The Turkish Chess Federation has used its right of veto as organizer of the 2012 Chess Olympiad. The decision of TSF will affect 7 federations from having principals in Istanbul.
The measurement comes as a repercussion of the court cases during the last Presidential elections, where FIDE won the cases, but spent large amounts during the lawsuit. Therefore, England, USA, France, Georgia, Ukraine, Germany, and Switzerland remain without principals for the Olympiad.
From the official letter of TSF, the organizers say that “all players will be protected, whatever the actions of their federation.”
Below is the full letter:
Dear Chess Family,
I was invited by FIDE to participate in the meeting in Athens to select the arbiters for the 40th Chess Olympiad. I went to the meeting on 3rd May 2012.
A list was drawn up, respecting the proposals of the Continental Presidents. However, on behalf of TSF, we have refused to accept some of the names on that list. These refusals are in no way personal, they are solely related to matters of chess and its well-being.
Some federations launched or supported court cases against FIDE and thus created financial problems for FIDE and a loss of distributable income for worldwide chess development. We believe that the damage that they thus inflicted on chess development around the world should be repaired by them reimbursing the lost funds, so that those funds can, as originally budgeted, be spent on chess development. We further believe that until that has been done, those federations should not be given any arbiter or Appeals Committee position by FIDE. As TSF we respect legal issues; all players will be protected, whatever the actions of their federation.
I want everybody to look at this from our point of view. Each year, my federation contributes to FIDE €50-100,000. The damage created by the Karpov versus FIDE case is around USD 1 million. The case was purely political. The plaintiffs lost that court case. They did not even offer an apology for the damage their action inflicted on a large majority of national chess federations!
The federations that supported that action have done nothing for chess but damage FIDE financially, forcibly diverting resources that would otherwise have been used for chess development (CACDEC, chess in schools, marketing, trainers, etc.).
Therefore, as TSF we react as a federation that has suffered from the actions of those 7 federations. We work hard, doing our best for chess, while some contribute only “bla, bla” and do nothing but damage our family.
Should we be quiet and cross our fingers that they will learn? Or should we act?
We prefer to act and fight for our chess family. That is our position and the reasoning behind our decision.
Gens Una Sumus
Ali Nihat YAZICI
President of Turkish Chess Federation
A sad and unwise decision. Why to continue the confrontation? Furthermore, those excluded arbiters are not responsible for the past decisions of their federations.