Dubai: The UAE Chess Federation has pledged its full support for Russian former world champion Anatoly Karpov's candidacy for the presidency of the International Chess Federation (FIDE).
The election takes place at the end of September.
Karpov is running for the FIDE presidency against incumbent Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. Dr Sulaiman Al Fahim, president of the UAE Chess Federation, met Karpov in Dubai and assured him of the UAE's support.
Karpov, world champion from 1975 to 1985, expressed his gratitude to Al Fahim and the UAE Chess Federation.
"An important element in our plans to promote chess in the region will be Sulaiman Al Fahim's role as a vice-president in my new FIDE administration," he said.
Visionary
"He is a visionary, full of ideas and capable of leading a renewal of chess in the Arab world and Asia. There is also a poetic element, as Europe first learned chess from the Arabs, who were the game's first great practitioners."
Al Fahim and Karpov also mapped out a plan to develop chess in the region.
