Article published in in Svedok weekly, Belgrade, Serbia

(“Svedok“ weekly, Belgrade, Serbia, issue 720, May 11th 2010)

The fact that everything is possible in politics has now been proven in the field of chess too. Two people who had been ’sworn enemies’ for decades, namely ’the Soviet regime’s pet’ Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov, now the leader of opposition to Vladimir Putin, have joined forces to remove Kirsan Ilyumzhinov from the position of the FIDE President.

Simply unbelievable: is it that Karpov and Kasparov were “fake political opponents” before (Karpov siding with let’s say the Serbs and Kasparov with the Croats) while they were, admittedly, charging appropriately for their love and loyalty to ’their’ political party all the time, or is it that the position of the World Chess Federation President (for which Anatoly Karpov is running for President) is so attractive that any kind of coalition is acceptable if it brings with it a position, which in turn brings influence, and with influence comes money…?!

The whole story gains a new flavour with the spicy details that Kasparov, the opponent of the regime in Russia is supporting Karpov, but also that the Russian Chess Federation is against ’their man’ Anatoly?!

So, this year of 2010 is the election year for all the World Chess Federation (FIDE) and the European Chess Union (ECU) bodies. The elections are to be held by the end of September, during the 39th World Chess Olympiad in the west Siberian town of Khanty-Mansiysk (the autonomous county of Yugra). For now, the throne is held (although not that firmly) by Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the President of the Republic of Kalmykia of the Russian Federation (FIDE President since 1995) and the Slovenian Boris Kutin (ECU President since 1998). “Svedok“ weekly will be watching the events during the election race with eagle eyes.

The pre-election games started supposedly at the end of 2009, but the real start was in Rijeka in mid March this year. This was when the 12th world champion, the legendary Anatoly Karpov, visited the the 11th European Individual Chess Championship and had two public appearances that were well covered by the media. On these two occasions he announced that he would be running for FIDE President and made direct accusations against the current FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and his closest associates.

It was then that the presidents of the leading West European chess federations – namely the federations of France, Germany, Spain and Switzerland – promised Karpov they would fully support him, and if needed, give an initial recommendation that he be elected the new FIDE President.

However, all eyes were on Moscow, expecting the main signal. The Russian Chess Federation held its general elections on Feb 19th and Mr. Arkady Dvorkovich, who is not that well known in chess circles, but who is very well known as President Medvedev’s right hand, was unanimously elected President of the Russian Chess Federation. Thus, gaining the support of the Russian Chess Federation becomes more important, especially because elections for the FIDE President are to be held in Russia, among other reasons.

We waitied for two months to hear the final decision, and then at a press conference on April 21st Arkady Dvorkovich announced: “The Russian Chess Federation endorses Ilyumzhinov!“ In addition to that, he stated three conditions for the current FIDE President, but we will deal with that topic some other time.

In the few days following this event, Karpov attacked this decision in the media, head-on and with all available weapons, calling it nonexitent and illegal. He gave a lot of interviews, putting emphasis especially on the reasons why he should become FIDE’s first man. This finally brings us to the fact that caused this article to be written in the first place and that ignited curiousity with journalists.

THE “COLOSSAL“ EXPERIENCE IN SERBIA

In the lengthy interview given to the Russian “Echo“ radio station on April 23rd, speaking about his advantages over the other candidate, Karpov said: “I have a colossal experience in organizing big international chess events. They talk rubbish about me playing only individually being a world champion. So far I have organized twelve Children World Chess Olympiads. I organized them myself. I was the president of the Organizing Comitee, as well as the Honorary President, and the idea was mine. I organized the Olympiads in Spain, Malta, Yugoslavia, Serbia, Turkey…”

The words spoken by the chess legend would raise at least a little doubt with the reader who follows chess and who has at least a vague memory of past chess events. That is why we plunged into researching newspaper archives.

The Children Chess Olympiad was first mentioned in this region at the beginning of 1996. Named “The Peace Tournament“, the event which would have attracted a lot of attention in normal circumstances, was organized in an unbeliveably quiet, fast and casual way. The tournament was sponsored by Assembly of the City of Belgrade and “Večernje Novosti“ daily newspaper and it was organized as it was then written as ’the first promotion of the Children World Chess Olympiad “Belgrade 96“ to be held in August“ (Večernje Novosti, Feb 12th 1996). The tournament should have been played in two parts and ten rounds, it gathered true legends of chess at that time – Karpov as the world champion, Bereyev and Salov who were amongst the leading chess players in the world, then the rising star in the world of chess – Peter Leko, and Serbian team chessplayers Ilincic and Popovic.

That is about it as far as the good things about this tournament are concerned. Only the first part of the tournament was played (5 rounds). Those five rounds were played during a nine day period because neither round was complete, so the matches had to be postponed constantly (some matches were postponed twice). There were problems with payments for Salov and Bereyev, Salov was even not allowed to leave Hotel “Moskva“ due to his unpaid bills!

The media described the tournament as “the failure of the decade“ (Politika, Feb 17th.1996) and the representatives of the sponsors backed out after seeing where the event was leading to, although they had previously fulfilled their financial obligations.

Then Valery Salov, the seventh best chessplayer in the world at the time, made his troubles during and after the tournament public at a press conference mentioning he had received only 40% of the money he had been promised and said: “I have never had anything like this happen to me before. I came to attend the promotion of the Children Olympiad and a tournament dedicated to peace, but I ended up in prison!“ (Politika, Feb 20th 1996).

Meanwhile, Karpov charged all of his fees and was not much concerned with the troubles his colleagues got into, even though they had come to Belgrade basically because of Karpov’s authority. Although this was a bitter pill to swallow, he did so quickly: the City of Belgrade Assembly cancelled their sponsorship and any kind of involvement with the organization of the Children Olympiad.

The scandal was not looked over by the foreign media either. The international chess master Gert Ligterink wrote:

“Karpov went to Yugoslavia too to play chess. In Belgrade he participated in the tournament with six players and that did not go smoothly. After the first five rounds had been played, the second half of the tournament was cancelled. At first, the organizers claimed that some of the participants got sick, but when Peter Leko suddenly left, the tournament could not be continued. Meanwhile, it became clear that something else was the matter. According to Leko’s manager, there were major financial problems and not all the participants were given the money they had been promised prior to the beginning of the tournament.“ (Volkstant.nl, March 6th 1996)

AFTER MONTENEGRO, RETURN TO ZEMUN!

Still, a new organizer was quickly found. The then President of Montenegro, Momir Bulatovic, agreed to sponsor the Children Olympiad in the town of Sutomore, and the organization was handed down to the then Minister of Sports, chess grand master, Bozidar Ivanovic.

Karpov was then, as usually, payed as the Honorary President, there were rumours that the Olympiad cost around 100,000 Deutsche Marks, which was an outrageous sum for that time. The eighteen teams from around ten countries that participated (source: British Chess Magazine) did not justify the name of the Olympiad and the money invested, but what followed was a return to Belgrade.

An organizer for 1997 Olympiad was to be found, the one that would be willing to pay considerable sums to Anatoly Karpov and Dimitrije Bjelica, a publisher and Karpov’s partner, and also to cover all other costs. A positive response came from two sides: the then president of the Zemun Municipality, Dr Vojislav Seselj, agreed to be the sponsor, (together with “Večernje novosti“), and the realisation of the tournament was aided by the Minister of Tourism, Slobodan Cerovic.

Reports clearly show the amount of success (or the lack of) of the Olympiad and its organizers. Although the opening was reported and given a two page feature, saying that there were 23 teams from 15 countries participating, a dry report from the first round leads us to conclude that the tournament was moved from the Zemun hall “Pinki“ to Hotel “Jugoslavija“ where 18 teams from 11 countries were participating. (Večernje novosti, Aug 21st / 22nd 1997)

So, another failure, but the money was paid, and the media were protesting:

“For all true chess lovers, the fact that none of the official chess institutions in our country want to have anything to do with this competition speaks for itself. Here is some data for Ripley: there is an international team competition being held in our country but the Yugoslavia team is not participating!

The question of who needs to have a children’s chess tournament with such bad reputation take place in Yugoslavia has one answer – only its organizers…“ (Politika, Aug 21st 1997)

SCAM OF THE DECADE IN BANJA LUKA

Since 2001 FIDE has been organizing the World Youth Under 16 Olympiads, continuing in the tradition of Children Chess Olympiads and in that way it has put an end to failures of its organizers and has preserved what is basically a noble idea.

Nevertheless, ’forgetting’ this fact, Anatoly Karpov visited Banja Luka in July 2003 where he was received by the highest officials of the Republic of Srpska and the town of Banja Luka. Voice of America reports:

“The Republic of Srpska Government will endorse the organizing of the Children Chess Olympiad, at the same time welcoming the announced presence of the ex world chess champion Anatoly Karpov. This statement came from the cabinet of the Republic of Srpska Prime Minister Dragan Mikerevic following his meeting with Anatoly Karpov who is visiting Banja Luka today since he had been invited by the Republika Srpska Chess Federation. The ex world chess champion is convinced that the Children Chess Olympiad that is to take place at the end of September, will help promote chess in Banja Luka and Bosnia and Herzegovina.“ (voanews.com/bosnian, July 15th 2003)

Faruk Kapic, a journalist, gave additional details in his report:

“The town of Banja Luka will be the host of this competition which will be organized by Karpov himself, who is also a UNICEF ambassador.”

“There is a great interest in chess here and we are happy that an event like this one will be held in Banja Luka. We have been promised by the highest officials of the Republic of Srpska that we would have their full support in organizing this competition. I believe that the Children Olympiad will further popularize this ancient game in our region“ – Anatoly Karpov said and added: “In the following few days the Organizing Comitee of the Children Olympiad will be appointed, and Dragan Kalinic, President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Srpska should be presiding.”

The epilogue was a complete disaster.

“The Republika Srpska Chess Federation stood clear of this competition when it became clear how it was going to finish. That was by no means an easy decision to make considering the fact that the highest officials in the government fully supported the event, especially financially“ – the then and current secretary of the Federation, Miladin Gavric recalls, adding that Karpov was fully paid, travel expenses included.

The author of these lines was witness to a tragi-comic situation at the European Youth Chess Championship in Budva in 2003 which preceded the Olympiad. The power utility of the Republic of Srpska (Elektroprivreda Republike Srpske) sent a bus from Trebinje. It was supposed to take the tournament participants from Budva to Banja Luka. The hosts phoned to check if one bus would be enough considering that 30 teams from 30 countries had been announced. They were shocked to hear that only two boys were arriving from Russia accompanied by their trainer.

Eleven teams took part in the competition: the above mentioned team from Russia (who of course won), one school team from a nearby town of Mrkonjic and nine teams from the very town of Banja Luka. Dimitrije Bjelica tried to gather a team in Belgrade, but none of the kids wanted to go to the “Olympiad”!

It was a fiasco and an embarrassment. The sponsor’s reaction at the closing dinner is not appropriate for print. Dimitrije Bjelica was of course the one to take the blame since Karpov had wisely (and with cash in his pocket) removed himself in time to avoid any unpleasantries.

BJELICA ‘FORGOTTEN’ IN NOVI SAD

“Minakva”, a reputable company from Novi Sad was the organizer of the International Children’s Chess Games called “Vojvodina” from 2005 to 2007. They invited Anatoly Karpov to be the promoter of the Games and their products. However, this time the mistakes from Banja Luka were avoided. The suggestion made by the Chess Federation of Serbia and Montenegro that the tournament should not be named Children Olympiad since FIDE was against it was accepted and the tournament was completely organized by the “Minakva” marketing team. The patron of the competition was the president of the Executive Council of Vojvodina, Bojan Pajtic.

After three successful years, the tournament was not organized any more, no explanation given. Seaching for an answer, we could consider the open letter Dimitrije Bjelica wrote on Dec 15th 2008 to Bojan Pajtic entitled: “Why were there no Children Games in Novi Sad this year?” In the letter, among other things, he says: „Many chess lovers are asking me why were the Children Games ‘Vojvodina 2008’ not held this year” The answer is obvious. “Minakva” violated the contract it had with the Children’s Games Comitee that obliged them to pay 2,500€ for 2006 and 2007 respectively – they made a payment for 2005 only. Their response was that they had made the payments to Karpov, but since Karpov was not the owner of the Comitee the issue would be taken to court. Bjelica explained the payment plan and the roles: „I am the founder and the director of Children Olympiads. For the first year of the Games, a representative from “Minakva” brought 5,000€ in an envelope and asked who she should give it to. She gave it to Karpov. He opened the envelope, gave half of the sum to the Comitee and kept the other half for himself. I accepted this. The contract is for three years, both Karpov and myself signed it. I started the Games in 1993 and I invited Karpov a year later to be the Honorary President. At all of the ten Olympiads payments were made separately: one to the Comitee and one to Karpov. It is presented as if Karpov was the owner of the company.”

We do not know whether the court solved the issue of who ‘the owner of the company’ was or if the matter was settled in some other way, but it is certain that one good competition became history due to unfinished business these two partners had.

»SAJKACA« ON YOUR HEAD AND PLUMS IN YOUR HEART

Before the Novi Sad story ever got its epilogue, there was a search for a new organizer of the Children Olympiad. This time it should have been the town of Valjevo. On Christmas Evening, Jan 6th 2007, Anatoly Karpov was, as reported by the media, awarded the title Citizen of Honour of Valjevo, with the following explanation: ‘This title has been awarded to Karpov because he is a proven friend of Serbia and Serbian people and because he is putting his efforts into organizing the Children Chess Olympiad at no other place but here in Valjevo.’

However, not everyone shared the opinion that the popular Tolya was such a good friend to Serbia so this news caused an avalanche of protests in Valjevo and with local media.

Branko Vicentijevic humourously reports: „Accompanied by ’daddy Stocking Stitch’ Dimitrije Bjelica, who was gigging the Serbian to Russian and Russian to Serbian translation for 600€, Tolya posed for pictures wherever necessary, they even put a Serbian brand “sajkaca” hat on his head. And we cannot fail to mention the spectacular reception the just awoken Karpov received in front of the Valjevo Town Hall building. Hands were shaken, hugs were given, kisses were exchanged. An elderly passer-by, obviously uninformed, asked: “Who died?” “Valjevo died” was the answer he got from another spectator.” (Revija Kolubara, February 2007)

Disappointed by the fact that Karpov was going to, without any good reason, join the company of notable citizens of Valjevo, i.e. the likes of Zivojin Misic, Desanka Maksimovic and Ljuba Popovic, Vicentijevic concluded: „So, Karpov is, at least for the time being, a substitute for the late Slobodan Milosevic who was deprived of this title by the government of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) in 2000. Symbolism could be found in the fact that ’tovarisch’ Tolya, as „a proven friend of Serbian people’, received his membership card for the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) in Pozarevac in 1999.’

Although he had sworn loyalty to the Valjevo Chess Club, Tolya never played a single game for them, and the Children Olympiad never did develop into anything more than words on paper, so the citizens of Valjevo had more luck than many others.

In august 2006, Anatoly Karpov visited Blace where he opened the »Plum Days« and played a session of simultaneous chess with citizens and guests.

A well-known chess worker from the south of Serbia who wanted to remain anonymous, witnessed these events: “Tolya did his job professionally, he said he had never seen so many people. He got a 3.000€ payment and his travel expences were covered. When the mayor asked him to do an additional press-conference and answer a few short questions, he agreed but on condition that he be given a ’small’ 1.000€ bonus. The hosts did not want to pay for that though.“

As he was more than satisfied with the organization of the event that was so important for the development of chess in Blace and vicinity, Karpov authorized Zoran Milutinovic (who came up with the idea for this event in the first place), to be his manager on the territory of Serbia. However, as our source says: “He said that, by the way, he had another such manager in Valjevo!“

DECEPTION ABOUT CHESS IN SERBIAN SCHOOLS

CHESS IN SCHOOL AND KARPOV’S MERITS?

Chess lovers in Serbia are especially proud of the fact that thanks to Nebojsa Baralic, Ivan Markovic and many other enthusiasts, chess has been added as a subject in primary schools in Serbia. This is why Karpov’s following statement given in the “Echo” radio station interview has drawn a lot of attention:

“With my support, chess has become part of school syllabus in several countries. The government of Serbia has reached a decision to include chess in school programme. Six years ago I promoted chess in Brazil in four provinces with their Minister of Education…“

“Anatoly Karpov has never in any way helped promote the inclusion of chess in school syllabus in Serbia“ – ’swear’ those who participated in this historic action, and they add: „If his presence at the promotion of the two already completed school textbooks during the Children’s Games in Novi Sad can be considered a critical contribution, we will take back our protest against this lie.“

THE ‘PRINCIPLED’ COALITION

Those more or less informed about chess events in the world were astonished to hear that Garry Kasparov actively supports Anatoly Karpov in the race for the FIDE Presidency.

As early as 1996, Ligterink wrote in the above mentioned text:

“There are some unbelievable news. According to Yugoslavian newspapers, Karpov was the first foreigner to become a member of the political party led by the Serbian president Milosevic. Apparently he received his membership card during a meeting in the town of Stara Pazova where he was playing a tournament.

If this is true, the two world champions are deepening the opposition between each other by taking sides in the Yugoslavian conflict. While Karpov has succumbed to the Serbian government, the other side has chosen Kasparov. He is a member of two clubs: the club of Bosnia, Sarajevo and the Croatian chess club Borovo-Vukovar.”

In one interview, Karpov described Kasparov as follows:

“He is a difficult man. One day he will say one thing, and in a month’s time he will say something completely different explaining that ‘yes, but the situation has changed’. Depending on the circumstances, he can be an Azerbaijani, a great Russian, an Armenian or a Jew. He is hard to define and I think everything starts here.” (Večernje novosti, Feb 4th 1996)

What is yet more unbelievable is the urgent and expedient support that the chess federations of the USA, France, Germany and Switzerland are giving to Karpov’s candidacy.

It is a well-known fact that Karpov supported Serbian government by playing simultaneous chess in Vukovar* on August 16 2005, a Croatian town which was then under the Serbian rule. “Svedok” weekly wrote about Karpov’s co-operation with Dr Vojislav Seselj** and the game of chess the two of them played, but the final act was definitely Anatoly Karpov’s membership in the Socialist Party of Serbia***. Karpov had ‘expressed this wish’ during the tournament in Stara Pazova, so a ceremony where he was given the membership card was arranged. (Večernje novosti, Feb 14th 1996)

We were unable to find out whether the same ceremony was arranged once again in Pozarevac in 1999 as jounalists from Valjevo report.

Have the western chess officials been completely ignorant of these facts, or has the west suddenly and unexpectedly found acceptable all that they had been attacking (and in 1999 even bombing) for years. This is a question we do not have an answer for.

Editorial notes:

* Vukovar, a Croatian town and a symbol of resistance and destruction during the war in Croatia. After having been subjugated by Serbian forces in November 1991, it remained under Serbian rule until mid 1997. It was then peacefully reintegrated into Croatia.

By playing a simulatenous game of chess in Vukovar, Anatoly Karpov gave his support to Serbian forces in the town that was part of the Croatian territory

** Vojislav Seselj, a PhD in Law and a politician. Since February 2003 in the Hague Tribunal prison, where he is being tried for murder, persecution, extermination and attacks on civilians on the territories of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in the period from 1992 to 1995. These facts were known in 1997 when Karpov played chess with Seselj

*** The Socialist Party of Serbia is a political party whose founder and first president was Slobodan Milosevic, President of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He was kept in the Hague Tribunal prison since 2002 where he was on trial for genocide and war crimes on the territories of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Milosevic died during the trial in 2006. The charges refer to the period from 1992 to 1995 and they were known before Anatoly Karpov stated his wish to become a member of Milosevic’s party.