The Kasparov Gambit: The International Chess Federation, 1993
Strategy and calculation are integral to chess, and that’s not just confined to the chessboard. The game has been subject to scandals, controversy, and changes throughout its 1500-year history. This committee simulates chess’s international governing body, the Fédération Internationale des Échecs, or FIDE, in the year 1993. World Champion Garry Kasparov has just split off from FIDE and has taken a large contingent of top chess players with him. In addition to this crisis, chess engines and the internet are rapidly transforming the way the game is played, while FIDE’s managerial choices threaten to topple their place as the governing organization of chess. Delegates will be tasked with deciding the fate of chess in the years to come. They will have to decide how to react to the World Championship split, as well as issues of participation, technological changes, and the role of chess in the world. By determining the fate of these issues, delegates will be writing yet another chapter in the Royal Game’s illustrious history.
Viren Maira
Chair
Viren is a second-year majoring in Biology and is also on the Pre-Med track (well, for the time being, at least). He was born in New Jersey and spent most of his childhood in the suburbs of New York City until he moved to the suburbs of Chicago a few years ago (and now lives just 40 minutes from school!). Last year, he served as an assistant chair on the crisis committee The Saffron Resurrection: The Maratha Confederacy, 1761, and he will be taking on the role of chair in a large GA during UChicago’s high school conference MUNUC this year. Viren also competes on UChicago’s traveling MUN team and researches cancer biology and immunology in a lab on campus. When he isn’t doing MUN-related stuff or isn’t trapped in the library working on his problem sets, you can find him obsessing over fantasy football, vibing to some NAV or iann dior, or (hopefully) getting huge at the gym. Viren was an avid chess player in his youth but has since stopped playing (except for the occasional match on Chess.com), and is excited to finally revisit the game this year at ChoMUN.
For any questions, comments, or concerns (or if you would like to give him fantasy football advice, which he would very much appreciate), feel free to contact Viren at virenmaira@uchicago.edu.
William foster
Crisis Director
William is a second-year at the University of Chicago majoring in Political Science and Economics. He hails from the small town of Durham, Connecticut, where his next-door neighbors are twenty-three Jersey cows. William served as an Assistant Chair at ChoMUN XXVI on the committee It’s a Whole New World: Board of Disney Directors, 2012. He is also a member of the UChicago travel Model UN team. Outside of Model UN, he is a member of the (in)famous UChicago Quiz Bowl team and writes for the college’s satirical magazine. Like practically everyone else on earth, William first got interested in chess during the Coronavirus pandemic, and he was the co-president of his high school’s chess club. His favorite opening is the Indian Game.
If you have any questions or concerns, you can reach him at williamf@uchicago.edu.
Secretariat oversight:
aoife Stapleton, Under-secretary-general