FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov said that he deliberately proposed a match of the World Chess Championship in Empire State Building in New York at the opening ceremony of a chess school named after Vladimir Kramnik in Sochi:- Wait a minute, you are under US sanctions. They banned you to enter the USA.
“Yes”, acknowledged Ilyumzhinov. “They banned me to enter US in for my relationship with Bashar al-Assad because I was in Syria and presented the Syrians with a thousand chessboards for the development of chess. Surprisingly I was accused of financing the regime.
I filed a lawsuit to protect my honour and dignity estimating damage at 50 billion dollars. They claimed 50 billion dollars for Yukos so in return I arranged the same payback to them. Moreover, I did not seek to hide from investigation. I have answered 200 questions already ...”
- What kind of questions?
“They dig far down. They look through all my travels from country to country, tickets and financial transactions. Two FBI agents arrived in Russia to work with a bank because of myself. I explained each case and did not hide anything. Yes, I travelled all over the world and will do as FIDE President.
I wrote them that I was ready to undergo the polygraph test and confirm that I did not fund any regime including Assad’s. According to their regulations, if they would not be able to prove anything within three months that is until 29th of May, then they will have to present evidence upon which I was banned to enter the United States. Thus, we shall see ...”
- In other words, you still intend to come to New York in November?
“Probably, I will go to the court soon”, did not rule Ilyumzhinov.
