Mr. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov celebrates his 44th birthday today by announcing the support of another 10 nations for his re-election bid. Now, he has 50 countries committed while Mr. Bessel Kok has 30 countries committed to him. It will come down to the last few weeks before the election.
Here is the list of 50 countries supporting Mr. Ilyumzhinov:
Afghanistan – Algeria – Argentina – Azerbaijan – Bahrain – Barbados – Belize – Bermuda – Botswana -Chile – Costa Rica – Dominican Republic – Ecuador – Egypt – El Salvador – Ethiopia – Georgia – Greece – Honduras – India – Iraq – Jordan – Kazakhstan – Kuwait – Laos – Lebanon – Libya – Madagascar – Mauritius – Moldova – Morocco – Myanmar – Nicaragua – Nigeria – Panama – Quatar – Russia – Singapore – Sudan – Surinam – Syria – Tajikistan – Turkmenistan – Uganda – United Arab Emirates – US Virgin Islands – Uzbekistan – Vietnam – Yemen – Zambia
The list of 30 countries supporting Mr. Kok can be seen here. One odd thing is both sides claim to have the support of Afghanistan.
Bessel has no chance at all. Susan, you should have run. You would have a better chance than Bessel.
Well, at least it is clear now that FIDE is beholden to third world countries and terrorist states (only one “West” European country on the list). If the West is serious about generating sponsorship, I see little alternative but to try to break away again.
Three East European contries: Russia, Moldova, Georgia and one western: Greece.
Greece had been awarded many FIDE world tournaments in the last years (income generators):
– World Youth Chess Championship 2002-2003-2004
– World School Championship 2005-2006
It is pretty clear that this process is driven by money not interest in Chess as a game, art form or science… {sigh}
I too noted the lack of “western” countries in the list but deferred to “political correctness”. Perhaps poster “DG” has a point.
I am not surprized to see many asian and arabian countries because FIDE president has supported the chess development in those countries strongly and maintained good relations with the representatives of these countries since long time. Mr Bessel Kok is virtually unknown in these countries.