World Chess Organisation president's Letter

We are sure you will be interested in this letter from the President of FIDE, the World Chess Organisation, which is of considerable significance with regard to the Olympic Games.

Moscow 6 June 2003

Mr, J Damiani
President
World Bridge Federation

Dear Mr Damiani,

Thank you for your memorandum on the Mind Sports Olympic Games, for which FIDE fully associates itself. As you are probably aware, FIDE’s position is that in keeping with the original spirit of the Olympic Games, where the intellectual aspects were also emphasised, we are convinced that Mind Sports such as Chess and Bridge will go a long way in reviving this theme of the Olympic Games.

Based on our experience in our efforts to include Chess in the program of the Olympic Games and the Regional/Continental Games, we are in a position to report that Chess has already been accepted into the All African Games scheduled to be held 4-18 October 2003 in Abuja, Nigeria, the Asian Games of 2006 in Doha, Qatar, and is already in the Central American and Caribbean Games. With this acceptance, which I am certain will also be the case for Bridge and the other Mind Sports, we could make an appreciable joint impact at global level, when the IOC accepts the Mind Sports Olympic Games held under its direct supervision. I am certain that this new event will relieve the IOC of the pressure that it is getting from the many sports that want to join the Olympic programme.

FIDE fully subscribes to your proposal for the games to be played during the autumn/winter months. We have successfully organised our Chess Olympiads during this period and FIDE at its Congress last year in Bled, Slovenia, awarded the hosting of the 2006 Chess Olympiad to the city of Turin. This as you know, is an event to be held after the 2006 Winter Olympic Games. In fact, the city of Turin made the argument that FIDE shall have the infrastructure from the Winter Games for the Chess Olympiad, which would attract over 120 countries.

In order to give more universality to the Winter Olympic Games, it is arguable that a Mind Sports Olympics being associated with the Winter Games will bring forth the participation of all the continents and regions in the Mind Sports Games as against the current situation, where only a few continents are known to participate in the Winter Games.

I fully agree with your proposal and I am mandating Executive Director Emmanuel Omaku to follow up on this matter with your office as well as the office of Mr. Gilbert Felli, in order to give concrete expression to the ideas in respect of this issue. FIDE is ready, willing and able to co-operate with you and other like-minded sports as well as with the IOC, to institute Mind Sports Olympic Games as part of the very essence of the Olympic Spirit.

Yours sincerely

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov
President