Kirsan Ilyumzhinov: Difference between revisions

Kirsan Nikolayevich Ilyumzhinov (Russian: Кирса́н Никола́евич Илюмжи́нов) (born April 5, 1962), a Buddhist millionaire businessman, is the President of the Republic of Kalmykia of the Russian Federation, and the President of FIDE (a.k.a. the World Chess Federation), the preeminent international chess organization, since 1995.

From 1979-80 Ilyumzhinov was a mechanic-fitter at the Zvezda plant in Elista. After two years in military service for the Soviet Army, he returned to the plant as a mechanic for a year, and then studied at the Moscow State Institute of Foreign Relations from 1983-89. From 1989-90 he was selling cars as Manager of the Soviet-Japanese company "Liko-Raduga" in Moscow, and from 1990-93 he was President of SAN Corporation in Moscow. Ilyumzhinov acquired his wealth in the economic free-for-all which followed the collapse of the USSR.

From April 1993 to the present Ilyumzhinov has been President, Head since October 2005, of the Republic of Kalmykia.

According to the BBC,[1] Ilyumzhinov's election platform for the presidency of Kalmykia included promising voters $100 each, a promise of a mobile phone for every shepherd, and the affirmation of his belief that he had previously been abducted by aliens. He once campaigned under the slogan "a wealthy president is a safeguard against corruption." He also pledged to introduce what he called an "economic dictatorship" in the republic.

Soon after his election, Ilyumzhinov introduced presidential rule, concentrating power in his own hands. He called early elections in 1995 and was re-elected unopposed - this time for a 7-year term. He won re-election in 2002.

He has striven to become an "Asian values" authoritarian like his Singaporean, Korean, and Chinese role models (even though his republic is in the southern European portion of Russia). He has spent millions of dollars on chess and religion, building a Catholic church at the instigation of the Pope John Paul II. He has also built a mosque, a synagogue, 22 Orthodox churches, and 30 Buddhist temples. Chess was made a compulsory subject in schools; the region now has numerous champions.

He denies persistent accusations of diverting the republic's resources for his own use, as well as of human rights abuses and of suppressing media freedom. In 2004 police dispersed demonstrators who accused him of human rights violations and demanded his resignation.

On 8 June, 1998, Larisa Yudina, a publisher of an opposition newspaper, was stabbed to death in Elista. Both people convicted in the murder were Kalmykian government aides, and one was an advisor to Ilyumzhinov. One other person was acquitted by offering evidence to help in the conviction. Ilyumzhinov denied any involvement with the murder.[2] [3]

From November 1995 to present Ilyumzhinov has been President of the World Chess Federation. He has been enthusiastic about attracting international tournaments to Kalmykia. His flamboyant plans to build an extravagant Chess City in the republic have led to protests by its impoverished citizens.

Ilyumzhinov scheduled the 1996 bout between Gata Kamsky and Anatoly Karpov for Baghdad, after negotiations with Saddam Hussein. The international response was so harsh, however, that FIDE moved the match to Elista. Ilyumzhinov away then arranged to hold the 2004 World Championship in Tripoli, Libya, at the urging of another friend, Muammar Qaddafi.

Grandmaster Boris Gulko was denied the ability to play chess at the world championship because of his Jewish faith, and he appealed to Ilyumzhinov. The 2004 World Championship was held in Libya, and Gulko qualified to play. He accepted the invitation but President Qadafi’s son, who was also the President of the Libyan Organizing Committee, announced: “We did not and will not invite the Zionist enemies to this championship.” Gulko, along with other Jewish players from Israel and the United States, therefore could not participate in the tournament. Gulko sent a strong letter[4] to Ilyumzhinov, saying “I implore you not to be the first president of FIDE to preside over the first world chess championship from which Jews are excluded. Our magnificent and noble game does not deserve such a disgrace.” The tournament went on as scheduled, without Gulko and the other Jewish players.[5]

On June 2, 2006, Ilyumzhinov was reelected as FIDE President by a margin of 96-54 against his opponent Bessel Kok. [6]. In an October 2006 Wall Street Journal article Gary Kasparov harshly criticized Ilyumzhinov FIDE's leadership stating: "(Ilyumzhinov) has created a vertical column of power that would be familiar to any observer of Russia today. He runs the chess world in the same authoritarian way he runs his impoverished republic. After a decade of such mistreatment, the only place that could be found to host the (chess world champion unification) match was his own capital. Serious sponsors rarely want anything to do with Mr. Ilyumzhinov and his organization."^[1] Nigel Short, the British grandmaster who also opposed him, warned before the vote that "either FIDE stays a cowboy organisation mired in sleaze and shunned by corporate sponsors, or it becomes a modern, professional sporting body." [7] “Even a dickhead would do a better job than Ilyumzhinov,’’ Anatoly Karpov, the former world champion, said, when he was asked whom he supported.[8]

Ilyumzhinov maintains that in 1997 while he was on a business trip to Moscow he was forced onto a UFO. "They took me from my apartment and we went aboard their ship. We flew to some kind of star. They put a spacesuit on me, told me many things and showed me around. They wanted to demonstrate that UFOs do exist."[9]

Ilyumzhinov called his autobiography, published in 1998, “The President’s Crown of Thorns.’’ Chapter titles include “Without Me the People Are Incomplete,” “I Become a Millionaire,’’ and “It Only Takes Two Weeks to Have a Man Killed.”

Ilyumzhinov features prominently in three recent books, Curse of Kirsan: Adventures in the Chess Underworld, by Sarah Hurst (ISBN 1-888690-15-1), The Chess Artist, by J. C. Hallman (ISBN 0-312-27293-6), and Absurdistan: a bumpy ride through some of the world’s scariest, weirdest places, by Eric Campbell (ISBN 0732279801).

• Biography in "New Times"
• Chess Base biography
• Chessfidelity bio
• Template:Ru icon Kirsan Nikolayevich Ilyumzhinov in comics, 1995
• The President's Crown of Thorns, by Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, 1998
• "Planet Kirsan," by Michael Specter in New Yorker, 4/24/06
• "King of Kalmykia," 9/21/06
• "The man who bought chess," 10/29/06
• "Regions and territories: Kalmykia; Head of the Republic: Kirsan Ilyumzhinov," 1/28/07
• "An Open Letter to the President of FIDE, Mr. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, from Grandmaster Boris Gulko"