Nigel Short - Reverse Delegate

[Chris Rice]

FIDE Council have decided to appoint Nigel Short as a reverse delegate for the Burkina Faso Chess Federation effective from July 29, 2024, with the period of his mandate till 30 September 30, 2024. Here's the link to that decision

Having no idea what a reverse delegate is I had to Google it. Reverse delegation is when managers take back assignments they had delegated for one reason or another. Reverse delegation is in two forms, forced and unforced. In forced reverse delegation, the managers take back the assignment when employees fail to do them for one reason or another.

Nigel's posted an update on Facebook and he says it means that he has been appointed as FIDE's representative to temporarily act on behalf of the chess community in Burkina Faso as a kind of short term administrator until the chess federation functions again properly. Burkina Faso only established a chess federation in 2014 and only joined FIDE in 2016 so it's a fledgling federation where things can and clearly have gone wrong though I've no idea what.

I'm sure whatever the issue is Nigel will do a fine job but I just wondered how many times this sort of thing has happened in the past, I heard a couple of reverse delegates were appointed in South Africa some time ago but no idea when or why.

I gather a federation in trouble may request FIDE's help and the FIDE Council looks like they will help if they can and I would like to know what kind of things they have done in the past to help out. I imagine there is a few good stories to be told there!

[NickFaulks]

Good gig.

[Gerard Killoran]

I'm sure whatever the issue is Nigel will do a fine job...

Bless.


I'm sure there'll be dancing in the streets of Ouagadougou tonight.

[Chris Rice]

I'm sure whatever the issue is Nigel will do a fine job...

Bless. I'm sure there'll be dancing in the streets of Ouagadougou tonight.

Not sure why you did that. Was it really necessary to be so patronising with that "bless" comment?

Why shouldn't Nigel Short do a fine job repairing whatever is needed for Burkina Faso chess? Perhaps you are unaware he's spent many years going to countries, often deprived and dangerous ones, setting up federations successfully. Most of the time it doesn't even get noticed, not many of us would risk such things and he gets little in the way of remuneration, he simply loves doing it and should be respected for it.

[Paul Cooksey]

I didn't think Nigel's remuneration as FIDE Director for Chess Development was in the public domain.

I have seen some criticism that FIDEs total remuneration for its officials has increased significantly under Sutovsky's leadership.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Couple of points:

(1) If expenses are paid (as you would expect) it can become quite a nice 'gig' (as Nick F puts it).

(2) I suspect Nigel is quite capable of judging whether a situation is dangerous or not, and suspect that he would be unlikely to knowingly undertake a dangerous role. I say this only from having read previously published accounts of his work in this sort of area. (Describing countries as "deprived and dangerous ones" is in some ways also a patronising comment.)

(3) I was not aware Sutovsky was now leading FIDE. OK, I see he is CEO of FIDE. Dvorkovich is President of FIDE (as we know). Serious question: is the position of CEO or President more influential, or are they influential in different ways. Is it the standard difference that the CEO executes the wishes of FIDE and its President, or is it, um, shall we say, a bit more complicated than that (especially given the current geopolitics, leaving aside any internal chess politics)?

[Chris Rice]

I didn't think Nigel's remuneration as FIDE Director for Chess Development was in the public domain.

I have seen some criticism that FIDEs total remuneration for its officials has increased significantly under Sutovsky's leadership.

Are you suggesting some shenanigans? FIDE do publish annual accounts which I used to remember going through in some depth when the alien abductee was in charge.

[Chris Rice]

Couple of points:

(1) If expenses are paid (as you would expect) it can become quite a nice 'gig' (as Nick F puts it).

(2) I suspect Nigel is quite capable of judging whether a situation is dangerous or not, and suspect that he would be unlikely to knowingly undertake a dangerous role. I say this only from having read previously published accounts of his work in this sort of area. (Describing countries as "deprived and dangerous ones" is in some ways also a patronising comment.)

(3) I was not aware Sutovsky was now leading FIDE. OK, I see he is CEO of FIDE. Dvorkovich is President of FIDE (as we know). Serious question: is the position of CEO or President more influential, or are they influential in different ways. Is it the standard difference that the CEO executes the wishes of FIDE and its President, or is it, um, shall we say, a bit more complicated than that (especially given the current geopolitics, leaving aside any internal chess politics)?

On your points:

(1) Sure if true, got any evidence?

(2) I'm sure Nigel Short wouldn't deliberately put himself in harms way if he could avoid it. However, it's just a fact that some of these countries he goes to can lack resources and be highly dangerous. I remember him going to Iran a few years ago, how many of us would be willing to do that? Found that particularly journey quite fascinating as that was the first time I had heard of Firouzja and Maghsoodloo.

Just to demonstrate how wide of the mark your "patronising" comment was a few of countries he has been to lately are exceedingly poor such as Cameroon and Eswatini (Swaziland) and you just have to click on the embedded links to see how dangerous it is to go there and as for Burkina Faso the Foreign and Commonwealth Office against all travel to Burkina Faso, except to the capital, Ouagadougou up to the toll booths on all roads out of the city due to the threat of terrorist attacks and terrorist kidnap, and the unstable political situation in the country.

So, clearly he's taking some risks here and not doing those trips just for the travel expenses.

(3) Probably a topic for a new thread

[MJMcCready]

He may well have been there before and has connections. There could be worse career moves even though it is a bit of a backwater along with the rest of Africa more or less.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I see that some of these countries are indeed ones that the FCO advises against travel to. I don't think all the countries Nigel has travelled to have been like that. I do dislike people throwing out generalisations like the one just above ("bit of a backwater along with the rest of Africa"). That sort of attitude is horrendously backward and antiquated. Africa is a huge and diverse continent. You have to know and understand an area before making lofty pronouncements from behind a computer screen. Hopefully Nigel will have the contacts needed.

[John Upham]

As you were saying:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cg4yg0k976lo

[IM Jack Rudd]

For what it's worth, these countries may be backwaters now, but my guess is that sub-Saharan Africa may do the thing in the next 50 years that India and China did in the last 50: suddenly producing a lot of very good chess players thanks to sheer population numbers.

[Gerard Killoran]

I'm sure whatever the issue is Nigel will do a fine job...

Bless. I'm sure there'll be dancing in the streets of Ouagadougou tonight.

Not sure why you did that. Was it really necessary to be so patronising with that "bless" comment?

Why shouldn't Nigel Short do a fine job repairing whatever is needed for Burkina Faso chess? Perhaps you are unaware he's spent many years going to countries, often deprived and dangerous ones, setting up federations successfully. Most of the time it doesn't even get noticed, not many of us would risk such things and he gets little in the way of remuneration, he simply loves doing it and should be respected for it.

You might be an admirer of Nigel Short, however I am not. His chess skills are undeniable, but when he strays into unrelated areas he has proved himself to be an all-round patzer. When I found out he has misunderstood a basic concept in a scientific paper which he used to support his male versus female brain theory, and suggested that he should correct the record, his response was to tell me to, 'Get a life'. So please don't accuse me of being patronising.

[Matt Mackenzie]

For what it's worth, these countries may be backwaters now, but my guess is that sub-Saharan Africa may do the thing in the next 50 years that India and China did in the last 50: suddenly producing a lot of very good chess players thanks to sheer population numbers.

Though not at that level yet, chess in sub-Saharan Africa has already clearly improved markedly in the last few decades.

[Chris Rice]

Bless. I'm sure there'll be dancing in the streets of Ouagadougou tonight.

Not sure why you did that. Was it really necessary to be so patronising with that "bless" comment?

Why shouldn't Nigel Short do a fine job repairing whatever is needed for Burkina Faso chess? Perhaps you are unaware he's spent many years going to countries, often deprived and dangerous ones, setting up federations successfully. Most of the time it doesn't even get noticed, not many of us would risk such things and he gets little in the way of remuneration, he simply loves doing it and should be respected for it.

You might be an admirer of Nigel Short, however I am not. His chess skills are undeniable, but when he strays into unrelated areas he has proved himself to be an all-round patzer. When I found out he has misunderstood a basic concept in a scientific paper which he used to support his male versus female brain theory, and suggested that he should correct the record, his response was to tell me to, 'Get a life'. So please don't accuse me of being patronising.

The question of whether you were being patronising is not in question. When you said "bless" you were implying that I was somehow misguided or deluded and you knew better. That is patronising.

It appears that the reason you are making such remarks is that you don't like Nigel Short because of his responses to you regarding an unrelated matter some years ago. I don't seek to change your views, clearly it would be pointless to do so but I have not mocked your views and I'm just asking you don't mock mine simply because I have a different perspective.