Fidei Defensor: Nigel Short and FIDÉ

The title Fidei Defensor (Defender of the Faith) has been one of the most cherished accolades of the English (and later British) monarchs, ever since Pope Leo X awarded it in 1521 to King Henry VIII. Henry’s first Queen, Catherine ofAragon, was also permitted to use the title, in her case using the feminine form: Fidei Defensatrix. It had been conferred in recognition of Henry’s tract Assertio Septem Sacramentorum (Defence of the Seven Sacraments), which upheld the sacramental nature of marriage and — more importantly, as far as Leo X was concerned — papal supremacy. This singular honour from Pope Leo was also referred to as the “Henrician Affirmation” and was regarded as an important contribution to the opposition to the Protestant Reformation, in particular to the revolutionary ideas of that turbulent German priest, Martin Luther.

After Henry VIII’s decision to break away from Rome, beginning in 1530, and ultimately anoint himself as head of the Church of England, the title was withdrawn by Pope Paul III, since Henry’s act was regarded, not implausibly, as a root and branch assault on the true Catholic faith. In 1538 Henry was excommunicated. However, in 1544, the Parliament of England re-conferred and confirmed the title “Defender of the Faith” in perpetuity on King Henry VIII and his successors. English monarchs henceforth became defenders of the Anglican faith, of which all (except the Catholics Mary I and James II) remained, and continue to remain, Supreme Governors, superior even to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

British chess has our own defender of FIDÉ (Fédération Internationale des Échecs, the World Chess Federation) in the person of Grandmaster Nigel Short — at various times, the Terror and the Saviour of the global governing body. From 1982 until 2018, FIDE had been run by a succession of populist demagogues, supported by a cabal of singularly “colourful” characters, as the Foreign Office liked to describe them — an adjective confirmed to me personally by the late Sir Brian Tovey, Director General at the time of GCHQ.

With such Presidents as Florencio Campomanes of the Philippines (who was responsible for prematurely halting the first Karpov vs Kasparov World Chess Championship – see my column) and Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who doubled for a period as President of the Russian Republic of Kalmykia, no significant commercial sponsor would come anywhere near supporting the world body nor  its official events. Important championships, both individual and team, retreated to the obscurity of Elista, the capital of Kalmykia, largely migrating from the traditional great centres of elite chess activity, such as London, Moscow, Paris and New York.

During this period, Nigel, having overcome such luminaries as Jan Timman and Anatoly Karpov, went on to challenge Garry Kasparov for his world crown in 1993. In the process, he helped to wrench administrative control of the supreme chess title away from the ancien régime of the demagogic presidents. In other words, he became FIDÉ’s worst nightmare. This will form the topic of a future column.

Yet in 2018 Nigel Short metamorphosed into FIDÉ’s salvation. Astutely spotting his chance, and with all the aplomb of a seasoned politician, Nigel launched a campaign, initially from the position of being a complete underdog, with the goal of himself being elected as President of FIDÉ. Alarmingly, the English Chess Federation opposed Short’s campaign, but Nigel played his cards so adroitly, that by switching at the last minute to supporting the Russian reform candidate, Arkady Dvorkovich (previous Russian Deputy Prime Minister 2012–2018), he carved out an influential role for himself as FIDÉ’s Vice-President, with the specific mandate to disinfect the Augean stables of FIDÉ’s corrupt old guard. The opportunity for Dvorkovich and Short arose because the lieutenants of the incumbent, Ilyumzhinov, suddenly decided to stab him in the back.

Nigel’s multifarious accomplishments are impressive. He has proved himself the most illustrious British chess personality since the days of Howard Staunton (1810-1874). As a practising Grandmaster, Nigel was ranked third in the world by FIDÉ in the late 1980s and is the only Englishman ever to have played an official world championship match, while as a chess politician and diplomat he has risen higher and more emphatically than any previous British FIDÉ official. His task now is to continue the rooting out of the rotten fruit, still suppurating and purulating in the World Chess Federation’s barrel, antediluvian hangovers from the bygone days of the kleptocratic dictators.

A case in point is the Peruvian problem. Nigel himself drew my attention to this on International Women’s Day and I corroborated his account with the campaigning Spanish journalist, Leontxo Garcia Olasagasti, the legendary chess correspondent for the leading Spanish newspaper, El Pais of Madrid.

The difficulties of the Chess Federation of one Latin American nation may seem remote from the concerns of the epicentres of world chess governance, so why focus on the descendants of Atahualpa and Pisarro? In fact, Peru is one of the countries in the Americas that produces the most talent in chess. Sadly, their Federation seems to be in a perpetual state of scandal. The leading Peruvian female player, Ingrid Aliaga, has been excluded from the Peruvian National Chess Team and from national chess life in general, for denouncing, with evidence, her alleged sexual harassment during training sessions with a coach hired by the Peruvian Federation. The Peruvian Grandmaster, Julio Granda, former Veterans World Champion, one of the greatest natural geniuses to adorn world chess in the second half of the 20th century, has also been a repeat victim of the Peruvian Chess Federation‘s management disaster of the past few decades.

Concerning the case of sexual harassment against Ingrid Aliaga, I have translated Granda’s comments as follows: “Everything points, at least, to a tacit pact of silence between the federation and the accused; judging by recordings and the testimony of Aliaga and other girls, it is obvious that exclusion from the team is a form of retaliation for whistle-blowing.”

It is in addition worth speculating on how far Julio Granda, and other brilliant Peruvian players, would have advanced in world standings (Peru, even without Granda, was tenth out of 170 countries in the Chess Olympiad) if their official support had been the equal of their huge natural talent.

Discrimination and harassment continue to surface among many world wide governing sporting bodies. Just last week there have been female rights demonstrations and vigils from California via Clapham to Canberra. Chess is sadly no exception, and crusaders for moral rectitude, such as Nigel and Leontxo, deserve universal support in their efforts to clean up the residue of ignominy left by the four decades of despotic and demagogic dictatorships, regimes whose prime directive appears to have been the retention of power, rather than overseeing the good of world chess.

With Arkady Dvorkovich as President, closely supported by Nigel Short, FIDE is at last gearing itself up to take legitimate advantage of the colossal rise in chess popularity, propelled by the success of The Queen’s Gambit Netflix TV series (winner of two Golden Globes) and now likely to be reincarnated as a Broadway musical. The climate in favour of chess has been further reinforced by the ever-increasing switch to activity online, one rare compensation of the pandemic and its tendency to drive enthusiasts towards home and internet participation. At the same time, tensions which existed between such World Champions as Fischer, Kasparov and Kramnik with FIDÉ have mellowed during the tenure of the adroitly commercially minded Magnus Carlsen.

A comparison I have made before is that between medieval and Renaissance Popes (the FIDÉ President) and the regnant Holy Roman Emperor (the World Champion). At times when Emperors — such as the Hohenstaufens Frederick Barbarossa or Frederick II (Stupor Mundi) and the Habsburg Charles V (whose troops actually sacked Rome) — were in bitter conflict with the Papacy, turmoil tended to reign in Europe. In contrast, when peace broke out between Emperor and Pope, Europe flourished. Now, with World Champion Magnus Carlsen working in harmony with Arkady Dvorkovich and Nigel Short, I see the possibilities for proselytising the benefits of chess as quasi infinite, assuming that the few remaining bad apples can be weeded from the crop.

This week I give two games, a win by Howard Staunton from his de facto world championship match of 1846 against Bernhard Horwitz, and a parallel win  by Nigel Short against Garry Kasparov in 1987. In both games victory is achieved after a bold forwards march by the black King against his opposite number.

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