On February 10, FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov met with Russian Ambassador Levan Dzhagaryan and the President of Moldova Igor Dodon in Tehran. Afterwards, the two presidents visited built in the XVI century the Golestan Palace."Taking into account the active development of chess in Iran and the fact that more than a hundred of both men's and women's tournaments are held here every year, the right to host the Championship was given to your country," the head of FIDE said.
After the ceremony, Ilyumzhinov and Dodon held talks with Iranian Minister of Sports, which was attended by CEO of FIDE Geoffrey Borg and Merhdad Pahlevanzade.
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov offered to hold the next Women's Championship in Moldova. Masood Soltanifar welcomed the Moldovan guest and expressed his interest in establishing bilateral contacts. Igor Dodon said that he will with interest examine the Iranian experience to hold such a competition in his country in the near future.
Recall that the drawing of lots took place on Friday; the tournament will start today and will last for 23 days. The tournament will be attended by 64 chess players. They all were presented with souvenirs at the opening ceremony.
