As a result, the Minister invited Ilyumzhinov to visit Cambodia to sign a memorandum on the main areas of cooperation. These include the creation of a centre of intellectual games. To do this, the NOC of Cambodia is ready to provide land in the sports cluster. In addition, Mr. Thong Khon supported the intention of the President of FIDE to include chess into the Olympic family.
On the same day, the head of FIDE discussed the possibility of organizing and holding the Rapid and Blitz World Championships 2017 in Munich with the heads of Nietro Sports - Nienaber Ralph and Alma Assets - Felix Neuberg. The parties noted the great interest in the analogous tournament in Berlin in October 2015 and agreed to continue working together.
On May 21, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov had lunch in a restaurant with the famous Russian painter Mihail Shemiakin, with whom he maintains long-standing friendly relations. "We met, dined, talked about life, art, and chess, and recalled Kalmykia today ...", the president of FIDE wrote in his Twitter.
Finally, on the 23rd of May, Ilyumzhinov took part in the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the Chess School named after Mikhail Botvinnik, which took place in the Tretyakov State Gallery. In particular, he warmly talked with the daughter of the legendary grandmaster - Olga Fioshkina.
In his welcoming speech, Ilyumzhinov noted that Botvinnik School brought up more than 50 international grandmasters. Yuri Auerbach, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Artur Yusupov, Mark Butler, Alexander Nikitin and Evgeni Vasiukov - the names of these outstanding School graduates will go down in the world history of chess.