Masaiti is in a team led by Ukrainian Grandmaster (GM), Andrii Baryshpolets, with the elections scheduled for August 7 during the FIDE Congress. Baryshpolets will face incumbent FIDE president, Russian Arkady Dvorkovich during the congress, which will be held during the 2022 Chess Olympiad in Chennai, India. Masaiti said the improvement of African chess requires being candid enough to reflect in the mirror and honestly bring to the fore critical issues that are affecting African chess and the world over. “Without being afraid or shying away, our leaders who are tasked with voting responsibilities need to know that the vote they are carrying can lift the standards of an African child and other children at the bottom of the pyramid. It is through the vote that Africa can change its current gloomy position,” he said.
Masaiti said there is a need to conduct a 360° scan to identify critical issues that require immediate interventions. “We need honest analysis and clear strategic plans that can lift chess not only in Africa but also the world over,” he said. Masaiti said unfortunately the current leadership led by Dvorkovich has done little to improve chess, especially in Africa. “Yes, we thank them for making chess popular, promoting online chess, which is mostly helping communication companies to rake in millions of dollars,” he said.
Masaiti argued that Africa and other developing countries do not need to be gifted with short-term supportive incentives but require long-term solutions that will assist them to be independent of direct dependency on FIDE leadership. “The current leadership has done little to build chess in schools. Dvorkovich and his team had an opportunity to lift African chess in a big way given the number of votes and amount of effort Africa makes towards chess development but no, they have done little.
One would have expected Africa to be given opportunities to host international tournaments,” he said. Masaiti said he feels pained that Africa is struggling to produce more Grandmasters, highly rated, and many titled players.
He said African players are stagnant. Masaiti said FIDE has only been promoting its interest by giving out Grandmasters to train African players during major tournaments such as Olympiads. “Africa is being tied to the dependency syndrome. We get tied in such a way that we can hardly make independent decisions for fear of losing such leverage. Africa should use its resources to develop its people,” he said.
Vice presidential candidate, Robert Katende from Uganda said chess has a lot more to do but it has been limited in terms of growth due to the image that has been portrayed over the years, which they need to counteract. “When I saw Baryshpolets coming on board with a new philosophy, it worked so well not only for Africa but globally,” he said.
Meanwhile, the campaign for the top post can also be viewed with a political lining due to the ongoing war that saw Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Baryshpolets was born in Kiev (Kyiv) but currently resides in the US. He told Mmegi Sport in an exclusive interview from Los Angeles this week that he grew up in Ukraine and was very fond of chess. “I cannot say I am a professional chess player but I refer to myself as a semi-professional chess player. I combine my chess with education,” he said.
The 31-year-old Baryshpolets said FIDE needs changes and those changes have to be done now. He said the incumbent FIDE president is a Russian politician and it was disappointing to have such representation for many years. Baryshpolets said it became unbearable after the Russian aggression on Ukraine. He said Dvorkovich is a long-time Russian politician who came into the chess world in 2018. He said Dvorkovich's political background portrays FIDE in a bad way. He stated that he is a Ukrainian but has never been a politician. “I was amazed when the chess world did not offer an alternative candidate to challenge the incumbent president.
I decided that I could be such a candidate. I stand to make FIDE more transparent and a democratic institution with equal rights for all the members,” he said. The challenger said the future of chess should not depend on politicians.
He said chess players and the larger chess community must be involved and active in deciding the fate of chess. “My interest in contesting started a few months ago when it became clear that the incumbent president was seeking re-election. We did not have alternatives to the current. I realised that not many people were interested in the position.
The reason being that it is politics and it is not something successful people want to do,” he said.
Baryshpolets said despite the ever-growing popularity of chess, FIDE has been struggling to become a financially sustainable organisation. “I reckon that FIDE’s reputation is the main reason for such systematic failure and a need to be supported by an authoritarian government.
The 23 years of Kirsan Ilyumzhinov's presidency have built up FIDE’s image as serving political interests, corrupt, and a poorly financed organisation,” he said. Baryshpolets said although the current team had brought more transparency and inclusivity to the FIDE management, the organisation’s political and financial dependency on the Russian government is beyond being obvious.
