Meeting with FIDE President in Bursa
Dear PCCC/ICCU Delegates,
The letter to the FIDE President, a copy of which you received previously,
yielded an invitation from Mr Ilyumzhinov to me for a meeting at Bursa, Turkey,
on January 3rd-6th 2010. The following is a brief report of this meeting:
Apart from Mr Ilyumzhinov and me, present at the meeting were: Deputy President
Mr Georgios Makropoulos, General Secretary Mr Ignatius Leong, VP Mr Zurab Azmaiparashvili,
VP Mr Andrey Selivanov and Hon VP Mr Israel Gelfer.
During this meeting, I drew the attention of all participants to the danger
of division within the world of chess composition which was inherent in Mr Selivanov’s
proposal to give him the authority to carry out separate chess composition activity
bearing the name of the FIDE.
Almost everyone present agreed that such division should be avoided. After
some discussion (also in another, smaller group) about future FIDE/ICCU relations,
the following two options were offered to us:
Either we continue with our present process of becoming an independent organisation
affiliated to the FIDE, or we resume our previous status as the Permanent Commission
of the FIDE for Chess Composition (PCCC).
This, together with the dismissal of Mr Selivanov’s proposal, is included in
a resolution by the Presidential Board of the FIDE.
Therefore I think that this is good news! Further, I can inform you that in
general during my conversations in Bursa (on and off the record) I found both
openness and great understanding of our needs on the part of most FIDE officials,
including President Ilyumzhinov, whom we should especially thank for his support
and friendship.
Last but not least, dear Delegates, I should be glad to receive your opinions
specifically about the path which we should take regarding the future of our
organisation, but also about any other matter mentioned above.
Best wishes for the New Year 2010,
Uri Avner, PCCC/ICCU President