Nigel Short (our Publicity Officers son) is FIDE Vice President

Nigel Short is new FIDE vice president

Nigel Short’s unremitting anti corruption campaign in recent years had led to him being appointed as a FIDE vice president and to a seat on the executive council.

Grandmaster Nigel who contested the world championship final in 1993, is the son of Wolverhampton League publicity officer David Short. He was one of three candidates for last week’s Presidential election, but after making a forceful speech at the FIDE Congress he withdrew his nomination and instead backed the Russian, Arkady Dvorkovich, a former deputy prime and organiser of the World football cup.

Dvorkovitch went on to oust the third contender, Makropoulos of Greece, who has been FIDE deputy during a time when it has been dogged by corruption issues.

The newcomers to the Board made an immediate impact and new rules have already been adopted banning presidents from serving for more than eight years. Proxy voting has also been abolished because it made bribery easier.

Criticism has been levelled at Nigel for supporting a Russian who has dismissed Morcow’s guilt over the Salisbury poisonings. He responded that Dvorkovich had been defending the indefensible regarding Salisbury, but that had no bearing on whether he would be able to root out corruption in chess.

Nigel’s father, the secretary of Lichfield chess Club, said throughout Nigel’s career he had been asked many times if he was proud of his son’s achievements. “I have always said yes of course,
but I have never been prouder than of the stance he has taken against corruption.Shame on the English Chess Federation”

Nigel said he had found it upsetting that the ECF had unanimously declared its support for Makropolous and his running mate Malcolm Pein, who is a leading figure in British chess, organising the London Chess Classic, Chess for Schools and writing for the Daily Telegraph.

He argued that Makropoulos had to be swept aside if FIDE was to overcome what he described as a deeply corrupt reputation.

Regarding the new President’s view of the Salisbury poisonings Nigel said those who thought those remarks were important must have been blind to the corruption that has been going on in chess. “The problem has been FIDE, not a bottle of ‘perfume’ ” he said

Nigel’s decision to withdraw from the election at the last minute was because he knew he had insufficient votes to survive a first ballot.
His decision helped Dvorkovich to win.

written by David Short