30.11.2020

"Discounts are there, and I am here": Brilev, Prokhorova and Ilyumzhinov tell about what they managed to snatch

The week of Black Friday, Kommersant asked its readers and newsmakers what purchases they consider the most successful in life.

Entrepreneur, President of FIDE in 1995-2018 Kirsan Ilyumzhinov said:
“I snatched the crown from the head of the world chess champion Garry Kasparov. And this is not an allegory. At the end of 1990, Kasparov won the match for the title of world champion against Anatoly Karpov. He was awarded a diamond crown valued at almost a million dollars - the largest prize money in the history of world championships. The unique crown weighed about 8 kg. It was made of gold and inlaid with more than 1,000 diamonds. 

Garry Kimovich then promised that he would sell it and give the proceeds to the people who, like him and his mother, became refugees after leaving Baku in 1980s and early 1990s. He even had an agreement with one of the Kuwaiti sheikhs. But the Iraqi-Kuwait war broke out, and the sheikh went missing. At that time, I had already earned serious money, and the deal took place in one of the Swiss banks in the autumn of 1991."
In the photo, you can see purchase of the diamond crown from Garry Kasparov at UBS Bank in Zurich on June 19, 1991.