Valery Salov replies to Yasser Seirawan's Open Letter about FIDE. You can read Yasser's Letter at: http://www.insidechess.com/articles/openletter.html

A private letter (that may become open if necessary) to Grandmaster Yasser Seirawan from GM Valery Salov, President of the WPC.

In AF is in AF

Dear Yasser,

You are the old friend of mine and first of all I would like to thank you for choosing me as one of your addressees and for sharing with me the content of your open letter to FIDE. I have a few remarks about it. In my opinion it's an utterly irresponsible, rude, unfair, callous, wild, shortsighted, demagogic, berserk, biased, prejudicial, arrogant, unmarketable, mistaken, perfidious and - forgive me for being tough with you - a totally mendacious document. You must have been tragically misinformed by someone (probably by some unscrupulous members of the American Federation - AF) and used as a battering-ram in a disingenuous political game, aimed at destroying FIDE, chessworld and consequently the lives of your colleagues. Yasser, please, don't force me to scrutinize your letter clause by clause, save my time and your own reputation, don't get involved into a dirty political game which may only have a disastrous outcome for all of us. Tell people who are pushing you to contribute to the widening of a schism between the chessplayers that they are doomed to failure in their intrigues, that you have changed your mind on second thoughts, that you had a better judgement. Be a man, Yas, withdraw your letter immediately, repudiate it! Let's collaborate with FIDE, let's help it, let's provide our expertise to it - for the common benefit of all the chessplayers instead of trying to destroy everything! Don't degrade yourself to the level of a cheap and amateurish politico. Gens una sumus.

Yours respectfully, Valery Salov

Madrid, Spain, European Community June 14th, 2000