A few minutes back, Kasparov formally made the announcement at the 84th 84th FIDE Congress in Tallinn. The news is already all over the Internet and we first picked it up via the Chess-News.ru twitter. The current President of FIDE Kirsan Ilymzhinov had already announced his candidature earlier in the morning session of the Congress. Ilyumzhinov also announced that he would be further putting in one million euros for the Chess In School program.
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov has been President of FIDE since 1995. He won a second time in 2010 after defeating Anatoly Karpov with 95 votes to 55. Later, Karpov and Ilyumzhinov had supposedly buried their "differences".
Garry Kasparov became the World Chess Champion in 1985 after beating Anatoly Karpov. Kasparov announced his ticket on Monday and his team as including Rex Sinquefield, Ignatius Leong, Afrika Msimang, Jan Callewaert and Sheikh Mohammed Bin Ahmed Al Hamed.
Karpov had, in June, said: "I... (hesitates). You know, I am so fed up with Ilyumzhinov's team that... I have a good relationship personally with Ilyumzhinov, but his team is totally corrupt, absolutely useless in managing chess. They, however, set up a system that struck on the image of the International Olympic Committee in Salt Lake City, as well as on the image of different federations. I think exactly this system has reached its peak in chess. Unfortunately, this isn't actively discussed and covered, but something has to be done with the current situation - apart from making useless decisions, they also intervene with chess rules, which is intolerable."
In another question by 'Nasha Gazeta' on whether Kasparov could count on support in Russia, Karpov had said, "No, he can't. Moreover, the Russian Chess Federation will work against him, this is obvious. When I was running for FIDE presidency, against Ilyumzhinov, the federation first voted for me. Russia supported me and then "changed" the position of federation under wild pressure."
The FIDE Chess game begins and we thought all the excitement would end with the Anand vs Carlsen World Chess Championship 2013 in Chennai.
Posted in: fide elections 2014,garry kasparov,kirsan ilyumzhinov
