The President of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and the head of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) Alexander Zhukov held the paired chess match on May 25. This kind of the game was presented in the building of ROC in the presence of the leading politicians, sports officials and businessmen. It is planned that it would promote the inclusion of chess in the programme of the Winter Olympic Games. This issue will be discussed in June.
The Russian grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi played in pair with Ilyumzhinov while Zhukov with the Grandmaster Alexander Morozevich. The winners were Zhukov and Morozevich. "Chess is the one of the most popular sports in Russia. We carried out a survey in the country and found out that 60% of Russians know how to play chess. Russia is the most chess playing country in the world. The popularity of this game can compete with football only. I hope the situation will change soon and chess will become the Olympic sport”, said Alexander Zhukov at the end of the match.
