Karpov To Run For FIDE President

Multi-millionaire Kirsan Ilyumzhinov from Kalmykia has been president of FIDE since 1995, and although he has ploughed a lot of his own money into the game, commercial sponsors are few and far between.

Rightly or wrongly, FIDE has a reputation for ineptitude and corruption.  While this image remains it is hard to see a prosperous commercial future for the game as it competes with the likes of Poker for attention from sponsors.

The last attempt to unseat Ilyumzhinov was in 2006 when Dutch businessman Bessel Kok failed in his election bid.  At the time Anatoly Karpov's blunt opinion was that "even a dickhead would do a better job than Ilyumzhinov".

Fast forward 4 years and Karpov (pictured above) has announced that he is standing against Ilyumzhinov for the FIDE presidency!  There's an obvious joke there, which I will resist making out of great respect for the former world champion.

The election will take place during the 39th Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk this September.  The French chess magazine and website Europe-Echecs has an interview with Karpov about his decision, which you can see here.