On June 16, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov arrived in Tashkent where he spoke at the opening ceremony of the Central Asia Championship.Ilyumzhinov made a symbolic first move in a friendly game with the silver medalist of the World Cup among schoolchildren -- 7 year old Odina Olimova. Further, he inspected the tournament hall and took part in a press conference that was arranged as a meeting with the chess community.
Then the head of FIDE (incidentally, he had visited Islam Karimov Chess Academy before the tournament) met with the chairman of the State Committee for Physical Culture and Sports of Uzbekistan Rustam Kurbanov and discussed the issues of bilateral cooperation.
Recall that chess players from Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan -- 35 men and 14 women -- will compete in Tashkent. The winners will receive two vouchers for the World Cup in Batumi (September-2017) and one voucher for the 2018 Khanty-Mansiysk Women's World Championship.
