Kasparov fails in his bid to take over federation’s job
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FORMER world champion Garry Kasparov failed in his bid to oust the eccentric longtime head of the World Chess Federation in a bitter contest steeped in Russian power plays.
Kasparov, a vocal critic of Vladimir Putin, was the sole challenger against Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, a wealthy businessman known to be supported by the Russian president. The vote was held on the sidelines of an international tournament in Norway on Monday.
Delegates at the 2014 Chess Olympiad in the northern city of Tromsoe voted 110-61 in favor of Ilyumzhinov, with four votes annulled.
Ilyumzhinov, who once claimed to have visited an alien spaceship, has headed the governing body of chess, known by its French acronym FIDE, for 19 years. He has led Russia’s predominantly Buddhist small region of Kalmykia and visited Moammar Gadhafi in 2011, as the Libyan dictator was fighting NATO-backed rebels who eventually killed him. The next year, the chess chief met President Bashar Assad in Syria as fighting escalated there, boosting speculation he was an unofficial representative for Russia, an Assad ally.
Kasparov, who at 22 in 1985 became the youngest chess world champion, has described Putin as an arrogant dictator and accused Ilyumzhinov of “working with Russian oligarchs in the Kremlin.”
Supporters of Ilyumzhinov have said that Kasparov is too political for the job and that his advocacy of human rights is insincere. The two camps have accused each other of financial skullduggery.
Kasparov’s supporters say Ilyumzhinov channeled federation resources to his election campaign.
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