PRESS RELEASE

Presidential Board Meeting, Athens 31st May & 1st June, 2008

The FIDE Presidential Board (PB) held its third 2008 Meeting at the Royal Olympic Hotel under the auspices of the Greek Chess Federation.

The FIDE President, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov gave an overview as to his activities since the last meeting, especially in finalizing outstanding issues.  He advised that the Women’s World Championship would be organized in Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria, Russia from 28th August to 18th September, 2008.

He also advised the receipt of a bid for the Topalov-Kamsky Match from Lviv, Ukraine (see separate Press Release). He congratulated all those involved with the success of the first Grand Prix event in Baku and stressed the importance of publicity for FIDE from such events.

Amongst, the matters that were discussed, was FIDE participation in the SportAccord Meeting which will be held in Athens directly after the PB. The FIDE President will be meeting with IOC officials and FIDE also will have its own stand at this prestigious event.

Stress was placed on getting a large turn out of teams for the World Mind Sports in Beijing, with all the strong federations being encouraged to participate. Regulations have been drawn up for the events and will be sent to all federations once the free air ticket arrangements have been finalized, which is expected this week.

It was agreed to hold a Women’s Grand Prix of six tournaments to take place over two years, with the winner playing the winner of the Women’s World Championship, every other year.

Arrangements for the Dresden Olympiad were discussed. It was agreed that any team that did not arrive in time for the First Round would not be allowed to participate in the Olympiad and it was stressed that Federations were responsible for ensuring that visa and travel arrangements were made.  It was also agreed that a draw offer could not be made before the 30th move, unless in a forced repetition of moves or in a position which is considered a dead-draw.

The World Amateur Championship for 2009 was awarded to Halkidiki, Greece and the World Junior U-20, 2010 to Chotowa, Czarna, Poland. It was noted that the three bids received for the 2012 Olympiad were from the Montenegro Chess Federation for Budva, the Swedish Chess Federation for Stockholm and the Turkish Chess Federation for Istanbul.

The PB was advised that the plans for the World Championship Match between Anand and Kramnik in Bonn were proceeding well.

The Myanmar Chess Federation appealed for aid after Myanmar suffered from the natural calamity of cyclone Nargis and Asian Chess Federation president Sheikh Sultan bin Khalifah Al Nahyan personally pledged financial assistance to help rebuild their federation.

The PB members were able to visit the FIDE Secretariat in Athens and thanked the Secretariat employees for their organizing of the event.