Hopes dim for PCF

ISTANBUL, Turkey – The executive council of the International Chess Federation (FIDE), ignoring conciliation talks between the Philippine Chess Federation and the National Chess Federation of the Philippines, voted unanimously Tuesday to toss the membership issue of both groups to the General Assembly for final approval.

William Kelleher of the United States Chess Federation and Norway’s Morten Sand were the only officials, among 14 members, who objected to the motion the NCFP pushed on the last day of the council meeting.

The sudden turn of events rendered moot and academic the ongoing talks brokered by Kelleher and Sand in hopes of avoiding the issue from reaching the General Assembly where the PCF stood an almost nil chance of getting the majority vote.

Former FIDE president Florencio Campomanes has reportedly distributed to all delegates an album of book-bound press clipping which presented the PCF as an ineffective chess organization and the NCFP as the solution to the current problem facing Philippine chess.

The newspaper clippings became the basis for the members’ recommendation and are expected to form the same basis for voting by the members in the General Assembly.

The PCF could not present its stand among delegates because the World Chess Olympiad organizers had refused to give PCF officials accreditation. They were limited to the confines of their hotel and are now depending on Kelleher and Sand for the chance to meet personally with delegates and be heard in the General Assembly.

PCF officials, led by president Jesus Ingeniero, were taken aback when they were informed of the board resolution during their meeting late Monday night.

Ingeniero was to meet with Sand and Kelleher to know what the NCFP had to offer on the negotiation table only to be informed that the NCFP had already referred the matter to the executive council for deliberations.

The executive council, the second most powerful in the FIDE after the General Assembly, recommended that the membership of the NCFP be referred to the General Assembly for approval.

Greece’s Georgious Makropolous, FIDE executive vice president who is presiding over the executive council meeting in the absence of president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, had promised to defer discussions on the membership issue pending talks between the PCF and the NCFP.

Sand said they could not do anything during the council meeting where the members read only the charges, from newspaper clippings from Manila, of the NCFP and none from the PCF.

The PCF has not made any move to defend its position in deference to the ongoing conciliation talks.

However, Sand and Kelleher said they would fight for the PCF position in the assembly.

The tenor of the resolution only called for an approval of the membership of the NCFP and did not mention any ouster proceedings against the PCF.

Voting on a new member would require only 50 percent plus one, while an ouster move, to be in effect, will require the presentation of charges and hearing the side of the PCF. It needs a vote of at least two-thirds of members present in the General Assembly, which has 126 registered delegates.

Sand said he was worried since the FIDE Presidential Board that met in Tehran, Iran last August has not released, till now, the minutes of the meeting, which will determine whether the agenda in the General Assembly will take up the PCF’s expulsion or merely act on the NCFP’s membership.