The original concept of the website that my Beautiful Beloved and one of our daughters set up for me was much too limited. I have dropped the idea that chess should be at the heart of my website, because, although chess, indeed, is a valid manifestation of human culture, there is much more to life than chess. Besides, I have drifted far from the role I once played in the “royal game”.
Thus, I shall not limit myself to chess topics and I ask those who address my blog site not to limit themselves either. In that connection, following is a new blog entry from me.
This website has been set up by my wife and one of our daughters to be a place where chess matters may be discussed freely. It is entitled, “jeromebibuldchessphoto.net”, because a grandson named Jerome had taken the domain name of “jeromebibuld”.
Although I am deeply interested in chess, which I consider a valid manifestation of human culture, I do not require that those who use this website as a blog venue limit themselves to the “royal game”. On the contrary, because chess is a “valid manifestation of human culture”, nothing concerning humankind should be beyond the purview of this website.
As the person in whose name the website has been founded, I shall start it off with a brief essay on the politics of international chess. I ask that those who respond keep in mind that the players of the game of chess live on every continent and, possibly, in every state on every continent on the face of the earth. (I believe that there are no sovereign states on Antarctica, which is the reason for the “possibly” instead of “probably” in the previous sentence.)
There follows the first argument to be placed in this website:
While the human species is “broken up” into many nations – but not “races” – and I think that this multiplicity of nations is a good thing, because it means cross-generation of human ideas, there should be only one ruling body for this human activity. I consider FIDE (the Federation Internationale des Echecs) the proper organization for that responsibility. It is democratically organized – in favor of the entire species, albeit controlled by the major European Federations (including the U. S. A., which I consider part of Europe). The reason for this control is that the money bags of FIDE are in Europe, but things seem to be changing. The current World Champion is Asian and a hero in his native India, although he spends most of his time in Europe. Two Chinese women already have been female World Champions and, as one who has emigrated into Afro-America, I look forward to the day when we shall have an African World Champion.
Why should the international ruling body of chess be FIDE? I won’t go into questions of organization and administration – in which even most Europeans seem to agree with the positions taken by non-Europeans. I choose FIDE, not only because it already exists, but because it is the best organization I can think of to hold Europe (including the U. S. A.) in check. That is, the organization of chess would be controlled by those who represent the entire 6.5 billion humans rather than those representing only the 1.25 billion Europeans.
Of course, while Europe controls the purse strings of international chess, this is a dream, rather than the reality. But it is a dream soon to be ended by the awakening of the entire human species. (I hope I shall be around to see this awakening, “greatly to be desired”.) We see the beginnings of human control of human activities in the United Nations’s refusal to kowtow either to the U. S. pressure to invade and occupy Iraq (although it did not rise up in umbrage against the action of this imperial power) and in the current refusal of UN officialdom to go along with the U. S. A. attempt to brand Iran an outcast over the nuclear refinement issue.
I consider the suzerainty of FIDE the most important issue facing the world of chess today. What do you think?