In a recent letter-reply to GM Kevin Spraggett, concerning the US sanctions against Kirsan Ilyumhinov, the Fide Deputy President Mr. Georgios Makropoulos dropped a bombshell by mentioning the following:

“FIDE board members have also seen the letter FIDE received from the Ethics Commission of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), regarding the current situation in FIDE, but unfortunately the IOC have asked us to keep its content confidential so we are not allowed to publish it for now. I am afraid that if we do not solve our problems in Batumi, the IOC will have to follow its principles and this was made very clear to us during our recent meeting with them in Lausanne.”

Is the IOC membership of FIDE in danger because of Kirsan Ilyumzhinov? Let’s hope things go the right way for the sake of chess… On the issue of the next FIDE elections, Georgios Makropoulos mentioned the following:

“Allow me to predict also for this year that Kirsan’s absolutely maximum percentage of votes, if there is a second round, cannot exceed 35%”

and

“As a last note I re-assure you that, even with 3 candidates (if Short decides to help Kirsan and run), I will win the elections from the first round. And if you think that I am too optimistic, see again above my prediction for the results of 2014, ten months before the actual elections.”

You can read the full version of the very interesting letter of Georgios Makropoulos here.