To all members of the Executive Board To all National Federations

Lausanne, 30 December 1999 Dear Chess Friends In a few days time we shall all witness the beginning of the year 2000. As we look forward to this special year, let me seize this opportunity to wish you all a very successful and fruitful new year. 1999 has been an eventful year for FIDE. The FIDE President, H.E. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and his colleagues in the Presidential Board have successfully steered our organisation through a very difficult period, but we must be thankful that it has all come to a successful conclusion. We have been able to successfully organise FIDE's major events - the 1999 Children's Olympiad, the Women's World Chess Championship Final Match between Miss Xie Jun and Alissa Galiamova and the 1999 World Chess Championship in Las Vegas which saw the emergence of a new World Champion in the person of GM Alexander Khalifman, amongst other major FIDE events. On the occasion of the 75th Anniversary celebration of FIDE in Paris, the FIDE President addressed the issue of the outstanding payment of prize monies due to some of the players. On that occasion, he stated that action would be taken to ensure that all payments were made before the 31st of December 1999. I am now in a position to confirm that these payments have now been conclusively effected. We would like to thank all those who stood behind FIDE and kept faith with our organisation during this difficult period. In the coming year, the Presidential Board shall continue to address all those issues that will help to promote the development of chess not only among our top players but also to the benefit of all chess players at the base. In addition, we shall continue to defend FIDE's position of principle especially in respect of the dispute with GM Anatoly Karpov at the Court of Arbitration for Sports in Lausanne to which we have since filed our statement of defence. Once again, I wish you all a Happy New Year ! Emmanuel Omuku Executive Director