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Florencio Campomanes

Florencio Campomanes (born Manila, February 22, 1927) is a Filipino political scientist, chess player and chess organizer.

He earned his B.A. in Political Science from the University of the Philippines in 1948. Then, he studied at Brown University (Providence, Rhode Island), where he earned his M.A. in 1951. He undertook doctoral studies at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., from 1949-54.

He was a National Master strength player during his peak years, and was Philippine national champion on two occasions (1956, 1960). He represented his country at five Chess Olympiads: Moscow 1956, Munich 1958, Leipzig 1960, Varna 1962, and Havana 1966. He met some distinguished opposition as a result, losing games against Pal Benko and Ludek Pachman at Moscow 1956, Oscar Panno at Munich 1958, Mikhail Tal and Miguel Najdorf at Leipzig 1960, and Lev Polugaevsky at Havana 1966.

He became involved in FIDE as a national delegate, and worked his way into prominence in Asian chess organization. Campomanes often boasted that he was close to the notorious dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who ruled the Philippines with an iron hand from 1965 to 1986. Campomanes helped to organize the World Championship match at Baguio, Philippines, in 1978, between Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi.

He is best remembered as the President of the international chess organization FIDE. He was elected to that post in 1982, and held it until 1995, through several controversies, most notably the abandonment of the 1984-85 World Championship between Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov without result, after 48 games, and the break-away from FIDE of the Professional Chess Association in 1993. The cancellation threw the international chess calendar into disarray for the next several years, since a series of matches had to be held to resolve the matter, and these affected other qualifying events.

On the positive side, the membership of FIDE grew significantly, by about 50 member nations, during his tenure as FIDE president. Campomanes was succeeded as FIDE President in 1995 by Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. He has since been appointed as, and remains to this day, FIDE Honorary President, and is often present at significant international competitions such as zonal and continental championships, chess olympiads and world chess championships

Campomanes was the only Filipino to ever hold the highest position at FIDE, the world chess governing body based in Lausanne, Switzerland.

On February 5, 2003, the Philippine anti-graft court Sandiganbayan convicted Florencio Campomanes, the former FIDE president, for failure to account for the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) government funds amounting to PhP12.876 million (or US$238,746 at an exchange rate of PhP53.932=$1). The PSC entrusted these funds to the FIDE for the World Chess Olympiad in Manila, hosted by the Philippine government from June 6 to 25, 1992. Subsequently, Florencio Campomanes was sentenced to one year and 10 months imprisonment. According to a FIDE Press Release, dated 1/16/2007, Campomanes was cleared of these charges by the Philippine Supreme Court in December, 2006, though FIDE's release states that the penalty was the equivalent of a 100 euro fine.

Campomanes' charges were overturned based upon a technicality. There was never any resolution about what happened to the 12.876 million pesos mentioned in the above paragraph. The rationale for the overturn was that the Supreme Court of the Philippines decided that Campomanes was not a government official to whom the anti-graft laws applied. Thus as a non-government official, Campomanes had no duty under the law he was prosecuted to render an accounting of the 12.876 million pesos: Manila Times article by Jomar Canlas

In early February 2007, Florencio Campomanes suffered injuries from a car accident, at which time he was in intensive care. Chessbase News Article

Curriculum Vitae of Florencio B. Campomanes

B.A., Cum laude, University of the Philippines, 1948
M. A., Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, 1951
Doctoral Studies, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, 1949-1952
Fullbright Grantee, 1948
Lecturer, (Political Science) University of the Philippines, 1954-1956
Chess Columnist, Manila Times and Manila Chronicle, 1954-1961
TV Producer – Host, “Chess Today” , PTV 4 Manila, 1973-1982
Permanent Philippines Delegate to FIDE, 1956-1982
FIDE Asian Zone President, 1960-1964
FIDE Deputy President for Asia, 1974-1982
FIDE President, 1982-1995

FIDE Chairman, 1995-1996
FIDE Honorary President 1996-...
Philippine Champion, 1956, 1960
Tied 2nd-3rd with Edmar Mednis, New York State Championship, 1954
International Arbiter, 1957
Philippine Olympiad Team Member, New York State Championship, 1954
Philippine Olympiad Team Member and/or Captain:

Moscow 1956-Board 2, Munich 1958-Board 3, Leipzig 1960-Board 1, Tel Aviv 1964-Board 4, Havana 1966-Board 4;

Captain: Lugano 1968, Siegen 1970, Skopje 1972, Nice 1974, Haifa 1976, Buenos Aires 1978, La Valletta 1980.
Administered under FIDE: Olmypiad - Thessaloniki, Greece 1984,1988
Dubai - 1986 , Novi Sad - 1990, Moscow - 1994
Organized for the Philippines, Manila 1992
World Championship, 1978
Interzonals, 1976, 1990
World Juniors 1974, 1987
First Asian Zonal, 1958
First Asian Junior Championship, 1977
Raised FIDE Membership from 100’s to 150’s
Raised US $13,000,000 for six Men’s World Championship in nine years: Moscow 1984-1985, Moscow *1985, London & Leningrad 1986
Turned FIDE into a truly universal body by activity Asian, African, and Latin American Chess.
Convicted by the Philippine anti-graft court Sandiganbayan, February, 2003, for failure to account for 12 million pesos.
Conviction overturned by Philippine Supreme Court in December, 2006, on technicality, assessed 6,000 pesos (the approximate equivalent of 100 euros) fine.