FIDE Congress and Executive Board in Krakow

FIDE CONGRESS AND EXECUTIVE BOARD
Krakow 20th-21st October 2011

FIDE held its 82nd Congress in Krakow between the 20th and 21st of October 2011, hosted by the Malopolska Chess Federation.

The President, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, opened the proceedings by thanking Mr Kusina and the Malopolska Chess Federation for organizing and hosting the event. He then gave a speech in which he unfolded his vision for the future of FIDE, particularly concentrating on Chess in Schools and advising that he had gained sponsorship of $1,000,000 per year for the next three years for the various Chess in Schools projects. He also listed many countries he had visited since the Khanty Mansiysk Olympiad in which he had discussed Chess in Schools with Presidents and other senior government officials. He reported on the Commission on Modernisation meeting that was held in Moscow, where he said that great progress had been made. Rapid and Blitz ratings will be calculated from 1st January 2012.

The FIDE President announced that David Jarrett had resigned as Executive Director, but would not be lost to FIDE as he would be dealing with special projects, especially the revision of FIDE Statutes and Handbook. He thanked David Jarrett for all the hard work and said that it was because of him that FIDE finances were now in order and transparent. He appointed David Jarrett as an Honorary Member of FIDE. He appointed Nigel Freeman as the new Executive Director.

Three new members (Comoros Islands, Guam and Swaziland) were elected, which takes the total membership to 175.

There was a long discussion regarding the large legal fees incurred in 2010, during which the President gave background information on the history of the cases. He expressed the wish that more money should be spent on chess in the future, rather than on lawyers.

The Deputy President, Georgios Makropoulos, as Chairman of the World Championship and Olympiad Commission brought the Board up to date on the various World Championship and Olympiad matters. The contract between FIDE and the Tromso Organising Committee for the 2014 Olympiad was signed.

The Board received the reports of the various Commissions and expressed satisfaction with the new system of core members and of the hard work undertaken by them. Details of what was approved will be soon found on the FIDE website. Several of the various proposals were either withdrawn or referred to the Istanbul General Assembly. There was agreement that those Commissions that had held meetings prior to the Congress were able to deal with their work in a more efficient manner.

The World Youth Championships 2013 were awarded to Al Ain, UAE and those for 2014 to Durban, South Africa. The World Amateur Championship 2013 was awarded to Iasi, Romania and the World Cities 2012 was awarded to Al Ain, UAE.