30.12.2018

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov may again occupy positions in FIDE. All bans removed

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov will be able to hold posts in the International Chess Federation. They deprived him this right in July of this year, having done everything possible to dismiss the head of the federation. Now the International Chess Federation has entered into a settlement agreement with Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.

FIDE reported on its website about the settlement agreement on Saturday, 29 December. According to it, the agreement was reached on 27 November.

 

First, the agreement was analyzed by the FIDE Ethics Commission, and then ratified by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). On 21 December, the final decision was taken, and the ban was officially lifted.

The resignation of Kirsan Ilyumzhinov was de facto provoked by the United States. First, FIDE head was sanctioned by the US Treasury, and certain conditions were created for further aggravations. In the end, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov was openly condemned for refusing to voluntarily leave the post of FIDE head, after which he was dismissed from his post for 18 months. Separate charges were also made by the FIDE Ethics Commission. Allegedly, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov violated the FIDE code of ethics. He was blamed for the very fact of hitting the sanctions list. The pressure continued with the closure of the chess federation accounts with the USB bank.
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov did his best to restore honour to his name. In early August, a lawsuit was filed with the CAS. The former head of the federation was going to challenge the ban imposed by FIDE. Now we know that the dispute is settled, and it did not take much time.
After Ilyumzhinov left his post, FIDE elected a new head of the federation – former Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich. His competitor was FIDE Vice President Georgios Makropoulos. 103 countries voted for Dvorkovich and 78 for Makropoulos. FIDE former President, first President of Kalmykia, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, said that with the new leader the International Chess Federation would undergo a global reformatting. In an interview with Tsargrad, Ilyumzhinov emphasized his satisfaction that the post of federation head remains occupied by a representative of Russia.
“Despite various attacks, the FIDE presidency remained in Russian hands, and Arkady Dvorkovich, a citizen of the Russian Federation, will continue this activity. Now FIDE functions perfectly and he has a balanced team: there are experienced deputy presidents and young officials. He appointed Bashar Kouatly his first vice-president. Bashar Kouatly also worked as the first vice-president of FIDE in the 1990s,” Ilyumzhinov said.
He noted that during the years of his service as president of the federation, he had to not only unite the chess world, but also build a coherent system of world championships. At that time, he notes, there was only the system of Garry Kasparov, who created the Professional Chess Association in the USA. FIDE was a financial and political bankrupt that was not recognized by the IOC. Only in 1999, chess was officially recognized as a sport, recalls Ilyumzhinov.
The IOC Executive Board, which was then headed by Juan Antonio Samaranch, recognized FIDE as the only sports chess federation representing the interests of world chess players.
Later, in 2006, a unifying match was held in Kalmyk Elista between FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov from Bulgaria and Vladimir Kramnik, who had won against Garry Kasparov. This match served as the symbol of unification of the entire chess world, emphasizes the ex-head of FIDE.
Thus, the chess world is united, a harmonious World Cup system is built, additional World Cups and Grand Prix are introduced. Ilyumzhinov is positive that we need to continue these initiatives. Moreover, the Dvorkovich development programme includes all of Kirsan Ilyumzhinov's programmes: chess in schools, chess in villages and chess for the disabled.
“I have a dream that I promoted for the last decades: a billion chess players. Now there are 600 million chess players in the world. And I hope that there will be one billion in the near future. Therefore, I will help Dvorkovich team to popularize chess,” Ilyumzhinov said.