The Guyana Chess Federation (GCF) has not yet decided who they will support for the presidency of the Federation Internationale des Echecs (FIDE) when elections are held later this month.
Incumbent Kirsan Ilyumzhinov will be challenged by former World Chess Champion Anatoly Karpov at the elections which will be held on September 29 in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia.
A release from secretary of the GCF, Vishnu Rampersaud, stated that the executive committee met last Saturday for its monthly statutory meeting where the issue of the upcoming FIDE elections was discussed.
According to the release in voting for the candidate of their choice, the 10-member committee arrived at a 5-5 deadlock.
It is understood that a dispute arose over whether president of the GCF Errol Tiwari has a casting vote or not and the GCF is to address this issue shortly.
According to the FIDE website, Karpov has the support of France, Switzerland, Germany and Spain while Iluymzhinov has the support of the four continental presidents of Africa, Americas, Asia and Europe.
The FIDE website has public letters of support for Ilyumzhinov from Boris Kutin, Continental president of Europe, Jorge Vega, president of the Americas, Dabilani Buthali, Continental president of the African Chess Federation and Sheikh Sultan bin Khalifah Al Nahyan president of the Asian Chess Federation.
However, the letter of support from Vega unlike the other three letters does not have a letterhead.
