FIDE Presidential Board Meeting in Istanbul
(Press Release)

The FIDE PB held its second quarter meeting in Istanbul on 19th and 20th March at the invitation of the Turkish Chess Federation. President Ilyumzhinov and PB members visited the Ataturk Memorial high-level Ladies tournament and participated in the closing ceremony.

In the meeting, the FIDE PB devoted special attention to the issues related to the key events of 2008:

· Dresden Olympiad
· World Chess Championship Match Anand-Kramnik
· Challenger match Topalov-Kamsky
· Grand Prix events
· World Mind Sports Games

Preparations for the 2008 Olympiad are continuing and the FIDE delegation has checked the playing hall, the number of recommend hotels has been increased. It was agreed that FIDE would buy the DGT equipment then would be offered to interested participating Federations.

The conditions of the World Championship Match have been agreed and the Organiser, UEP gave a presentation, which confirmed that the event will be exceptionally well organised. The PB confirmed the existing terms and conditions for the Topalov-Kamsky Match.

Geoffrey Borg of Global Chess confirmed the participating cities of the Grand Prix circuit and the PB requested that contracts will be finalised in time. The PB regretted that not all the top players are participating, but noted that the tournaments would be very strong and that many of these highly rated players were under twenty five years old.

David Kaplan, the FIDE Development CEO, gave a presentation on the progress that Chess Lane has been making, which included many original ideas.The PB received the report of the Public Relations and Marketing Director and approved the Treasurer’s Report.

It was agreed that there should be as full a participation as possible in the World Mind Sports Games and asked that all qualifying Federations should send teams. The Public Relations and Marketing Director was tasked to liaise through Federation Presidents and Continental Presidents to ensure as large a participation as possible.

The PB reviewed favourably a proposal, presented by Mr. Josef Resch of UEP, for organising a Master’s Tournament.

The President thanked Mr Ali Nihat Yazici for yet again organising a superb Presidential Board Meeting and advised that 2008 will be a year full of exciting chess events.

Source: FIDE

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