Persnally i cannot see the all the fuss. perhaps FIDO board members  are politicians, crooks basically.

Q: What is considered a big nation?

A: In this case - France, USA, Ukraine, Germany, Switzerland, Georgia and the English Chess Federation) that brought 2 legal actions vs FIDE, both thrown out of court.

BTW I agree with Steve Giddins & Kingpatzer, even though it would appear that a guy like me would side with other 3rd-world lunatics like the current President of FIDE>

I like Steve Giddins' take on this:

"Actually, in the long term, the best possible outcome for both English and world chess would be for Comical Ali's motion to succeed. In the short run, it would hit English players and organisers, but there is an excellent chance that it would also result in the splitting of the Western democracies from FIDE, and the establishment of a new organisation, free of the dominance of Third World-supported space travellers and dictators. Such an organisation would have an excellent chance of being able to market chess properly and attract respectable commercial sponsorship, which in the long run would benefit the top players and everyone else too. If that happened, and the new organisation were seen to be successful and able to raise money for chess, the Third World countries would soon be clamouring to join, and could be admitted as non-voting members. In the end, FIDE would wither on the vine, as people voted with their bank accounts, and we could be left with a respectable and respected world chess organisation, rather than one at the mercy of the likes of Ill-Lunatic and Comical Ali. Of course, that is an ideal outcome, and may not happen, but there is at least a chance. There is no chance of a future at all within FIDE."

http://stevegiddinschessblog.blogspot.com/

What is considered a big nation? 

I have to move to Palau. Some day I would get their citizenship and play in the national team...

I 2nd the motion!

First one that should be kicked out of FIDE is that lunatic president and his servants.

Yes, so very depressing. Seriously if I were a big billionaire chess events would never lose funding. Of course, that's not going to be very likely...-_-'

read it reverse!!! it is really a scam that big money is taken as service charges... need to have impartial investigation on this and culprits should be put to jail.. not the associations.

It is important(?) news, but then again I'm not volunteering to write it up! Why not just cut and paste it under NEWS or just post a brief summary with a link to the full news item?

i think fide must consider humans not governments.fide isnt a political organization.

ECF responds

A comment was made about how if UK, US, Germany etc. were kicked out of FIDE it would/could result in an opposing world federation

The lawsuit struck me as bogus...so FIDE should be reimbursed for its costs in defending itself - but then again FIDE is pretty bogus itself: The "one nation one vote" rule is absurd why should Palau have one vote along with UK, USA, Russia, China and other chess powerhouses? And BTW I don't have anything against Palau they're just being used as a random example of FIDE members that aren't exactly in the same league with UK USA China Russia etc  http://ratings.fide.com/topfed.phtml?ina=1&country=PLW

More so after reading the proposal itself

I've been debating whether to write that story up as a news item here. Chess politics is so depressing, but it's a significant story