During the visit here of former International Chess Federation (FIDE) President Florencio Campomanes, Palau was able to make a proxy reprresentative through Campo, as he is more popularly known.
Palau's chess top supporter Mr. Gary Bekker of Australia and President of Oceania Zone that includes Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Palau, is an International Arbiter during the Olympiad.
There is also an election for president of FIDE on June 02, 2006 during the Congress.
Roberto Hernandez asked Mr. Bekker on how Palau can vote in the election and if email is good enough to vote.
Mr. Bekker didn't able to respond and what happened next was Palau became a victim of chess politics as Campomanes is supporting the incumbent president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov while Gary supports Mr. Kok of The Right Move party.
Eventually, Ilyumzhinov won by a landslide. At the election date, Geoffrey Borg called Hernandez at around 9:00 am and said that there is no delegate of Palau in the FIDE Congress.
Hernandez said that Campo already got a proxy letter signed by him and Palau Chess Federation chairman Francis 'Sno' Temaungil.
Mr. Borg asked Hernandez and Sno that they need to make a new proxy letter that will invalidate the earlier proxy.
After they did that in 3 hours, Campo called later in the night and said that there is a complication in the voting as both parties claimed that they represent Palau's right to vote through proxy.
After it was through, Mr. Bekker didn't response to any apologies and emails sent to him.
The Australian Chess Federation Newsletter send every month to Hernandez' email address also stops and there is no news about the 2006 Palau Invitational Chess championship on August 31, September 1, 2, 3, and 4, 2006 where 4 FIDE rated players will compete against Palau's top 6 players.
Campo offered to send 4 foreign players if Mr. Bekker will cancel the event.
With Campo's help, 20 chess clocks and 100 sets of chessboards and pieces are on its way to Palau through CACDEC program for developing chess coutries.
Campo also gave $600.00 financial support to pay back Mr. Bekker, who paid $476.00 (or 600 Swiss francs) membership fee of Palau to FIDE and $100.00 annual membership fee to Asian Chess Federation.
During his visit here, Campo donated 5 chess clocks and 20 chessboards (without pieces) for Knights and Rooks Chess Club and Palau Chess Federation.
THERE'S NOT A SINGLE GAME PLAYED AT THE RESUMPTION OF 2006 PALAU NATIONAL CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP AS ONLY 5 PLAYERS SHOWED UP AND PLAYED BLITZ CHESS INSTEAD.
American lawyer Craig Dittrich showed up and played speed chess with 4 different players.
He quickly adjusted to blitz chess as he has beaten different players especially in their 2nd game.
He's been in Palau in more than a month and the Legal Counsel of Koror State Government (KSG).
Source:
Chessmate by Roberto Hernandez
Tia Belau Newspaper
July 21-28, 2006
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