Chessmasters and the Principle of Justice

And now we are at it again. The global, governing body of the chessplayers, FIDE is changing rules and regulations at an extraterrestrial pace, perhaps inspired by the presidents allegedly contacts with aliens.
"But time does not stand still, times change. And FIDE must adapt to the requirements of different times...", states the president. As he also has claimed that we all soon will be taken away from earth by aliens, that is maybe why he in such a haste.
Otherwise it is difficult to see the reason behind changing the formate for the contest for the world championship LESS than an year after it was changed the last time. The rules for forfeits if you are too late for the game they also wanted to change at the latest congress. Some constructive opposition made them slow down a little, so that the proposed rules will be deliberated and probably changed by the "Presidental Board". That should in fact not be legal according to the FIDE-statutes, unless it is "a matter of emergency", but maybe it is? From this, and a LOT of other instances from the last 12-14 years, it is not really surprising - and for no one with a little insight hairraising - that FIDE also is involved in some kind of blackmail against the Bulgarians concerning the match Topalov-Kamski.
But...decisions of such (star-?)quality sooner or later have their price, unless of course you change them very quickly, which is perhaps also one of the reasons for this unearthly speed? Some 6-7 years ago FIDE introduced a doping regulative demanding some selected players to give urine samples at the FIDE events. Some very prominent players did protest, but the circus went on, mostly regarded as some kind of joke. Of course no player was ever found guilty of any kind of abuse, but there were a few case with lowerranked players who refused to participate and got some kind of penalties. And the overall aim, to have chess promoted to a genuine olympic sport via IOC, has not come closer
But then...and it simply should happen sooner or later - after the last round of the recent OL in Dresden, world nr.3, GM Vasili Ivanchuk refused to provide his urine. According to the rules his team, Ukraine should be stripped for all its points and Ivanchuk banned from playing for some time, up to two years. The problem with the former is - among others - that it influences the distribution of the medals. How FIDE will crack THAT cockonut, we are all eager to see.
And now GM Aleksei Shirov stands forward and want us all to BAN FIDE!, speaking out in an open letter at Chessbase.com. A symphatic endavour, apart from that it is not FIDE per se that is the problem - realistically we can not do without it - but the chess politicians who have been in charge for too many years. I am especially refering to the president.
Shirovs letter starts up with: "I don’t know how many times I have said to myself that it makes no sense at all to keep getting involved in chess politics and that I should just concentrate on my work...". But then you may ask: WHEN has Shirov, or any other top grand master at all (maybe apart from Kasparov and a very few others) involved themself in chess politics? By "involved" I mean constructively trying to change the conditions in cooperation with peers.
You know, this has been going on since 1995, when Ijumshinov was elected for the first time. I suppose some of the very young present super Grand Masters can not even remember there has ever been anyone else. At that time I suppose we all thought that ANYTHING would be better than his predecessor, Campomanes. But soon strange incidents already took place. Participants at the OL and FIDE-congress in Erevan in 1996 can tell a lot about free gold watches... for some reason Iljumshiniov soon managed to turn the WCh-system upside down (for the first time, many to follow). In 1998, at the age of 36 (!), he released his autobiography: "The presidents Crown of Thorns". Oh, just the title, just the title...Yes, he has also been the president of the russian republic of Kalmykia since 1993. Where Putin failed, he managed...One chapter of the autobiography is titled "Without Me the People are incomplete". Yes, it is true! - and you can download the whole book from FIDEs homepage and see for yourself! And if you want to read more about Iljumshinovs merits, I recommend you the very well informed article at wikipedia.
But the president has also put a lot of money in chess tournaments, event if it is heavily questioned that they are all of his own (if at all). And Shirov, and the rest of them, has taken part in these tournaments for years, no, for a decade, time passes. Yes, and when a serious challenger, Bessel Kok, appeared in 2006, many of the leading grandmasters supported the incumbent president (Ok, not Shirov, as far as I remember). Of course chess masters also need an income, but the very best of them are not so poor that they have to stand up for anything. At least they do not need to be shortsighted, which you some times have to if you live a life in poverty, struggling everyday for your next meal (which some lowerranked masters indeed have to). It is a widely approved assumption, that FIDEs reputation during Iljumshinov rule has fallen to lowest level of almost any comparable international organisation, meaning that chess has become very little attractive to potential sponsors. One may wonder how many means for existence chess masters have lost on that account...And the strongest grandmasters maybe at times protest, but actually they DO and have DONE NOTHING about it. On the contrary, they have taken actively part in the whole charade.
So: Why are strong chess masters generally so shortsighted, indifferent, if not to say ignorant when it comes to matters apart from the chessboard? Nowadays social and political conditions may provide some of the answers. It is a hard, irrational, inconceivable, hypocrite, if not to say insane world we live in, without any recognisabe justice. We, the chessplayers, all need to hide in our beloved game now and then, and the professional players can do it all the time.
On THAT matter, let Emmanuel Lasker talk through his "Chess Manual":
"On the chessboard lies and hypocrisis do not survive long. The creative combination lays bare the presumption of a lie; the merciless fact, culminating in a checkmate, contradicts the hipocrite. Our little chess is one of the sanctuaries, where this principle of justice has occasionally had to hide to gain sustance and a respite, after the army of mediocrities had driven it of the marketplace. And many a man, struck by injustice as, say, Socrates and Shakespeare were struck, has found justice realised on the chessboard and has thereby recovered his courage and his vitality to continue to play the game of life. Later generations, not so narrowminded as ours, will recognise and appreciate this merit of our noble game."
Following that, I hope that Shirov, and the rest of them, after a very long respite at long last has gained a lot of sustance and recovered their courage and vitality. And from now on will take part in the game of life.