18-07-2014, 11:10 PM
The Organisers of the 2014 Chess Olympiad, Tromso issued a Press release at 13:18 on Friday 18 July, promising to review the Open Letter from the incumbent FIDE President received at 09:00 the same day and respond within the deadline set for Monday 21 July, 11:00 CET. Note that Kirsan’s letter affirmed that - provided FIDE’s demands were met - the Olympiad would go ahead in Tromso.
The foregoing precedes a separate letter from Swiss lawyers acting on behalf of FIDE that issued later on the same day, containing various demands, including the resignation of the two (alleged) Kasparov supporters on the Organising Committee and the possible cancellation of the Olympiad and its relocation to ‘another country’, which everyone looking on seems to assume means Russia (Sochi). [The full text is available on the FIDE web site.]
There is no doubt that this is playing political hard ball with a vengeance. Many Federations will support the Russian Chess Federation’s handling of the Lagno Transfer and consider the Norwegians have been too rigid on this point.
The foregoing precedes a separate letter from Swiss lawyers acting on behalf of FIDE that issued later on the same day, containing various demands, including the resignation of the two (alleged) Kasparov supporters on the Organising Committee and the possible cancellation of the Olympiad and its relocation to ‘another country’, which everyone looking on seems to assume means Russia (Sochi). [The full text is available on the FIDE web site.]
There is no doubt that this is playing political hard ball with a vengeance. Many Federations will support the Russian Chess Federation’s handling of the Lagno Transfer and consider the Norwegians have been too rigid on this point.