Ethereal Presences

On November 1, Russian News Agency TASS in Moscow, Russia hosted a press conference of FIDE President Arkady Vladimirovich Dvorkovich, mostly focused on the Women’s World Chess Championship Knockout Tournament, to be held in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia from 2–23 November 2018, and the World Chess Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana, which will take place in London, United Kingdom from 9–28 November 2018. “Khanty-Mansiysk is ready for the Women’s World Chess Championship Tournament to start, the city authorities are taking care of any details. Despite the cold temperature players feel good. I’d like to remind you that Khanty-Mansiysk will also host the 8th Chess World Cup in 2019 and the 44th Chess Olympiad in 2020”, Dvorkovich said. 64 of the best female players in the world from 28 countries are to take part in the roulette, but the absence of four-time Women’s World Chess Champion 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) — who firmly holds the world No. 1 ranking since a long time — throws a shadow upon the Snow Queen’s Castle and makes inevitable the systemic change of the Women’s World Chess Championship format system. No doubt, it’s a long way still. As for the London World Chess Championship match, Dvorkovich prudently avoided to go into details about how Agon will handle the big show, focusing instead on the next FIDE Presidential Board which will take place in London during the match play. It will be there that his earlier (electoral) nominees for key offices of his FIDE administration will actually appear on the guestbook. But, even in this case, the absences might have a significant impact on the presences. No wonder, therefore, that Dvorkovich did not abstain himself from saying a word or two about Kirsan Nikolayevich Ilyumzhinov, his predecessor at FIDE Presidency: “I hope that the decision regarding his suspension from any chess activity will be resolved positively in the near future. Then he will be able to give his contribution to chess not only informally but also formally. Will he join my team? I will never be tired to repeat that a team is a very broad concept. There are lots of people in my team. Of course, the experience of a person who has been serving as FIDE President for so long will be very important for future work”, Dvorkovich said. Photo © Alexander Olegovich Scherbak/TASS.