazines, and as he proved by rescuing our National Championship, a gifted organizer. He has a supporting organization in Seattle which will run our National Championships. He also belongs to the leading Chess Federation of the World which produced individual and team World Champions during the last decades, World Candidates, and has created probably the best system of chess education for children. I think if Yasser agrees to seek the position of FIDE president, all of us - USCF and the leading Grandmasters should do all in our power to help him to re-vitalize FIDE since this may be the only chance to stop collapse of this organization and restore prestige of chess. If this proposal is accepted by Yasser, our Federation could appeal to Chess Federations of countries where people play chess and care about prestige of our game. We should get prepared to resolve this issue at the next FIDE Congress during Chess Olympiad in Turkey.

Sincerely, Boris Gulko.

Seirawan’s Reply to Gulko’s Letter

Dear Boris,

Seriously, when we speak of such notions, one of the first persons that come to my mind is Bessel Kok, of Grandmaster Association (GMA) fame. In the first place, he is about ready to retire from Euro-Tel where he has served as CEO and Chairman for a few years in Prague. He has the interest, the connections with the players and the respect of the business community. To my mind, Bessel is the ideal candidate. He is wealthy and wouldn't run FIDE with the purpose of increasing his wallet size. He is motivated by a sincere interest in the welfare of the best players and best of all, he likes the game. Another ideal candidate is Dato Tan Chin Nam of Malaysia. Due to his extraordinary wealth he may not be willing to put in the time and energy and prefer to have a "figurehead" position he too has all the right motivations and in terms of sponsors, with a single phone call all of FIDE's events would be sponsored for years to come. Neither are these the only two persons that jump to mind. On our American shores we are blessed to have the likes of Lewis Cullman, a chess philanthropist, who has given millions to chess. His family helped found Philip Morris and he started his company the "Day Time Organizer" which made him a very wealthy person. Currently he serves as the Chairman of the Chess In Schools foundation of New York City. He will soon visit Seattle where we will offer to him the "Honorary Chairman" position of the 2000 US Championships. A position we hope he will accept.  I believe that Lewis is 81 years young. He might not wish for hands on FIDE Presidency, but, again, he is capable of putting the best and brightest people in power to right the sinking FIDE ship and move it forward. These are the persons we should want to have at the helm of FIDE and in my view, if the rascals that currently run FIDE were tossed, these precise persons could, with the right amount of coaxing, be wrestled into the position. Now that would be ideal! Vibrant FIDE with forward-looking leadership. What a nice dream and now I must go to sleep to imagine it coming true.

Cheers, Yasser.

Gulko’s Follow-up Letter

Dear Yasser,

It's a pity you don't want this honorable position of FIDE president. Your proposal about Bessel Kok is excellent (I don't personally know Mr. Dato Tan Chin Nam and Mr. Lewis Cullman). Bessel is certainly the most respectable organizer among professional chess players. But how do you think we could to convince him to pursue the position of FIDE president? I think we have to make some efforts because today's chess world needs him much more than he needs the chess world.

Sincerely, Boris.

Seirawan’s 2^nd Reply, where he expands and explains his proposal

Dear Boris,

As always, it is nice to get a note from you. As Champion of the US you occupy an unique position and your willingness to share your views and take a stance is most important. Thank you very much for participating. You are great! I must say that your letter came as a relief that I'm no longer being recruited for noble causes. Thank you very much. I'm also pleased that you found Bessel Kok to be an excellent candidate. Truly, it would be great if he were willing. How to do it? You know Boris, it is actually very easy! [How ironic don't you think?] All we have to do is ask. It’s that simple, persons like Bessel Kok, Lewis Cullman, Dato Tan Chin Nam, Dr. William Wirth (Credit Suisse), Bill Church and many others are standing by. They want the players to ask them to help the chess world. So simple!

All we have to do is circulate a petition by as many Grandmaster colleagues as we can and basically ask Bessel to stand for election. While very helpful and very important, that unfortunately is not enough. The key is Garry Kasparov.

It must be Garry who picks up the phone and asks Bessel to stand for office. Garry has to agree to work with a new administration and to support the new President.  If Garry is willing to do that and if the majority of the GM's agreed to make Bessel their candidate, he would sweep into office. The reality today Boris is we must recognize that Garry is the greatest chess player who ever lived. His results speak for themselves. He is eloquent, he has raised sponsorship, he is an activist. He must not, he cannot be ignored. He must be invited to rejoin the mainstream of chess for all our sakes. Including his own.

Fortunately, Garry is a clever person. He is driven by an extraordinary strong will that has in the past prevented him from backing up and admitting a mistake.  In the summer of 1998 in Prague I watched Garry make a dinner speech of contrition to Bessel (regarding the GMA), which was simply magnificent. The best speech that Garry ever made and I looked at him with new eyes. I was very proud of him. I know Garry respects Bessel and would work with him.

Garry has stated that he wants his scholastics efforts to his legacy. This is ridiculous. Garry needs to be the person that brings FIDE into the 21^st century. We are at the cusp of a historic moment! It is a new age, a new millennium, Garry's legacy should be that he showed how GM's can cooperate and work with organizers and organizations for mutual benefit. He must raise the profile of chess by working with the existing infrastructure.
That, along with the games he has played would be a magnificent legacy.

Having a new FIDE President is not enough. FIDE will have to undergo structural reforms itself. To this end it would be advisable to think in the following terms:

The FIDE General Assembly has 100% of the vote and is the ultimate power of FIDE.  Russia's representative has 5% of all the outstanding voting power. A country like Bermuda has 0.1 % of the voting power. Literally, Russia's voting power is 50 times that of Bermuda and its 12 chess players. Countries like the Ukraine, Yugoslavia would have say 4% of the voting power. This would be determined by the number of their GM's. For instance, the US might have 3.5% of the voting power. It is very easy to see that a voting bloc of the major countries would easily carry major policy initiatives. As it should.

Smaller countries might resent their loss of voting power and to this end committees comprising representatives of these countries should be formed to address their concerns.  Major chess nations should be concerned about the growth of chess in developing nations and do their level best to help them grow.

Further keys to a structural reform of FIDE would be to insist on decorum amongst delegates at all times. We must be polite to one another and address one another with honorific titles! Parliamentarians would always be present to follow Robert's rules of order.  Persons who violate these procedures and act out of order are reprimanded by the Chairperson and invited to leave assembly.

We must bring respect and civility back to our governance. To this end we must invite our venerable GM's to be present during assembly. Whenever GM Vassily Smyslov walks into a room I feel I must stand up in his honor. It is vital that the venerable men and women of chess be present for discussion.

We must also change the Presidential Board of FIDE.  In the first place, to be a member of the Presidential Board should cost each member $100,000 a year.  They would pledge for four years of service.  Bessel could invite ten persons and immediately $1,000,000 would be available to FIDE to cover part of its overhead.

What FIDE must become is a smooth running bureaucracy, where committees work, where assembly is fun and free flowing, where ideas are exchanged and people honored.  In short a place where men and women of good will want to go.

Players must participate by improving their images and their relationships with one another. I'd suggest a grievance fund be set up between Player and Player. And Player and Organizer. We would have our own court system and disputes handled internally.  For instance the two funds just mentioned would require the players, federations, sponsors, to establish a fund, which receives annual fees and donations. Thus, when an organizer invites a player and fails to recompense the player full lodging as agreed, the player writes a protest and the committee writes letters of inquiry. If the complaint is upheld, the fund pays the players and the premium paid by the organizers may be raised for next year.  And of course the other way around, when a player violates their agreement, the organizer complains and if found to be damaged, the player fund must send a check to the organizer and that player is reprimanded and the premiums to ourselves, the players rise.

FIDE must establish a health and pension fund for our great players. We can begin with AEGON and INTERPOLIS, two outstanding Dutch Insurance companies who have contributed so much to chess.  Let us speak about whole life insurance policies...

Honor and respect must be restored to the title system. I'd suggest a maximum of 5 GM titles a year are awarded and 25 IM titles a year. This moratorium would stop the wholesale cheapening of the titles that has been going on. Let GM David Bronstein head a committee and make a decision about who is most deserving! And let David pass on a medal from his hands to that of the recipient! What honor! What respect!

The above are just a few ideas that can easily be improved upon by the very clever people that call themselves chess players and chess lovers. There exists a pent up energy to see reforms like the above happen. The entire issue is one of leadership. The key, in my view, is Kasparov. If Garry makes a commitment to cooperate with Bessel, I'd bet that Bessel would stand for four years and Bessel would bring in dynamic business leaders to run the office and restore its tarnished image. This could happen over night!

I've forwarded this letter to a number of people, including Garry for his consideration.  We must hope that he agrees and in the meantime, we can speak with our colleagues on how to wrestle Bessel to the FIDE chair.

Sorry, I must get back to work. I've just hung a pawn in my Internet game. Rats!

Cheers, Yasser.