Kasparov stars in Nicaragua

While FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and Presidential Candidate Anatoly Karpov are involved in a political skirmish that will last until the day of election, the latter has a famous and active supporter. Garry Kasparov visited Nicaragua, one of the early supporters of the Karpov bid, and was welcomed as a superstar.

Kasparov visited Nicaragua together with Richard A. Conn, Jr., a prominent international attorney and Managing Director of Conn International Group LLC, a Moscow/NY-based financial and legal advisory firm. Conn runs for the post of Deputy President of FIDE.

The two responded to the early support, by the Chess Federation of Nicaragua, to the bid for the FIDE presidency by World Chess Champion Anatoly Karpov.

“I am working to make sure that in a few months Anatoly is elected president of the World Chess Federation”, said Kasparov, and added that together with Karpov he is “interested in improving the status of chess worldwide”.

On his first trip through Central America, Kasparov held meetings with national chess authorities and took part in a series of events to share his experience with the Nicaraguan players.

“We are going to work together to aid chess development, especially for the children and the upcoming generations from Central and South America”, the 13th former World Champion said.

“It is an historical event”, said Jean-Pierre Chamorro, President of the Chess Federation of Nicaragua. “In the federation we have established the goal to develop the first Grand Master in Nicaragua’s chess history. We have plenty of talent, but we lack planning.”

The video below shows hundreds of fans welcoming Kasparov.

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"214","attributes":{"class":"media-image","typeof":"foaf:Image","height":"385","width":"480","style":""}}]]

A video of the press conference in Managua:

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"215","attributes":{"class":"media-image","typeof":"foaf:Image","height":"385","width":"480","style":""}}]]