 Nigel Schott won a convincing game with the black pieces against Zanah and Yevgeny from Israel join us as we talk chess and politics Nigel an important win with the black pieces at the halfway mark. How did the game go today? Well strange opening probably I was a bit worse, but then I proceeded to outplay him So I'm following the tried and tested method of drawing with white and winning with black in this tournament Right, and are you happy with the quality of your play so far? It's yeah, it's okay. Look, I mean I was completely lost in the first game and I was completely lost in the second game But doesn't doesn't matter the fact of the matter is I've got I've won three games and I haven't lost Yet, so you always have some up and downs Nigel it's always a pleasure to see you over the board But there's this new big responsibility that you have which is as the vice president of Fide Tell us a bit about your role and responsibility with Fide. Well, I hope to become a little more actively involved in fact the the new administration is doing an awful lot of things very very fast and this is good because There was a lot that needed to be done. I do have some pet projects in in mind which Be introducing during the the course of the year, but certain very very positive things have already come out So we've got rid of Aegon from the world championship. That was a massive thing proxies have gone they were one way to rig elections and as we know we've had a huge amount of election rigging in the past so many many things we've increased the budget substantially Reduced the number of commissions by a third and so on so there are a whole lot of things, you know, we are following our statutes We are not playing in events. We're not playing events in countries where Not everybody is invited. So You know, we have good statutes. We just need to follow them. And I think this is a big distinction between us and the the guys who were in power before Developing countries can expect a lot more support from Fide. Yeah, and it will be Conditional conditional upon them doing things as well. So, you know, it's not going to be a blank check That is absolutely clear Right. There was also a big announcement about Fide and Aegon's contract being amended and Your thoughts on that? Well, yeah, look, it's a massive step forward Personally, you know, well, I've been arguing against Aegon for years and years in writing But it was not Very practical when you have a contract, it's not always easy to extricate yourself and I think this was a very positive negotiated settlement which is It's good for good for chess good for Fide and we are reclaiming the world championship Right now Nigel at the elections We saw you give up your nomination to endorse Dworkovic during the presidential campaign during the election. What happened? What's happened? Well, I didn't have enough votes to win. So I decided to back By far the best of the other two candidates and it was really a no-brainer. I mean you'd had Decades of the the same Rotten administration and with the the bad old ways of doing things and yeah, and you had somebody Very dynamic someone who'd organized the FIFA World Cup So sporting event on the very highest level and of course you don't become Deputy Prime Minister of Russia You know by chance Right now things are definitely looking up like you mentioned and the chess world is looking forward to all the positive changes Come back to you and Your career now you're doing a lot of stuff. You've got the responsibility of Fide. You're doing a lot of promotional activities across the world How are you finding time to still play so actively and maintain your rating? Well, my rating is has taken a bit of a dive in the in the last year. So I You know, I feel very happy coming here. I mean I have absolutely no Expectations any more and I must say you're right. I feel a huge amount of pressure on my time On any day there are loads of things to be done So I'm not sure I found the best way of dealing with all these all these pressures, but there are There are things to be done and many things I would like to do as well and they don't seem to be enough hours in the day I Have to also ask you with your new political role You're somebody who's known to be outspoken someone who speaks his mind Will you be seeing a more politically correct Nigel? I think that's probably correct in in fact, you're probably right there because You know, there are some things which you simply Cannot say but I I would not be the same Person if I if I shut up completely on things, so I tend to say what I think But some things you have to be slightly more delicate about Now finally my question is what brings you more joy the action over the board or the boardroom action I Think I'm a player, you know I was you know born a chess player I was a chess player in the womb almost so I think that Is is a joy actually I'm enjoying playing here as there's no expectations anymore, you know, I'm Getting older my energy is not as high as it was and that's a problem with these very very long games actually the We don't have a standard Feed a time control here, so the concentration tends to waver a little bit, but I like to move my fingers and Tonight is the big night of the battle of the sexes Yeah, it is so all the sexy people will be there battling away and I look forward to that And you'll be the captain as always Any insights into the strategy for tonight's match? Just Our basic plan is to move fast and badly We look forward to it all the best for tonight. Okay. Thank you. Thanks Nigel