On February 6, FIDE President arrived in Tel Aviv. Ilyumzhinov was invited to take part in the celebration of Israel’s 70th anniversary. Incidentally, as part of the festive events dedicated to that significant date, world champions Garry Kasparov and Vichy Anand will give a simultaneous game session on May 1."I invited the Israeli and Palestinian chess federations to hold a match of peace on the border between Israel and Palestine. The idea is to put a thousand chess tables at the wall and one thousand Israeli and Palestinian children will play," Kirsan Ilyumzhinov said.
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov said that the main sponsor of this match is well-known Israeli businessman Michael Strauss. Ilyumzhinov visited the businessman and presented him a book. "Today, I will hold talks in Israel and with representatives of the Palestinian leadership," he said.
It should be noted that this is not the only project of Ilyumzhinov, which assumes the use of chess as a tool for peacekeeping and to build confidence in the zones of old conflicts.
Ilyumzhinov recalled a "peace match" between Moldova and Transnistria that took place last year. "Another match will be held at the 38th parallel where one hundred children from Pyongyang and Seoul will play," he promised. "The most important thing in this match is the idea of unification. Chess instead of Kalashnikovs," added FIDE President, noting that he formulated this slogan three weeks ago during his trip to Afghanistan.
In the course of the visit, a business lunch with leaders of the Israel Chess Federation was held as well as a working meeting with President of the Israel Chess Federation Zvika Barkai and Federation Executive Director Gil Boruhovsky.
