Having challenged the world's strongest powers and expelled the British and US military bases from Libya, he proved himself a skilful politician retaining his independence.
Gaddafi put an end to "desert wars", which tore the country for centuries, and managed to reconcile the hundreds of tribes that traditionally fought with each other and engage them in the building of a common world -- the Libyan Jamahiriya.
He spared no money for development programmes for education, health care, housing, transport and protection of women and maternity. Any Libyan had the right and opportunity to study in any university in the world of his choice. Gaddafi paid for his studies out of treasury.
Yesterday was the birthday of Muammar Gaddafi... He lived a full and restless life and left a bright mark on our planet. He was loved by people and hated by enemies. They write legends and songs about him...
Born in a Bedouin tent in the midst of a vast desert, he did not become one of the billions of grains of sand but created a state with gardens, water channels, universities and oil pipelines in a desert.
He brought the light of enlightenment to his people and laid the foundations of a new, progressive system of society based on social justice and recognition of human dignity.
He lived for more than 40 years with his beloved woman, who gave him many most worthy children, who never betrayed him preferring exile, captivity and death to betrayal of their father and his entire life’s work.
And he was very lucky because he did not have a chance to see how the country, the prosperity of which he devoted his life, was erased from the map of the world. Even after his martyr's death, the great Libyan patriot was destined to become a symbol of the struggle against total evil and injustice.
"You cannot kill me because I live in the hearts of millions of people," Gadhafi wrote shortly before his tragic death. You cannot argue with this.
I was in Libya during the bombing when the Americans "carried democracy" to the Libyans on the wings of the bombers. I played chess with Colonel Gaddafi. I communicated with his sons. And I am sure that the murder of Gaddafi and bloody disintegration of Libya is the biggest shame of the United States.
I will never forget this outstanding man, the hero of the Libyan people.

President of the International Chess Federation (FIDE)
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov