Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and Anatoly Karpov just finished their press conference not long ago. The atmosphere was surprisingly friendly and cooperative between the two.

The two formal rivals in the FIDE presidential elections had a meeting earlier today to discuss future cooperation between the two.

One reporter asked if the lawyers were present at their meeting. Kirsan said there was no need for it as they go back a long way and trust each other.

First, Kirsan was talking about back in 1995 when it was Karpov himself who had asked him to run for the FIDE presidency.

One of the changes that Karpov requested and Kirsan agreed was to lengthen the number of games in future world championship matches to at least 14 maybe 16. FIDE will get the feedback from top players to decide on the final number.

Karpov was asked if the rumor that he was offered the position of vice-president is true. He confirmed that it is true. However, regarding the response to the offer, he said that he is not in “zeitnot” (time trouble) to response.

He said he will continue with his prior capacity with the UN, UNESCO, etc, as well as his numerous chess schools around the world.

Kirsan said that his focus in the next four years as FIDE president will be to introduce chess as a mandatory subject in all schools in all FIDE member countries. Also more focus will be given to the CACDEC program and Africa will be the continent of 2011.

Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
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