EP.78 - Grandmaster Nigel Short (Guest Host Macauley Peterson)

Perpetual Chess makes a "zwischenzug" over to Europe where Macauley Peterson, Editor-in-Chief of ChessBase.com, is filling in for Ben this week. Macauley caught up with Grandmaster Nigel Short in Leuven, Belgium, at the close of the first tournament of the Grand Chess Tour 2018, the "Your Next Move Rapid and Blitz" tournament, where Short was a commentator. The former World Championship challenger is still an active player, but in May he launched a bid to succeed Kirsan Ilyumzhinov as President of FIDE, the World Chess Federation. Shortly before the interview, news broke that in addition to FIDE's current Deputy President Georgios Makropoulos, who declared his candidacy in April, a new candidate from Russia was entering the race: Arkady Dvorkovich, a prominent figure in Russian chess circles who currently serves as Chairman of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for the FIFA 2018 World Cup, and has deep Kremlin ties, as a former Deputy Prime Minister. Short explains why he's in the race, what's wrong with FIDE, and how he intends to fix it. If you're interested in browsing the vast ChessBase shop, use this special link to help support Perpetual Chess. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices