10.04.2018

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov: ‘the game goes on’

Politics is often compared with a chess game. There is much in common but, unlike modern politics, they still adhere to the rules in the great table game. For example, it is impossible to imagine an opponent who, before the game, starts threatening to take away your pieces or forbid you to move them on the board, if you do not give up the queen.

Ironically, something similar is possible in the International Chess Federation (FIDE). There seems to be more politics than playing games by the rules. FIDE presidential council called on its head Kirsan Ilyumzhinov to resign. The reason is that FIDE is experiencing serious financial difficulties because Ilyumzhinov is on the US Treasury sanction list. And, as they say, this is a reputational damage.
FIDE president is not going to retire in any way. He checkmated those who spread rumours about freezing of the federation accounts. In February, several Western media reported that FIDE accounts in a Swiss bank would be frozen because the Russian was under sanctions.
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov sued the publications for libel and already won a lawsuit to defend his honour and dignity against a British tabloid The Week. He donated the moral compensation received from the newspaper to the autistic children.
‘We agreed to disclose the amount received. I sued for compensation of 300 thousand pounds but we agreed not to declare the final amount. I'm still suing Reuters and the New York Times. I think that soon I will also win these cases on defending my honour and dignity," Ilyumzhinov said.
Incidentally, according to Ilyumzhinov, there was no freezing of accounts and the sports organization fulfils all financial obligations in time and in full.
But FIDE won’t stop. Whether they try to secure themselves in all possible ways from hypothetical discontent of the US, or just want to change the president on the eve of the next elections and sanctions are just a convenient excuse. And this happens despite the fact that the International Chess Federation includes 188 countries and only one of them included Ilyumzhinov in the black list.
However, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov would not give up. He intends to run for the federation head again and promises to visit dozens of countries to not only enlist the support of national federations, but also to convey the idea of ​​the absurdity of US sanctions. The game goes on.