The Guardian newspaper wrote an interesting article on this event, one (fairly substantial) witness said....

CJ de Mooi, the president of the English Chess Federation, said: "It was unbelievable. This was a farce of a vote.

"You wouldn't believe the blatant breaking of rules and Fide's written statutes. It's amazing. There wasn't even a pretence of fairness and free speech."

De Mooi said Ilyumzhinov, Fide's president for 15 years, had refused to allow Karpov's supporters to address Fide's general assembly meeting. Instead, he turned off their microphones and carried on speaking himself. He also ignored legal points raised from the floor, eventually storming off stage with Fide's ruling board, de Mooi said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/sep/29/chess-karpov-kirsan-ilyumzhinov

NrthrnKnight is right but he is left with some. Yes Marcos was corrupt. I don't know of FIDE's and Campomanes' corruption. Congratulations Kirsan. We now have you as our President. But maybe your election was patterned after the 1824 " Corrupt Bargain" election of John Quincy Adams, the 1876 election of Hayes "His Fraudulency" , the dirty election of 1884 etc. etc. 

Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial Law. He was called a Strongman. Maybe he was strong. He dictated so we called him a Dictator.  A corrupt Dictator.

With a mouse click we can view the Most corrupt administration/Presidents in US history. Grant, Harding, Nixon, Bush. They were not Dictators like Marcos. They call them Democrats and Republicans. Someone will love reading history.

Corruption was not invented in the Philippines and we Filipinos did not kill each other when we had our revolution in 1986. Have someone researched seriously why Bobby Fischer denounced his US citizenship? I wonder who now possess his precious and priceless memorabilia and properties confiscated and stolen from him? I'm pretty sure the thief is not a Filipino. Chessplayers in the US should trace its whereabouts.  

When General Douglas McArthur was presented his fifth Star and was told that it was made in the Philippines he said " If it's from the Philippines, then it must be good".

Corruption was brought to the Philippines by somebody else's grandparents named Ferdinand and John Andrew . Ask Bernard Maddoff and Charles Ponzi.

After reading all the above opinions, it puzzles me that someone would "call out" developing countries for being corrupt ( these comments from members of one of the most corrupt country in the world).

No one has the facts, it is all speculation. That the election did not go the way of some...well, it would have never pleased everyone anyway. To insinuate that the result is due to corruption and bribery...well, who knows.

Personally, I would have preferred a change of face at the head...not that this would have guaranteed any improvement. With any election, much promises and no delivery...and this is so for both the developing and the so called developed world. Politics is politics. My first year at university, my Politics professor said "the only objective of any politician is to stay in power". He would say and do anything to achieve his goal...so I guess whoever won, was indeed the better politician. 

Why can't the players of the world unite under a new International Chess Federation.We can call it ICF. Brilliant, right? Karpov and name here can run and we the reasonable(those of us who have given up fide)can vote and Tah dah - the ICF is born!!!!!!!!!

Drop FIDE and start a revolution! If the remaining want a corrupt federation then so be it. Let them wallow in their own filth.We will ignore the rest as if they dont even exist.

I understand Kasparov and Short tried w/  the PCA. What happened? Not enough $$$,support,structure,sponsorship??? Does anybody know? The USCF(United States Chess Fed.) is in a state of virtual nonexistence. Why is this? I want answers people. NOW. Please. Seriously, does anybody know?

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov is a scourge upon international chess - I would like to see the poll results if every FIDE titled player got a vote.  I cannot imagine a single IM/GM voting for the dispicable lunatic.  Karpov may have been FIDE's last hope . . . I can only imagine how much further FIDE will sink in another 4 years - especially because many of the people who could save it have begun turning their back on it (Yasser Seriwan for example).

Based on the reporting, I suspect that this site is not sponsored in any way by Kirsan's billions...

not yet....

Karpov is much more deserving than that SHIT^^

You see thats what corruption does it attempts to stiffle the opposing opinion.Everything I said in my previous post is proveable and a matter of record.Here in America we have free speech.FIDE in the past and the present was and is corrupt.If you dont believe ferdinand marcos wasnt corrupt then you live in a dream world.FIDE became corrupt under companes.He set the bar so high that Kirsan has big shoes to fill.Its too bad that hero worship has clouded your judgement.

watch your language, Nrthrn knight.

4 more years of corruption

@ raffojan - I'm not American (as Rooster85 pointed out), I'm British.  Welsh, to be specific.

Kirsan's billions are like an illegal drug to the chess world. It may make us feel good in the short term, but will make us sick eventually. Sensible corporate sponsors avoid chess as a result, and relying on the grace and favour of one very rich man is no way to run a professional global sports governing body.

Kirsan undoubtely loves chess, and has had some success during his time in office, but there are far more downsides to offset those limited achievements.

No Medvedev was tired of Kirsan and ordered him to step down.  The continuied FIDE Presidency was the incentive, just look at how smoothly the Russian Chess Federation endoresement went.  It's very hard for large organizations not to get corrupt, and the longer people are in positions of power the more likely it is that they lose touch. 

"Kirsan gave up his kalmyk presidency to focus solely on fide. i hope karpov will accept kirsan's offer of him to become vice pres. it will be good to merge the best of the tickets' promises, sit down and make things happen."

Hummmm judging by all the philipino comments about this election ...let me take a wild guess your country voted for the scandal guy.Opps wasnt campones from the phillipines oh yeah so was marcos oh well I guess when you live with corruption you get used to it and EXPECT it.

chess.com is a good site for playing chess. The presentation of news does not match this level.

vote for pedro.

How bad and poor written news...

Some folks including SonofPearl apparantly have no idea how much Kirsen has done for chess comunity.

@raffojan: yes exactly, to arrange things, and then rearrange them, and then to rearrange them yet again....are you blind or simply ignorant to the state in which the affairs are? Let's just hope that now, when Kirsan has been kicked out from the Kalmykian president post (I'm sorry, resigned voluntarily "to focus solely on FIDE"...yeah right..) he still has enough of his money to save tournaments when the sponsors will ditch him...

btw, IIRC SonOfPearl is not form the US, right? Neither am I for that matter. It's not only the US, but France, Germany, and other western countries too. I won't even try to count how many chess players did support Karpov and how many Kirsan...alas, one country - one vote...

What do you really think, SonofPearl? ;) Seriously, with all the great writing and reporting that you do for this site day-in-day-out, you should be allowed to state your opinion/frustration every once in a while. Kudos to you, sir!

FAKE

Congratulations Kirsan!