Former FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov shared his thoughts on the influence of politics in chess. Ilyumzhinov calls political bans in chess a destructive element. Kirsan states that chess should be beyond politics. Ilyumzhinov spoke about it in an interview with journalist Ksenia Sobchak.

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov

Former FIDE President

“I worked until 2018 and then left. And my position was the same, and I never changed it. I have always been a patriot of Russia and a patriot of chess.

For example, I supported the Iraqi Chess Federation, but at that time, Western countries were making statements to exclude the Iraqi Federation. There were statements to exclude Syria, there was a statement to exclude Israel. Many such situations tried to introduce a destructive element into our chess activity.

And I explained, I brought the issue to the FIDE General Assembly, openly. We have a complete democracy there, and we discussed it. And we always made decisions collectively. Western countries also participated, and they supported our position.

In chess, I want to put politics aside. I managed to put it aside during the events with Saddam Hussein, Gaddafi, Bush, and so on…

The system is democratic. It wasn’t without reason that I fought for the unification of world chess. I’ve been fighting since 1995 to unite the chess world, not for it to fall apart now…

And when I joined FIDE, why did they vote for me unanimously? Well, except for Russia. Russia abstained in 1995. The United States of America supported me, and so did Canada. I held on not because of the African or Asian countries, but because we launched a powerful chess movement in the United States. I explained — chess is beyond politics!”

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov is a Russian entrepreneur and politician. He served as the President of FIDE from 1995 to 2018. Ilyumzhinov was stripped of his executive powers in 2017 and formally stepped down in 2018. The reason for the end of his term was that the U.S. government placed him on a financial blacklist for political reasons.

Credit: Zurab Javakhadze / IZVESTIA