The 74th FIDE Congress concluded its sessions on 2nd November 2003 at the Pallini Beach Hotel, Kallithea, Halkidiki, Greece, and took a number of decisions which addressed the immediate problems facing the organization especially in the light of the decision of the Presidential Board to cancel the Ponomariov-Kasparov World Chess Championship Match. Download lists of titles approved in Congress by Titles and Ratings Committee and Arbiters Council.

The Executive Board endorsed the decision of the President to cancel the Ponomariov-Kasparov 2003 World Chess Championship Match and to organize in its place the World Championship (Knock Out) tournament. The Board noted the many efforts and concessions made by FIDE to meet the various demands of World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov and concluded that FIDE could not accept the situation where the World Champion was dictating unacceptable terms to FIDE in order to defend his title under the terms of the Prague Agreement. The Board noted with satisfaction the cooperative attitude of Grandmaster Garry Kasparov throughout the various negotiations for the Match.

The Board therefore granted anticipatory powers to the FIDE President to decide on the details of the format, which will be submitted by the World Chess Championship Committee to enable the event to be split on the basis of two, three or four groups of 64 or 32 players each. The idea behind this proposal is to enable two, three or four possible bids for the entire knock out championship thereby spreading the costs of hosting the entire event.

The Board noted with satisfaction the proposal of the Georgian Chess Federation to organize the Women’s World Chess Championship in Tbilisi, Georgia, in the period May-June 2004 with the prize fund of USD450,000.

As part of its measures to address its financial problems, the Board approved the recommendation of the Presidential Board to move the FIDE Secretariat from Lausanne to Athens in order to reduce the costs of running the Secretariat.

The Board was briefed by both the Spanish Chess Federation President Mr. Javier Ochoa and the representative of the city of Calvia, Mr. Antonio Rami on the preparations by the Organizing Committee to hold the 36th Chess Olympiad and the 75th FIDE Congress in the Spanish Island of Majorca from 21 to 31 October 2004. At the same time, the Executive Board confirmed the dates for the 37th Chess Olympiad and the 77th FIDE Congress to be held in the Italian city of Turin from 20 May to 4 June 2006.

In view of the growing number of countries interested in hosting the Chess Olympiads and Congresses the Board established a deadline for the submission of bids to host the 2008 Chess Olympiad. The Board noted that Armenia, Germany, Sweden and Argentina had expressed interest to host the 2008 Olympiad and set a deadline of 15 April 2004 for the submission of bids by these countries as well as any other country that might be interested in hosting the event.

The following events were approved by the Executive Board :

-World Youth Championship 2004 to be organized in early November by O.A.A. Heraklion Chess Club, Crete, Greece, while the same event for the years 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 have been awarded to Belfort, France; India, Antalya-Izmir, Turkey and Vietnam respectively.

-World Juniors and Girls 2004 in early September in Calcutta, India.

-World Juniors and Girls 2005 and 2007 events were awarded to the Turkish and Armenian Chess Federations.

-World Rapid Chess Championship 2005 to be held in Cap d’Agde, France.

-World Youth Team Championship 2005 was awarded to the United States Chess Federation.

- The Inaugural World Major Open Championship to be held in Scarborough in August 2004 as part of celebrations marking the centenial anniversary of the British Chess Federation.

The Executive Board also approved a new event to be known as the World Youth Intercontinental Championship for the winners of each category in continental championships. It approved the new pairing system to come into force from the next Olympiad, which will use normal Bucholtz scores. As part of efforts to give greater impetus to activities in the Chess in Schools Committee, the Executive Board approved the proposal that affiliated organizations may be allowed to send entries into the World Youth Championships and other junior or youth events upon approval by the Presidential Board.

Finally, the Executive Board resolved to declare the years 2004 and 2005 as the year of Tigran Petrossian and the year of Chess in Schools respectively. It resolved to extend its gratitude to the Greek Chess Federation, FIDE Deputy President Georgios Makropoulos and Mr. Theodoros Tsorbatzoglou for the successful organization of the 74th FIDE Congress and the 2003 World Youth Chess Championship.

Halkidiki 3rd November 2003.

Download the Executive Board Agenda in pdf format. Click here for Title Applications . Get free Acrobat Reader.

Download Annexes.