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Nobody Wants The SplitThis is my last column in the series of columns written for the ?Chessfidelity?. Some of the earlier columns raised particularly hot discussions. The theme for one of those essays I borrowed from the ?Animal Farm? by George Orwell; the essay was about democracy in the chess world. Another column which became the subject to heated discussions was titled The Fifth Column and it was concerned with ?driving of a wedge? between the National Chess Federations and their Grandmasters.In my last essay I want to tender apologies to those who felt offended by the over-trenchant style of my essays. In the passion of dispute one can ?throw the baby out with the bathwater?. I want to ?keep this baby alive?. I mean to say that I want peace of the world and of the chess world particularly. Nobody wants the split; neither me nor you. I recollect the famous utterance by Vasily Smyslov said after the severe defeat of the team led by him in an important competition. Then he was asked: ?Vasily Vasilyevich, what shall we do?? And the wise Champion replied: ?The critical thing now is to retain the people?. Now that Kirsan Ilyumzhinov?s victory in the Presidential Election is obvious it is important to retain the people from the Opponent?s team; because these people are very precious to us. Especially those who are called now the ?fifth columnists? thanks to my expressive essay and misinterpretation of my words. I see it only as a grim joke that this expression stuck to much appreciated people. We need to retain people and to move forward together. We have to retain Mr. Opponent because chess needs him and we need his faithful supporters for chess. We do not need the split but we do need people devoted to chess. Judging by Ilyumzhinov and Kok joint spectating of the Day of Kalmykia performance in the Fidelity Center and frequent visits of Mr. Kok to the opponent?s center Mr. Kok does not intend to initiate the split. He is a real gentleman and he chooses the decent and civilized dialogue. This means that we will be able to retain the people and move on together. And eventually there will be no hostility or confrontation. Many thanks to those who read my column and those who criticized me bitterly and moderately. Author?s opinion does not necessarily concur with editorial opinion. |
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