Turkish Chess Federation election battle
04.11.2008 – Turbulent times for Turkish chess. Next Saturday the biggest chess federations in the world will hold an election. The incumbent President Ali Nihat Yazici is facing fierce opposition coalition, which includes the country’s first and strongest GM Suat Atalik. In Turkish chess circles this election is as hot as Obama vs McCain in the US.
Who will win?
The elections will be held in the Crown Plaza Hotel. There will be around 180
delegates present, five representatives from each club participating in the
Turkish İş Bank Chess League, three representatives from the first
ten clubs in the Turkish Clubs Championship (second division) and two representatives
from other clubs. Around 34 votes are from the General Youth and Sports Directorate,
the highest bureaucratic sports body in Turkey, and from ex-presidents of the
Federation.
The Incumbent: Ali Nihat Yazici and the Turkish chess revolution
Ali Nihat Yazici, whose name in Turkish (Yazıcı) is pronounced something
like “Yer-zer-che”, is well known to the readers of our new pages. He has been
President of the TCF since 2000, and in 2004 he was reelected for a second term.
Victory on Saturday should be easy (but see below), and in his campaign Yazici
points to a number of important milestones of Turkish chess which were recorded
in his second period.
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In Turkey, sports federations were all officially bound to the Youth and
Sports Directorate and the Sports Ministry. However, after the Autonomy
in Sports Law was passed in 2004, the sports federations had more financial
space and they were able to seek sponsors themselves without relying solely
on the state budget for their funding. Chess was the second sports federation
to become autonomous, after football, which is of course enormously popular
in Turkey.
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Chess became part of the national education curriculum after a deal was
signed between the National Education Minister Hüseyin Çelik and the TCF
President Ali Nihat Yazici in June 2005, with the result that millions of
children, literally, could be introduced to the game of chess in Turkish
schools. In the 2008-2009 education year nearly two million children chose
chess as a subject in their schools. The Turkish Chess Federation now claims
two hundred forty thousand members, making it the largest chess federation
in the world.
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An important institutional step was the sponsorship deal with Türkiye
İş Bank, a prestigious bank in Turkey, founded in 1924 by
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish Republic, to promote private
entrepreneurship and farming in the infant Turkish Republic.
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Under Yazici's stewardship around 100 international chess tournaments have
been staged in Turkey, including important youth and junior events like
World Junior Championships, World Youth Championships, World U16 Olympiads,
as well as elite events like the European Individual Championships, the
European Club Cup and this year the İş
Bank Atatürk International Women Masters.
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Until 2006 the TCF had not won a single medal in world and European chess
championships. After the sponsorship deal with the Türkiye İş
Bankası, the medals started to rain. In the past two years Turkish
players won 68 medals in different tournaments, including six golds, three
silvers, and seven bronzes in world championships, and five golds, two silvers
and three bronzes in European championships.
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Another significant step was moving the headquarter
of the Federation into the Atatürk Chess Center in Ankara. The new Federation
quarters, on the 6th floor of a business centre, is 1,000 m² in size and
was renewed and decorated by the TCF at a cost of around €1.1 million.
However, this rapid growth of Turkish chess has created its own problems –
Yazici himself describes the situation as a “4½-year-old baby which is 1.95
meters tall and weighs 100 kg”. As a result the incumbent President faces strong
opposition in Saturday’s election.
Atalik: “What happened so far is fake and unhealthy”
One of the masterminds of the rival candidacy is Suat Atalik, the first native
Grandmaster in Turkey. In fact for over ten years he was the only GM in the
country – from 1994 to 2005, when Mikhail Gurevich took up residence in Turkey.
Currently there are some strong junior players, like Mert Erdoğdu or Umut
Atakişi, who are expected to complete their norms and join the two.
Atalik was born in 1964 and represented Turkey in the World Junior Championship
in 1983. He was also top board for his country in several Chess Olympiads. However,
due to long-standing disputes with chess organizers in his country, predating
the Yazici era, he declared himself to be a resident of Bosnia and Herzegovina,
his ancestral home. During the 2000 World Chess Olympiad in Istanbul, Atalik
insisted on playing for Bosnia rather than Turkey. As a result, the organizers
of the Olympiad banned him from the competition.
After the election of the new national chess federation, Atalik returned to
play under the Turkish national team again. On November 11, 2005, he married
22-year-old WGM Ekaterina Polovnikova from Russia. Former world championship
challenger Nigel Short, who also played in the World Junior Championship in
1983 and has remained a close friend of Suat, was his best man. Nigel reported
on the wedding in a special
ChessBase report.
The wedding of Suat Atalik and Ekaterina Polovnikova in November 2005, with
Bekir Okan, Chairman of the Okan University Foundation, Nigel Short, Ali Nihat
Yazici, the groom and bride, and Selami Öztürk, the Major of Kadikoy, who conducted
the ceremony.
The TCF and Yazici were instrumental to returning Atalik to his homeland after
the latter had played for Bosnia and Herzegovina for five years. However, first
problems with the federation appeared and soon the two stopped talking to each
other. Atalik called the achievements of the TCF in the past years “fake and
unhealthy” and announced in his chess column in the newspaper Cumhuriyet
that he would be running against Yazici for the Federation presidency in the
next election.
Other candidates challenging Yazici were going to be Cengiz Keleş, an
International Arbiter and the second man behind Yazici during his first term,
and the 28-year-old sports bureaucrat Veli Ozan Çakır, who works in the
Football Federation and Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality. In due course these
candidates united themselves under the leadership of Çakır and added two
important defectors from the team that Yazici had built up: International Organiser
Abdurrahman Koral and Hakan Aktaç, the ex-General Secretary of the Turkish Chess
Federation. Their campaign was called “Tam Zamanı” (“just the time”)
and claimed for itself to consist of people who were already members of the
chess community, unlike Yazici’s different approach with specialized people
in different areas, but not with strong organic ties to the chess world.
Why we are running for the presidency
The major headlines of the opposition’s agenda is as follows (translated from
their campaign website):
- No second grandmaster was trained all these years
- The federation resources were spent thriftily
- There is a big debt, and a bank loan is used to pay this debt
- Chess players have become the main source of income for the federation
- Board members and members of other committees benefited from the financial
power of the federation more than the players
- Disciplinary and Auditory Committees were not independent from the board
- The Federation is ruled by one person (Yazici himself)
- The Federation is not institutionalized
- In many projects much money was spent without results (chess school, the
company of the federation, etc.)
- International events took priority over national events
- Chess clubs were not sufficiently supported – only 300,000 New Turkish Lira
of the budget of seven million were actually used for the clubs
- Clubs and players were only remembered in the election times
- Repressive and punitive policies were implemented by the board
Therefore, the group is aiming to
- Give chess and chess players their former dignity
- Train new grandmasters
- Save chess players from the financial burden of chess
- Establish an institutional federation
- Use the resources of the federation for chess
- Empower the clubs financially
“We are candidates for the Turkish Chess Federation board,” the opposition
ticket says. “With our projects and sponsors we are ready to lift up chess.
Now is 'just the time' for change!”
A perfectionist looking for improvement
Ali Nihat Yazici, the incumbent president who is also now the Vice President
of FIDE had built up a team and started his election campaign under the slogan
“Gens Una Magna Sumus” (“We are one big family” – reminiscent of the
FIDE motto Gens Una Sumus). If you speak Turkish you can read all about it on
the campaign
web site (with a cool introductory blue-box animation).
Although a number of members of the Yazici team have defected to the opposition,
the President’s ticket has some old names, such as the Vice President of the
Turkish Chess Federation:
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Tahsin Aktar, who is an international chess arbiter and teacher of arbiters
for more then two decades, and one of the most active board members in chess
organizations
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Murat Kul, the Deputy President of Turkish Chess Federation, an ex-anchorman
of the news of a major TV channel in Turkey, and a renowned journalist in
Turkey, who also worked as the press consultant of the former Sports Minister
Mehmet Ali Şahin
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Gülkız Tülay, the founder of the biggest chess club in Turkey.
There are other names among the candidates of Yazici’s new board – people who
are connected to sports clubs, universities and administration, including the
military. The campaign emphasizes the achievements of the past eight years and
proposes the following enhancements (translated from their website):
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Players, trainers, arbiters – A grandmaster fund will be created and awarded
to the first player to complete his or her grandmaster norms. The target
is to have GMs under 15, improve the quality of chess players, and also
supporting young and successful ones with scholarships.
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New national trainers will be appointed and there will be permanent trainers
appointed by TCF for different cities and provinces.
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Hardware, training equipment, chess facilities – The Yazici ticket pledges
to build chess clubs and houses around the country, increase the production
of chess boards, publish more chess education books and improve chess training
facilities in Turkey via books and the Internet, in cooperation with the
Ministry of National Education. A chess centre owned by the TCF will be
set up in all major cities.
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Organizations, chess in clubs – Increase the organizational quality of
national events. More national events and closed tournaments should be held.
The World Internet Children Chess Championship is planned, starting from
April 23, 2009, the National Children’s Day, the only children’s day celebrated
around the world. This event will be recognized by FIDE. The Atatürk Women’s
Masters will be part of the Women's Grand Prix, with 14 players. The Turkish
Grand Prix as a national event will be staged.
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Budget and Sponsors – €1.5 million is the current sponsorship income of
the TCF. The aim is to increase this amount through private sector companies.
Local sponsorships will be sought and the Federation will not be placed
under a financial burden.
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Technology – For every city there will be computers together with the local
clubs that are going to be built. An accurate game database will be formed.
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Others such as social projects, chess television on the Internet, which
has already been launched, a chess institute, a central camp location owned
by the federation, etc. will be put into place.
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There will be a bid to stage the World Chess Olympiad in Istanbul in 2012.
Who will win this election. Ali Nihat Yazici is confident of doing so with
a huge majority, but we are told that the opposition led by Veli Ozan Çakır
and Suat Atalik have a similar expectation: to route the incumbent. So tonight
we can all sit up watching the results of Obama-McCain come in; and on Saturday
we will do the same for Yazici-Çakır.
Some recent international events in Turkey
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New super women's tournament – in Turkey!
06.12.2007 – Women's chess has always been sadly
neglected. Now a bank in Turkey, together with the Turkish Chess Federation,
has taken the initiative and announced a super women's event in Istanbul
in March 2008. Eligible are all female players over 2460 Elo, or over 2400
and having a GM title. The prize fund is US $16,000 (plus appearance fees).
All reports. |
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World Youth Chess Championship in Antalya
18.11.2007 – It is one of the biggest events of
its kind in the world, the starting point for new chess talent, a gathering
of young chess players, 1450 of them from 103 countries around the globe.
The tournament in twelve separate categories is being held in twelve age
groups for boys and girls. A warm welcome awaited us on our arrival in the
Turkish Mediterranean town of Kemer-Antalya. All
reports. |
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Meet Abhijeet Gupta – meet the Junior World Champion
21.08.2008 – Four years ago Nigel Short, while
winning the Commonwealth Championship, ran into some problems: "In the
second round I drew with some 15-year-old boy from some very obscure place,
some village somewhere. I think his name was Abhijeet Gupta." Last week
nineteen-year-old Abhijeet won the prestigious World Junior Championship
in Gaziantep, Turkey. Interview. |
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Arik Braun, Harika lead in Junior World Championship
14.08.2008 – This event in Gaziantep, Turkey,
has become very exciting, with two clear leaders two rounds before the
end. German IM Arik Braun is being chased by GMs Howell, Safarli, Rodshtein,
Negi and others. In the girls' section India's Harika Dronavalli is half
a point ahead of Ukrainian Mariya Muzychuk. Anything can happen in the
final rounds. Giant
pictorial report by Özgür Akman. |
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World Junior Championship starts in Gaziantep
06.08.2008 – The World Junior Championship
is being held in Gaziantep, the Economic Centre of Turkey, from 2 to 16
August. The event has 22 GMs, five WGMs, 23 IMs, 14 WIMs, 15 FMs and 27
WFMs among the 195 players from 60 countries playing in the championship.
Guess who is equal second, after four rounds, in the boy's section. A
14-year-old Chinese girl! Illustrated
report. |
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World Youth Championship – and the winners are...
28.11.2007 – Tonight this giant chess festival
in Kemer-Antalya, Turkey, ended, and the organisers have already posted
the final results in the twelve different sections. While the chess volunteers
are still busy entering the games of the final round (we have collected
those of rounds 1-10) and the closing ceremony with prize-giving is still
to be held, we bring you top results and a pictorial
portrait of the US team. |
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World Youth Championship – top scorers after nine rounds
27.11.2007 – This chess festival that is taking
place in Kemer-Antalya, Turkey, has over 1500 players from all over the
world. After nine of a total of 11 rounds the candidates for the medals
are at the top of the tables. One has scored an incredible 9/9 points.
We bring you top standings and a special photo report of the very strong
Indian contingent. These are the stars
of tomorrow.
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World Youth Championship: players and personalities
21.11.2007 – This gigantic event is under way
in the Mediterranean town of Kemer-Antalya, Turkey. There are two grandmasters
in the top (under 18) group, and many talented young players with and
without titles in all sections. The top Turkish players are being trained
by Slovenian grandmaster Adrian Mikhalchishin, who celebrated his birthday
with his students during round one. Big
pictorial report.
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Everybody's there – at the European Club Cup in Turkey
04.10.2007 – The 23rd European Club Cup for
Men and the 12th European Club Cup for Women are taking place from October
2nd to 10th in Kemer, Antalya, Turkey. There are 56 teams participating
in the men's section and 18 teams in the women's. You won't believe how
many world class stars are participating. We bring you a first report
with a video
of the opening ceremony.
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Private Pähtz on the attack at the NATO Championship
05.09.2007 – The 18th NATO Chess Championship
is taking place in Beytepe-Ankara, Turkey. Combat dress uniforms are discouraged,
the soldiers play in civilian clothing. The top seed is IM and former
Junior World Champion Elisabeth Pähtz, who is leading with 13 other players
after three rounds. But is this wisp of a girl a real soldier in the NATO
forces? You
better believe it.
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Antalya – an Invitation to Chess
08.02.2007 – Turkey is fast becoming a hotbed
of chess. From January 28 to February 3rd the Turkish Youth Championship
with 1300 participants was held in Antalya, the same time and place the
FIDE Presidential Board met. It all took place in a beautiful hotel resort
on the Mediterranean coast. We bring you part
one of our illustrated report.
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