FIDE President Sponsors $1 Million Campomanes Memorial Tournament Series

FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov announces his sponsorship of the $1 million Campomanes Memorial tournament series during the ASEAN Chess Confederation annual meeting in Subic Freeport, Philippines. -Photo and caption from FIDE website.

FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov recent visit in the country during the ASEAN Chess Confederation (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) annual meeting in Subic Freeport left some promising events that will be held in a series of tournaments all over the ASEAN region for the next ten years in memory of the late FIDE Honorary President, Florencio Campomanes. According to FIDE website recent press release, "Ten $100,000 tournaments are slated over ten years in the 10-member ASEAN nations starting with the Campomanes Memorial tournament this August in Manila, Philippines and then in Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Brunei."

Simply put, this announcement will surely gave Ilyumzhinov some extra points he needed before the FIDE election begins. Though $1 million doesn't amount that much (it may also nailed the coffin that there won't be a regular, possibly much bigger, annual memorial tournament dedicated to Campo anywhere else!) and the ASEAN chess federations are not as influential compare to federations from Europe who one by one is turning against him, the Campo memorial tournaments will endear the ASEAN Chess Federation members and mark that the ASEAN more particularly the Philippines, Vietnam and Singapore still remain some of the fast emerging chess market in the globe. And just a few hundreds of miles north of ASEAN is well, you have China. You need more men, put up camps and gather resources and off you go for a battle. Nice move! Got a clear picture now what Ilyumzhinov is up to? He won't be a FIDE president, president of Republic of Kalmykia and a multi-millionaire businessman for nothing!