FIDE Proposes Chess Center on Twin Tower site:
President of the World Chess Federation (FIDE) Kirsan Ilyumzhinov has offered to buy a controversial land plot near the WTC site, and to erect a world chess center there. In his letter to Michael Bloomberg, Ilyumzhinov writes:
The entire world is following the controversy that has arisen over the possible construction of a mosque near the site of the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001. This issue has divided society in the United States and across the world, and its repercussions are global.
I believe that religious conflicts are extremely dangerous in complex times such as ours. As president of the World Chess Federation (FIDE), and as a person who has always supported interreligious understanding, I propose the construction of an International Chess Center at the suggested site of the mosque.
Chess is a unique and wise game. It came to the West from the East, unites every country, and it has affinities with every religion equally. My dream as president of FIDE is that chess becomes the only “battlefield” between East and West. Perhaps this is not yet possible, but we will do all we can to ease tensions. At the International Chess Center, which will be erected in the immediate vicinity of the World Trade Center, there will be a free chess school for children, national and international tournaments, and other educational and charitable activities. The Center will also hold annual memorial tournaments to benefit families of victims of the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001
Kalmykia Leader Proposes Chess Center at Ground Zero
“The amount of $10 million was set because last week American billionaire Donald Trump made a similar offer for $7.5 million, and we’ve decided to outbid him,” Ilyumzhinov said, according to RIA-Novosti.
A fierce controversy is raging in the United States over plans to build an Islamic center at the site, located two blocks away from where the twin World Trade Center towers were destroyed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Ilyumzhinov, who is Buddhist and claims to have been abducted by aliens, said FIDE would build a World Chess Center and a World Chess Academy if it secured the Manhattan site.
Ilyumzhinov will leave his post as Kalmykia’s leader when his fourth term expires next month. In the meantime, he is fighting to hang on to his job at FIDE, a position he has held since 1995. He faces strong competition from former chess champion Anatoly Karpov in FIDE elections later this month.
Ilyumzhinov, a wealthy businessman and one of Russia’s most flamboyant politicians, said in an interview broadcast on state television earlier this year that he was briefly abducted from his Moscow apartment by extraterrestrials and given a tour of their spacecraft in 1997.
Bloomberg’s office had no immediate comment on Ilyumzhinov’s proposal. Ilyumzhinov said FIDE was waiting for a reply.
* Source: Moscow Times
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov: ‘Chess came to Earth from outer space’
He runs a region of Russia, wants to be king of world chess and he believes in aliens. Shaun Walker meets him
Wednesday, 22 September 2010
Forget Miliband vs Miliband. The most hotly contested leadership vote of the season will take place next week in the small Siberian city of Khanty-Mansiysk. Delegates from more than 100 countries will choose between two Russian candidates after a lengthy campaign filled with acrimony and allegations of corruption.
The prize at stake is the top position in world chess – president of the World Chess Federation (Fide) – and the contest is being fought between former chess grandmaster Anatoly Karpov, and the current president, the eccentric Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, a millionaire and the leader of Kalmykia, an oil-rich Buddhist region on the Caspian coast…………….
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/kirsan-ilyumzhinov-chess-came-to-earth-from-outer-space-2085838.html
* SOURCE:THE INDEPENDENT
Gambit – New York Times Blog
September 22, 2010, 2:10 pm
The World Chess Federation’s Odd Marketing Partner
By DYLAN LOEB MCCLAIN
In their campaigns for the presidency of the World Chess Federation, the candidates — Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the incumbent, and Anatoly Karpov, the former world champion — have different strategies for promoting the game if each is elected.
Mr. Karpov has laid out a marketing plan on his Web site. The plan includes organizing a world championship cycle and a global chess league similar to those in many countries, streaming chess “television” shows over the Internet with live analysis of the games from the championship cycle and the league, and selling advertising for those events.
http://gambit.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/22/the-world-chess-federations-odd-marketing-partner/
In Battle For Chess-World Dominance, Eccentric Ilyumzhinov Playing Unbeatable Game
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov is looking to run the World Chess Federation for another four years.
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov is looking to run the World Chess Federation for another four years.
September 26, 2010
By Daisy Sindelar
One is a Russian grandmaster who spent more than two decades at the pinnacle of the world chess elite. The other is a multimillionaire Buddhist politician who claims to have commingled with space aliens.
It hardly seems a close contest as members of the World Chess Federation (FIDE) meet next week in the Siberian city of Khanty-Mansiisk to elect their new leader………….
http://www.rferl.org/content/In_Battle_For_ChessWorld_Dominance_Eccentric_Ilyumzhinov_Playing_Unbeatable_Game/2168509.html
Karen Agamirov of RFE/RL’s Russian Service contributed to this report