Kasparov discloses contracts with federation official

Garry Kasparov, a former chess world champion who is running for president of the World Chess Federation, released previously confidential agreements Friday involving himself and one of the officials who is part of his slate of candidates to lead the organization.

An earlier draft contract, revealed in an article in The New York Times this week, indicated that the official, Ignatius Leong - the general secretary of the federation under its longtime president, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who is running for re-election - was paid to join Kasparov's campaign. The draft also stated that Leong, a powerful figure in chess in Asia, was being paid to supply votes for Kasparov's election. The election will be in August in Tromso, Norway, as part of the biennial Chess Olympiad.

The final agreements were released on Kasparov's election website. A statement accompanying the disclosure said that "the Kasparov Team welcomes such transparency and are looking forward to seeing our opponents act in the same manner."

One of the contracts is an update of the previous draft. The draft said that Kasparov would pay Leong $500,000. That is not part of the revised agreement.

But the final agreement, as in the earlier draft, promises to pay Asean Chess Academy, an organization for teaching children that was founded and is owned by Leong, $250,000 annually for four years, beginning in 2013. The payments will come through a newly created foundation. As in the draft, the agreement can be voided and the final $500,000 not paid if Kasparov is not elected.

According to the final agreement, Leong is "responsible for delivering a minimum of 10  1 vote from his region, with the effort to deliver 15 votes (not counting China)." In language that appears stronger in the final version than in the draft, the agreement goes on to say, "Support from each of these above mentioned federations must materialize in the form of a written and signed statement and/or an irrevocable proxy, before the last tranche of payment takes place."

Part of the second contract, which governs how the money distributed by Kasparov's foundation can be spent, said, "No part of the grant has been or will be used to attempt to influence legislation, to attempt to influence the outcome of any specific public election, or to carry on, directly or indirectly, any voter registration drive, or to make grants to other organizations or individuals, or to undertake any activities for any purpose that would not be deemed to be a charitable or educational purpose."

© 2014 New York Times News Service