15.02.2019

The work done by Ilyumzhinov lives on

As is known, the International Olympic Committee, IOC, through the efforts of Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, recognized chess as a sport in 1999; and it was presented at the Olympics in Sydney in 2000. Chess could be included in the programme of the Summer Games 2020 in Tokyo, but then the IOC rejected this opportunity. Earlier, FIDE, under the leadership of Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, tried to achieve the inclusion of chess in the programme of the Winter Olympics.

 

Now the International Chess Federation intends to continue the campaign for chess to be granted the Olympic citizenship. The new FIDE leadership wants to achieve the inclusion of rapid chess in the programme of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

The other day, FIDE announced undertaking related activities. If earlier FIDE promoted classical chess as a “main course”, now it intends to fight for the Olympic status of blitz and rapid chess competitions, that is, chess competitions with shorter time control.