Campomanes injured in car accident in Turkey

International Chess Federation (FIDE) honorary president Florencio Campomanes has undergone operation after breaking two neck bones in a vehicular accident in Antalya, Turkey yesterday morning.

Turkish Chess Federation president Alli Nihat Yazici said Campomanes, FIDE president from 1984 to 1996, was on his way to the airport to return home after attending the FIDE Presidential Board meeting when the accident happened.

Yazici, who hosted the meeting, said the accident was not fatal although diagnosis indicated that Campomanes broke two bones in the neck and had to be operated on.

"We would like to inform the Board of FIDE and the world of chess that the Turkish Chess Federation, governor of Antalya and mayor of Kemer will take care of our honorary president," said Yazici in his message posted at a chess website.

"The honorary president is under the treatment of the best doctors of Antalya. Turkish Chess Federation is taking care and the best treatment will be made," he added.

Reports said Campomanes, who was bestowed a lifetime achievement award by the Philippine Sportswriters Association in its annual awards rites last month, left his hotel at 9:30 a.m. He was thrown off his car as a result of the accident. - Joey Villar