Kirsan Nikolaevich, who was doing nothing from the moment of adopting the Prague agreements till Kasparov's retirement, achieved such a momentum thanks to San Luis and current Khanty Mansiysk that he can dictate the conditions of further political play. And he does it for sure: his interview to Sport Express is an obvious example of rejecting any binding frames! He stated that he had already spent more than 50 HIS OWN million dollars and that there are chess players that got millions from Ilyumzhinov "both officially and informally". He said that every candidate for FIDE Presidency should give one million dollars (they again count in millions) to the organization. In case the candidate fails he gets part of it back, and in case he is poor, he should go begging and not standing for elections!

Another possible candidate for FIDE Presidency is A.Karpov. The 12th world champion is well known as permanent public figure – he always was a member (or a head) of important organizations – from Central Committee of Komsomol and Peace Foundation to recently formed Public Chamber of Russia. And if Anatoly Yevgenyevich stands for election, having assessed all and everything, world chess public will have to think over who is better: present FIDE officials (Ilyumzhinov's circle) or almost absolute absence of them around Karpov.

And while A.Karpov is thinking, Bessel Kok from Belgium has already entered the struggle. The organizer of GMA events and previous World Cups hopes that chess community has some common sense and wants to make FIDE civilized and transparent. He seems not to know how the votes are got. And yes, does he have a million to spare?

In comparison with last the knock-out FIDE world championship in Libya, this Cup in Khanty Mansiysk is much more representative, though it lacks such stars as Topalov, Anand, Svidler, Kramnik, Leko, Morozevich, Adams, and Polgar. For many chess players the Cup is the only chance to improve financial position, and it is very nice that there are possibilities to organize such a tournament with prize fund of $ 1,572,000 in Russia. If we remember that women's world championship will be held in Yekaterinburg, then it turns out that there are still people (organizations) that are ready to spend money on chess in Russia. So why the number of serious tournaments in our country decreases, and financial position of Russian grandmasters becomes worse?

December, 1st was the 85th anniversary of the outstanding grandmaster and trainer Semen Abramovich Furman. Medal winner of the USSR championship-1948, two time national champion with Leningrad team (1953, 1960), city champion-1953 and 1957, S.Furman became widely known as a trainer of A.Karpov, although beforehand he helped many other strongest players of the country. Semen Abramovich possessed encyclopedic knowledge and enriched the theory greatly. There were 10 Furman Memorials held from 1982 to 1995, with such players as A.Khalifman, V.Epishin, and G.Kamsky taking part and occupying the top spots. An outstandingly great tournament was held in 1995, in the year of Furman's 75th anniversary. V.Smyslov, R.Kholmov, M.Taimanov, A.Suetin, E.Vasjukov, B.Gurgenidze, I.Zaitsev, V.Savon and I.Levitina took part in it; E.Geller arrived but did not play because of the illness. And where are Furman's Memorials now? It is in the same place where A.Petrov's Memorials are...

Let us remember those who devoted their lives to chess.