Kirsan May Be Out and A Different Russian Oligarch In

"There have been dramatic developments in the Fide presidential campaign to decide the head of the global chess body. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, president for 23 years since 1995, seems ready to quit the contest after his Russian backers withdrew support.

Ilyumzhinov has been tarnished by US treasury sanctions, the loss of Fide’s bank account with UBS and most recently by the revelation that Glen Stark, his nominee for Fide general secretary, was a fake name with a false CV.

Moscow sources state that Arkady Dvorkovich, the Russian deputy prime minister for six years from 2012 to 2018 and currently head of the Fifa World Cup organising committee, will now stand for Fide president. Dvorkovich has held senior positions in the Russian Chess Federation and was chairman of the organising committee for the 2014 world championship match at Sochi between Magnus Carlsen and Vishy Anand.

It seems sure that Dvorkovich will have substantial funds to support his campaign and chess sources are already speculating that Georgios Makropoulos, the current Fide deputy president and until now the election favourite, may try to come to a power-sharing arrangement with the Russian."

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/jun/15/kirsan-ilyumzhinov-quit-fide-presidential-contest

It also appears that Kirsan  may have already left the building.....

Vermont Open Results

Results are in from this past weekend's Vermont Open held in Burlington. Ian Dudley is the 2018 Vermont Open Champion.
Pair | Player Name                     |Total|Round|Round|Round|Round|
 Num  | USCF ID / Rtg (Pre->Post)       | Pts |  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
    1 | IAN W DUDLEY                    |3.5  |W   2|W   3|W   6|D   4|
   VT | 15256685 / R: 2034   ->2102     |     |W    |W    |B    |W    |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
    2 | DAVID E CARTER                  |3.0  |L   1|W  11|W  12|W   8|
   VT | 10029732 / R: 2249   ->2247     |     |B    |W    |B    |W    |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
    3 | MATTHEW WOFFORD                 |3.0  |W  11|L   1|W  13|W  10|
   NH | 12812582 / R: 2116   ->2117     |     |W    |B    |B    |W    |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
    4 | RONALD STEWART                  |3.0  |W   7|W  12|H    |D   1|
   VT | 12660347 / R: 1925   ->1987     |     |W    |W    |     |B    |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
    5 | ANDREW PALMER                   |3.0  |B    |L   6|W  14|W   9|
   VT | 12630765 / R: 1770   ->1831     |     |     |W    |B    |W    |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
    6 | HENRY L TERRIE                  |2.5  |D   8|W   5|L   1|W  12|
   NH | 10025265 / R: 2206   ->2200     |     |W    |B    |W    |B    |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
    7 | DAVID PETTY AMATO               |2.0  |L   4|W  15|L   8|W  13|
   VT | 12582641 / R: 2160   ->2137     |     |B    |W    |B    |W    |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
    8 | PETER J BROSSEAU                |2.0  |D   6|H    |W   7|L   2|
   VT | 10030285 / R: 2026   ->2042     |     |B    |     |W    |B    |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
    9 | JACK HANSON                     |2.0  |W  15|H    |D  10|L   5|
   VT | 12857824 / R: 2051   ->2033     |     |B    |     |W    |B    |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
   10 | ERIC M HERNANDEZ                |2.0  |H    |W  14|D   9|L   3|
   VT | 12882401 / R: 1903   ->1914     |     |     |W    |B    |B    |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
   11 | JUDSON D BURNHAM                |1.5  |L   3|L   2|D  15|B    |
   VT | 10029392 / R: 1898   ->1885     |     |B    |B    |W    |     |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
   12 | PHILIP H VAN DUSEN              |1.0  |W  13|L   4|L   2|L   6|
   VT | 10179815 / R: 2046   ->2024     |     |W    |B    |W    |W    |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
   13 | RACHEL ZIMET                    |1.0  |L  12|B    |L   3|L   7|
   VT | 16724192 / R: 1812P4 ->1760P7   |     |B    |     |W    |B    |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
   14 | JAMES ASARO                     |0.5  |H    |L  10|L   5|U    |
   VT | 12752282 / R: 1890   ->1859     |     |     |B    |W    |     |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
   15 | GORDON WAYNE GRIBBLE            |0.5  |L   9|L   7|D  11|U    |
   NH | 10029368 / R: 1827   ->1818     |     |W    |B    |B    |     |
----------

Perhaps FIDE Should Go Back To Laurel Wreaths?

https://en.chessbase.com/post/wenjun-ju-17th-world-women-chess-champion-ii

Summer Chess In Lyndonville

Several of us will be meeting informally at Cobleigh Library in Lyndonville for chess on Thursday afternoons from 4:30pm to library closing at 7pm. Drop in for a game and conversation. Bring your own board, set and clock.

From the European Women's Chess Championship

Women play chess in fairly large numbers in Europe. Who would have known.......photo is from the ongoing European Women's Chess Championship being held in Slovakia.

An Opportunity To Weaken or Replace FIDE?

From the following articlehttps://en.chessbase.com/post/makropoul ... -president
"....In a blow to Kirsan Ilymzhinon, the Presidential Board called for his immediate resignation as president. After the meeting, Georgios Makropoulos announced his candidacy as FIDE president. |.....Open warFor a long time, there have been increasing calls for Ilymzhinov not to stand for re-election at the next FIDE Congress in Batumi, although he has repeatedly stated his intention to do so. Now, he as officially lost the support of nearly the entire Presidental Board, who released the following resolution yesterday:
In the light of: 
a) The imminent withdrawal of FIDE’s banking facilities by UBS, 

b) The inability of FIDE to obtain replacement banking facilities while you remain nominal President and 

c) subject to US Treasury Department sanctions, 

d) The consequent severe difficulties facing FIDE in funding its obligations and its commitments to the chess family, 

e) The adverse publicity that reflects badly on FIDE’s reputation and undermines the confidence of all those who are or would be involved in chess, 
That in the interests of the organisation: 
You should resign with immediate effect......."

We have an American slated to play a match for the WCC in November. The financial situation of FIDE and the candidacy of a Kirsan long-time crony for FIDE President may present opportunities for weakening or replacing FIDE. All it may take is money and willpower focused on the match in November.

What Did Alekhine Actually Write for Nazi Publication?

Something of historical note regarding Alekhine. This is a post by Taylor Kingston to Chess Book Collectors. While I'd heard of these writings by Alekhine, I'd never actually read any of them. Here is Taylor's post and link...

"A few days ago the infamous anti-Semitic 1941 articles attributed to Alekhine on "Jewish and Aryan Chess" were mentioned here. To my knowledge a good English translation of these is not available online, so I took a few minutes to scan the very good translation found in "The Personality of Chess" by Horowitz and Rothenberg (New York 1963) and made them into a pdf, available through the link below. Included also is Alekhine's denial in 1946 of ever having written the articles.
Let me be clear: I am presenting these only for the sake of those who, like me, have an interest in chess history. I do not at all endorse what these articles say. As to the question of Alekhine's authorship, I think it likely, though not absolutely certain, that he did write them. For more on that, see the Edward Winter article linked to in the first comment below."

https://taylorkingstononchess.files.wordpress.com/2018/02/jewish-and-aryan-chess.pdf

http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/alekhine.html