The President of FIDE arrived in the capital of the Republic of Korea Seoul on 16th of July. He met with the Governor of Gangwon Province Mr. Choi Moon-Soon, the President of Organising Committee of the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang.As the result of the meeting, Mr. Choi Moon-Soon invited FIDE to participate in 2018 Olympic Winter Games for the first time in history. The chess would be represented there in a trial way. In his turn, Mr. Ilyumzhinov invited the Governor to FIDE Congress in September in Abu-Dhabi to continue the negotiations of the two-way cooperation.
During his visit to Korea Mr. Ilyumzhinov met his old friend ex-President of South Korea Mr. Lee Myung-bak. He also answered many questions of the journalists during the press conference of the President of FIDE that took place in the international press centre of Seoul. He told about his plan to visit the North Korea in the end of July with the intention to arrange the children chess tournament between the young chess players of Seoul and Pyongyang (the Capital of North Korea) in the region of 38 parallel of the border.
After all the official part, the head of FIDE had a tour round the Seoul. He has been photographed at the monument of the Great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. Mr. Ilyumzhinov, being the practicing Buddhist himself, saw the basic principles of Buddhism in the Pushkin verses engraved on the monument.
