Grandmaster’s angry eulogy for ‘corrupt’ chess impresario
ONE of Britain’s greatest living chess players has sparked anger after describing an impresario of the game who died last week as “unethical” and “corrupt”.
Nigel Short, the British chess grandmaster, has given a damning assessment of the influence of Andrew Paulson, who died of cancer aged 59.
Paulson, a Yale University graduate who went on to make a fortune in publishing in Russia, had a short-lived term as president of the English Chess Federation, which runs the domestic game. But it was his activities promoting chess on the global stage that led to the withering eulogy from Mr Short, Britain’s former world title challenger.
A year before his ECF stint, Paulson founded a company that snapped up the potentially lucrative exclusive commercial rights to, among other events, the showpiece chess world championship.
Agon Limited, having bought the rights from the game’s governing body, Fide, then successfully held the London Candidates tournament in March 2013. However, in Jan 2014 a document emerged appearing to show that Agon was in fact secretly run by Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the Russian multi-millionaire and head of Fide.
Mr Ilyumzhinov, the document suggested, personally owned 51 per cent of the profits from world championship events, despite his position as Fide’s president. The document has never been verified and both Paulson and Mr
‘While the eulogies are being sung, let us not forget he signed an exceptionally corrupt, secret agreement’
Ilyumzhinov denied that the contract ever came into effect. But following Paulson’s death, it was this controversy that Mr Short seized on.
He said: “I will leave others to pay tribute to the charm and other virtues of the former ECF president, Andrew Paulson. But while the eulogies are being sung, let us not forget he signed an exceptionally corrupt, secret agreement with Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.”
Paulson’s death has been mourned elsewhere. Grandmaster Robert Fontaine, who worked with Paulson for Agon, told chess.com that he was “a visionary, a smart and generous man”.