Eastern promise | 11 October 2018

The Batumi Olympiad ended as a great success for the teams from China, which captured the gold medals in both the open and women’s sections. England finished a most creditable fifth in the open, behind USA (silver) Russia (bronze) and Poland, our best result for decades. Meanwhile the bitter contest for the Fidé (World Chess Federation) presidential election concluded in victory for the Russian candidate, Arkady Dvorkovich.
 
Mr Dvorkovich evidently appreciated the value of the English candidate for president, grandmaster Nigel Short, since he promptly appointed him vice president after Short stepped down at the last minute. It was unfortunate that the English Chess Federation misguidedly failed to back Short and instead opted to vote for the Greek candidate Makropolous, who was ultimately defeated. The ECF’s misplaced faith in the Greek rather than the UK candidate thus amounted to the waste of the English vote. From extensive soundings I have taken, the members of the Federation as a whole were less than impressed.