SPRAGGETT ON CHESS
Nigel Short, Aguinaldo Jaime and Jorge Anton (president of Portuguese Chess Federation)
I haven’t seen anything in the English press about the special envoy for the Karpov2010 campaign, but it is true that Nigel Short visited Angola earlier this past week to meet with the president of the Angolan Chess Federation– Aguinaldo Jaime– and offer him one of the FIDE vice-presidencies.
Aguinaldo Jaime is a very powerful Angolan political figure. He served as Minister of Finance from June 1990 to April 1992, President of the African Investment Bank (beginning in 1996), and as Provincial Governor from 1999 to 2002. He was subsequently Deputy Prime Minister. He is also reputed to be one of the wealthiest people in all of Africa.
It would be a success for the Karpov campaign to bring on board such an influential figure, but Jaime is weighing his options first. He has decided to wait and see what Kirsan Ilyumzhinov’s representative has to offer before making his decision.
Jaime told an Angolan newspaper ” Basically, Nigel Short came to Angola to explain Karpov’s campaign and to ask for our support. As far as this is concerned, we have still not made up our mind of which candidate we will support, especially given that both are excellent choices.” He added ” Our decision will be made only after meeting with Kirsan Ilyumzhinov’s representative. We will support the candidate that will best promote african chess in general, and Angolan chess in particular.”
Angolan Chess Federation logo
Would the smart money be on Karpov getting the Angolan vote? Or on Ilyumzhinov? Put another way, how difficult would it be for Ilyumzhinov to top Karpov’s VP offer?
SPRAGGETT ON CHESS
Spraggett on Chess 