The Rise and Fall of FIDE's Global Chess

Remember Global Chess?

• 2006-12-26: FIDE President and Bessel Kok Form Global Chess Company • 'FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and his opponent in the FIDE Presidential elections of 2nd June 2006, Mr. Bessel Kok, signed a Memorandum of Understanding and announced the establishment of the Global Chess Company with an initial capitalization of 4.5 million Euro.'
  
  
• 2007-04-04: FIDE and Global Chess • 'The FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and Mr Bessel Kok have met in Dresden to announce formally the commencement of operations of Global Chess BV.'
  
  
• 2007-06-08: FIDE and Global Chess agreed on key points • 'The FIDE negotiating team headed by Deputy President G. Makropoulos and the Global Chess team led by Chief of the Executive Office G. Borg successfully completed negotiations on an agreement which authorizes Global Chess BV to act as FIDE marketing support agent on worldwide basis.'
  
  
• 2007-06-24: Tallinn Presidential Board Maps New World Chess Championship Cycle • 'FIDE Presidential Board has approved the introduction of a new Grand Prix series initiated by Global Chess as part of the new World Championship Cycle.'
  
  
• 2007-08-08: FIDE Vice President and CEO of Global Chess BV Geoffrey Borg's interview • 'We have officially launched a company called Global Chess, which has the primary objective of commercialization of chess as a sport and improving the overall marketing image of chess' (long)
  
  
• 2007-08-20 Global Chess BV office opened in Amsterdam

From the Press Release of 2007-08-20: Borg, Ilyumzhinov, Kok, Orlov(?)

• 2008-01-14: Agreement between Global Chess BV and Turkish Chess Federation • 'CEO of Global Chess BV Geoffrey Borg and President of Turkish Chess Federation Ali Nihat Yazici signed an agreement for cooperating on developing new web technologies, improving the design and the content of the FIDE web site.'
  
  
• 2008-03-20: FIDE Presidential Board Meeting in Istanbul • 'Geoffrey Borg of Global Chess confirmed the participating cities of the Grand Prix circuit and the PB requested that contracts will be finalised in time.'
  
  
• 2008-05-30: Global Chess CEO Geoffrey Borg on Chess Sponsorship • 'Geoffrey D. Borg, CEO of Global Chess BV (the marketing arm of FIDE) made a presentation titled "Chess Sponsorship" upon the invitation of Is Bank, the main sponsor of the Turkish Chess Federation in the second International Sports Marketing and Sponsorship Congress" held in Istanbul, Turkey on May 28.' • This appears to have been around the time that Kok left the organization.
  
  
• 2008-06-10: Chess Giants - Yerevan, Republic of Armenia • 'FIDE Commercial Director and Global Chess CEO Geoffrey Borg outlined also the plans that FIDE had for the next couple of years for women chess and other world class events and how Global Chess was assisting in the development of chess.'
  
  
• 2008-11-26: The 79th FIDE Congress completed its session in Dresden • 'The delegates thoroughly discussed the report of Global Chess and that of the PR and Marketing Director. They called for more active and professional work by these units and emphasized the need of written contracts for FIDE events. Many delegates expressed concers over the uncertainties threatening the future state of the Grand Prix series.'
  
  
• 2008-12-15: Interview with Mr. Geoffrey Borg, the CEO of Global Chess • 'We have been working together with FIDE for two years already and in my opinion we’ve achieved a lot.'
  
  
• 2008-12-25: ACP, Carlsen on the FIDE Grand Prix problems • 'At the end of November 2008, FIDE and Global Chess announced that the organizers of the third and fourth Grand Prix tournaments in Doha and Montreux would not be able to fulfill their obligations.'

And then there was silence. How did the Global Chess objectives collapse so quickly?