15.05.2020

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov: This virus is not accidental. It urges us to think it over…

(The ending)

We wanted to hold an intercontinental tournament and applied to Bill Gates. And then we were told that there were still no programmes that millions of players can use simultaneously use. And my idea was to play country vs country and continent vs continent.
In a nutshell. Now everyone is sitting at home because of the pandemic. But everyone has chess. Everyone has phones, gadgets, and the Internet. I then proposed, and we even patented, the idea of ​​"collective chess." To determine which continent is smarter (joke): Europe or America? Or country: Russia or the USA?
For example, we announce: tomorrow, at 12 am, Russia is playing against the United States of America. Any citizen of Russia or the USA can take part in it, no matter if he/she plays well or badly. One hundred seconds is given to think over a move.

 

For example, Russia makes the first move with white pieces. Or the United States, it doesn’t matter. Suppose ten million clicked on e2-e4, twenty million clicked on d2-d4, and suppose fifty million clicked on h2-h4. And the computer has to choose not the strongest move but the most common. Within an hour, we will determine "which country is smarter."

-One more question from the chat: “How can I use computer help?
- You can’t. Well, assume someone plays using a computer hint. He made the smartest move. But his neighbour, wife, brother or sister made a stupid move. And there were more such moves. But the computer will have to choose this stupid move. They play chess best in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia. In Armenia, you know, the previous president of the country, Serzh Sargsyan, introduced chess in schools and kindergartens.  If Armenia plays against a country without  “Chess in Schools” programme, then it will have more correct moves. Thus, it will have more chances to win.
Chess is a game. The main idea of it is to think first and then make a move. This is important both for politicians and for everyone - first think things over, and then make a move. And the more people play chess, the less problems there will be.
Do you remember my idea of ​​"smart billion"? There is a "golden billion", and there is a "smart billion." "One billion chess players - one billion smart people." I visit many countries, meet with many people: presidents, kings, sheikhs, businessmen and workers. But we are all the same. Then why do wars take place all around? There were 117 armed conflicts and wars on Earth last year.
117 wars where people kill each other! What are we fighting for? Oil, gas, gold? By the way, now oil is sold almost for nothing. Dollars?  They could be easily printed. What are we missing? Sane people. And where to get them? It is necessary to educate them. Therefore, we began to develop FIDE programme (it was my personal initiative) “Chess in schools”.
And the more people we teach to play chess, the better we will live. Now about six hundred million people play chess or know the rules of the game. And if one billion will play chess, then the number of sane people will increase. This means that the number of politicians, deputies, ministers and presidents who think sensibly will also increase. Accordingly, the number of wrong decisions will decrease. Sane people who think two, three or five moves ahead will come into power. And before adopting a law, they will think about how this law will work in a month, year or ten years.
The idea of ​​universal chess literacy did not come about because I was FIDE president and I love chess. It just seems to me that chess is one of the cures or even a panacea for all these viruses. Let chess bit the coronavirus!
Thank you very much, Kirsan Nikolaevich!
- Thank you and I wish all the best to you. Take care!