US sanctions loom large as international chess has a constitutional crisis

Fake news! Ilyumzhinov quickly responded. And just like that, the organization, known by its French acronym FIDE, is now in a crisis over whether Ilyumzhinov has not in fact given up the post already.

Ilyusmzhinov, a former Russian politician and Vladimir Putin loyalist, has long been a controversial figure. Among other things, he is remembered for playing a game of chess with former Libyan dictator Muammar Gadhafi in Tripoli in the midst of the Libyan Civil war in June 2011. Months later, Gadhafi was overthrown and killed.

Two former world champions, Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov, have tried unsuccessfully to unseat Ilyumzhinov in the last two FIDE elections, only to butt up against what was described as Ilyumzhinov’s overt backing by the Kremlin. Russian government officials were said to have lobbied various national chess federations to support him.

(Russian authorities have a long tradition of meddling in chess, going back to the Soviet era. In 1948, some believe Soviet authorities forced Estonian grandmaster Paul Keres to throw his games against fellow Soviet player Mikhail Bottvinnik, in the match to determine who would become the new world champion after the death of Alexander Alekhine. In 1962, the 19-year-old Bobby Fischer, at the peak of his game and long before he lost his mind, memorably accused Soviet players of fixing their matches against one another in a concerted effort to make it impossible for any non-Soviet player to reach the world championship.)

Ilyumzhinov became even more controversial in late 2015, more than a year after he defeated Kasparov, when the U.S. Treasury Department put him under sanctions for “materially assisting and acting for or on behalf of the Government of Syria, Central Bank of Syria.” Ilyumzhinov, who has previously claimed he was abducted by aliens, was indignant about the sanctions at the time and maintained his innocence. But in order to avoid complications for international chess he also withdrew “from any legal, financial and business operations of FIDE until such time” as he was removed from the sanctions list. He’s still on that list today.

FIDE’s executive director, Nigel Freeman, replied with a letter today:

During the Presidential Board Meeting in Athens, you several times threatened to resign at and at the end of the meeting, three times you repeated: “I resign” before leaving the room.

At the request of board members, an Extraordinary Presidential Board meeting has been called on 10th April to discuss this issue.

Ilyumzhinov wrote the following in reply:

As the English is not my native language, I can assure you that the meaning of my words is the following — “I am ready to leave the position of FIDE President if this will be necessary for FIDE.”

But Ilyumzhinov then gave a press conference in Russian, in which he said he will not resign, full stop. British grandmaster Nigel Short has been offering an especially acidic commentary on the situation on Twitter, apparently believing that after 22 years at the helm, Ilyumzhinov has finally lost his grip:

Ouch.