“Dear Mr. President”: open letters to Fide

Ok, now I can stop complaining. European championship site has published all games from the three first rounds and today the fourth will be played; standings are finally available both on the official site and on Chess-results.com; sun is shining and birds are chirping.
The problem is that more serious complaints about various arguments have been posed to Fide’s attention in the last days. First of all, an open letter by Stefan Sergiev, President of the Bulgarian Chess Federation, who simply asks why Fide has changed many decisions in the recent past, not for speaking about the April rating list (!). Well, we assume that Bulgarian federation has never noticed that Ilyumzhinov & Co. have already changed their decisions dozen of times in the past. Here is the most interesting points of the letter (the full article is on www.veselintopalov.net).
“Dear Mr. Ilymzhinov,
We are unpleasantly surprised at the constant modifications in the positions and the resolutions of the Board of FIDE. […]
The candidate matches, which will be played in Elista starting May 25, should have taken place ten days later according to your previous decision. However, that did not happen. The actual date, immediately after the end of one of the most prestigious tournaments of the year – M-tel Masters, affects to certain extent the participants. What was the problem the candidate matches to be played 10 days later?[…]
According to the information published on the official FIDE web page, the rank list from April 01, 2007 should include tournaments completed by February 28. Why is that not observed? Why and who changes the rules? […]
Why did you not accept the bank guarantees of 2 Million Dollars for organizing and carrying out the match between V. Topalov and V. Kramnik? The argument that the term is not kept is not convincing.[…]
Mr. Ilymzhinov, the Bulgarian Chess Federation and Veselin Topalov himself have been very well disposed towards you. The fact that Mr. Topalov had agreed to play a match with V. Kramnik in Elista, predetermined to a great extent your electoral victory on the last congress in Torino.
I turn to you with the kind request to stop your rough and ill disposed behavior towards Veselin Topalov and do all possible that he takes part in the competition for the world title.[…]”.
And now here is a more serious complaint from top Moroccan players about presumed falsifications and irregularities committed by their national federation. You can read the full story on www.maroc-echecs.com.
“Dear Mr. President,
We are writing an open letter to you regarding our previous complaint about the large scale falsifications of some International Arbiter applications that were submitted to FIDE by the Moroccan Chess Federation in the last few years. This scandal has affected Morocco’s image both at the Arab and international levels.
One year ago, we informed the ACP about these fraudulent misconducts. In this complaint, which has been immediately forwarded to FIDE, we have pinpointed serious irregularities and provided strong evidence of deliberate falsification. […]The FIDE Ethics Commission has recognized that the accusation is serious and since then open investigations have been conducted. Some of us were even heard by the Ethic Commission during the Turin Olympiad.
These falsifications are unfortunately only an example of the many irregularities committed by the Moroccan federation, which includes a regrettably wicked and chaotic management and a flagrant abuse of power resulting in arbitrary and excessive sanctions against some players, club managers and presidents of regional leagues.[…]
In September 2006, Moroccan top players have decided to boycott all the activities of the Moroccan Chess Federation until a new federal board is elected.[…]
An urgent decision of the Ethics Commission FIDE concerning the fake IA title applications would certainly help the whole Moroccan chess community to step over the current chaotic situation and look forward to a better future for Moroccan chess.[…]”.
Note that Turin is mentioned in both letters :-). On the Fide official site you obviously won’t find anything about these two complaints. In return :-), you will find special wishes “to His Excellency Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, FIDE President and Head of the Republic of Kalmykia”, for his 45th birthday (he was born on April 5, 1952). Well, Mr. President, we hope that after your party Fide will consider this last letter seriously…
And now here is a crushing win by Andrei Volokitin in round 3 of the Euro championship in Dresden. The young Ukrainian is one of the five players who still have a perfect score. As usual, you can download all games from the first three rounds of the event on my Italian site, www.messaggeroscacchi.it.

Volokitin, A (2654) - Petrosian, T (2580) [B96], Dresden 05.04.2007
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Bg5 e6 7. f4 Nbd7 8. Qf3 Qc7 9. g4 b5 10. Bxf6 Nxf6 11. g5 Nd7 12. O-O-O Bb7 13. Bh3 Rc8 14. Rhe1 Qc4 15. Bf1 Qc5 16. a3 b4 17. axb4 Qxb4 18. Qh3 g6 19. f5 e5 20. Nb3 Be7 21. f6 Bf8 22. Re3 h6 23. Nd5 Qa4 24. Be2 Rc6 25. Bg4 Nc5 26. Kb1 Kd8 27. Nxc5 Rxc5 28. Rc3 Rc6 29. Rxc6 Bxc6 30. Qe3 Qb5 31. Rd3 Qc5 32. Rb3 Bxd5 33. Rb8+ 1-0