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1994-01-05
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EVANS ON CHESS
By GM Larry Evans. Copyright.
July 31, 1992
VILE VOTE REVOKED
Persona non grata is a fancy way of calling someone undesirable. "It veils
the obvious in the language of dead knowledge and dead learning" (Bergen
Evans).
At the 1987 congress of the world chess body in Seville, Spain, Dr. Ricardo
Calvo was censured by a vote of 72-1 (Norway opposed, two nations abstaining)
after a kangaroo court chaired by an American had recommended barring him
from FIDE tournaments for five years.
"Calvo was guilty of election fraud and racial slurs," alleged our delegates
to FIDE. To prevent the ban, a compromise motion was adopted declaring Calvo
"persona non grata" -- a sop to political correctness promptly blasted by the
world press and the Grandmasters Association.
The real reason behind this vile vote was to muzzle critics of perennial FIDE
president Florencio Campomanes. Calvo's article printed in NEW IN CHESS dealt
with his visit to South America in 1986 to campaign against Campo while
arranging a tour for world champion Gary Kasparov. FIDE clearly broke its own
rules by infringing on freedom of the press, and many Americans were appalled
by the facts of the case.
Calvo wrote glowingly of poor kids inspired by a love of chess: "One is
touched when the parents come with a 7-year-old boy with an Indian face,
dressed with his best shirt, to ask to play a game." But it was his next
passage which irked chess politicos who in 1986 had accepted free air fare
from Campomanes to attend a controversial chess Olympiad in the United Arab
Emirates where Israel was barred.
"Sometimes it seemed to me that in the whole country there was only one
single person favoring Campomanes, but in each case this person had the
tickets and was in charge. Chess delegates are delighted with a small piece
of the big cake of money, or power, or travelling away from their unhappy
surroundings," wrote Calvo.
What was the racial slur Calvo was charged with? A fact noted by many other
observers of Latin America: "In many of these places a girl must become a
prostitute from 14 years on, or a boy must become a soldier of the dictator
if they want to survive."
Under Campo's regime, FIDE has degenerated into a crass political body with
over 150 member nations. Each member regardless of chess strength -- be it
Russia or the PLO -- has one vote. The Western democracies are swamped in
this forum; yet when our delegates got back home, their vote against Calvo
was repudiated. [Subsequently a proposed FIDE Code of Ethics was defeated in
1989 providing penalties for chess journalists who write things about chess
which a member nation might find "offensive."]
Blacklisting Calvo was arguably the darkest chapter in the history of the
world chess body that was founded in 1924. Branding him an outcast was like
arresting someone for stealing a loaf of bread while a bank robbery was
taking place in broad daylight.
We are now pleased to report that after an impassioned plea from Kasparov the
censure against his friend Calvo was finally lifted at the 1992 FIDE congress
in Manila. Does it signal a truce or will the current titleholder, like Bobby
Fischer, just deal FIDE out of future high stakes matches? [A prediction
which came true with the formation of the PCA on February 26, 1993.]