"I talked with Washington yesterday. I provided information on all my travels abroad in the last 15 years - I visit about 90 countries annually - and they have taken my fingerprints at the embassy. Hopefully, I will have the permission to enter the United States next week, " he added.
We also learned that the FIDE does not consider the possibility of transferring the Women's World Championship, which will be held in Tehran in February 2017, to another country. Earlier, the US chess player Nazi Paikidze-Barnes wanted to withdraw from the upcoming championship because of the need to wear a hijab - adopted by the Islamic Republic the women’s clothing that covers everything except the face and hands - in Iran. Paikidze regarded this condition as a violation of women's rights and requested the FIDE to move the championship to another country.
"The FIDE has 187 members and each of them has the right to hold the chess competitions. All these countries have their own laws and customs, according to which the tournaments are held. The FIDE adheres to the belief that these laws should be respected," stressed the head of the Federation. He expressed his confidence that all 64 chess players will come to Tehran to participate in the World Championship.
"Tournament will be held with a 100 percent guarantee. Moreover, as I have found, its preparation is being carried out at the highest level. I hope that this will be one of the best championships in the history," said the head of FIDE.
In addition, a new teaching kit called ‘Chess in Schools’ was presented at the press conference. It included textbooks for from one to four years of training in paper and electronic form as well as the manuals for teachers and related programmes. The teachers, who do not have special training, could use this kit after they pass short term training courses. The length of the course is 135 academic hours.
"The introduction of the programme 'Chess in Schools' stimulates the discipline and improves academic performance. This programme aims for the future and at improvement of the intellectual development of our children. It involves the introduction of chess as a compulsory subject in secondary schools. After the introduction of chess in Kalmykia schools, the academic performance has increased by 40 per cent," said Ilyumzhinov.
"We hope that 100 of Moscow schools’ children will be studying chess soon. This is one more step to achieving the goal of one billion chess players in the world by 2020," summarized the President of FIDE.