Ilyumzhinov: The Chessboard Diplomat

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, left, plays chess with Muammar Gaddafi

Since his dismissal as President of Kalmykia in 2010, eccentric billionaire Kirsan Ilyumzhinov has wandered the world like his literary doppelganger Ostap Bender, and like Bender, hero of the Soviet satirical novel The Twelve Chairs, his story is inextricably linked to that of Chess.

Illyumzhinov’s rule of Kalmykia, a primarily Buddhist Republic on the shores of the Caspian Sea, was characterised by a string of bizarre escapades including an alien abduction in 1997 and the campaign slogan ‘a wealthy President is a safeguard against corruption’. Under Ilyumzhinov, Kalmykia saw two visits from the Dalai Lama and the construction of one of Europe’s largest Buddhist temples. Kirsan’s antics have attracted a small but steady interest in Kalmykia, and as a visitor to Elista one is almost ashamed to admit it.

Though many Kalmyks applaud his renaissance of Buddhism in the region after its wholesale destruction by the Soviets, his elite Chess City, dedicated to his personal obsession, left many disgruntled. Journalist Larisa Yudina who criticised this and other government actions was found murdered in 1998. Illyumzhinov’s Legal Advisor S. Vaskin was convicted of the hit. The city was originally constructed for the 1996 FIDE Chess Olympiad after the outcry over its planned venue in Baghdad. The posters advertising it, along with a vast billboard showing a smiling Dalai Lama, still remained in late 2011; desperate reminders to the Republic, perhaps, that the ludicrous expense was worth it.

The $50m Chess City was said to be built entirely with private funding: “friends and investors” said Ilyumzhinov, yet as local journalist Valery Ulyadurov observed in 2006, ‘it’s never been quite clear where the republic’s money ends and the president’s begins’. In a strange way, referring to Kalmykia’s people as pawns in an extravagant game has become such a glaringly obvious cliché in writing on Ilyumzhinov that it seems almost unnecessary to use it.

Chess City stands empty on the outskirts of Elista as the concrete gradually surrenders to the steppe. Since his dismissal as Kalmykia’s leader by Medvedev, Ilyumzhinov has dedicated more of its time to his controversial leadership of world chess federation, FIDE. Chess City’s visitor centre is a modern shrine to this ancient game, one of its walls a mural to great Chess personalities of the modern age. Steinitz, Lasker, and Capablanca sit in rapt concentration, as do all the masters. A full length portrait of Kirsan Ilyumzhinov eyes the visitor with a cryptic smile.
On the very top floor I located Ilyumzhinov’s office.

I knocked; he wasn’t in. He rarely is.

Ilyumzhinov’s jet-setting on behalf of FIDE has sent him far and wide, most recently to Damascus in April, where he played Chess with Bashar al Assad amist the throes of civil war. In June 2011, he played with Muammar Gaddafi (and drew), where Gaddafi confided in his friend Kirsan that he honestly did not know what position the masses wanted him to step down from.

He also kept a close relationship to Saddam Hussein- Kalmykia, joked ChessBase had a history with Weapons of Match Destruction. The astute will realise something in common between two of these three men, and it has already supposed that Ilyumzhinov is a true harbinger of doom, a resonant Checkmate to his beleaguered hosts.

The Kremlin’s official peace envoy to Libya, Mikhail Margelov, told a Russian news agency that he asked Illyumzhinov to ‘to play white and move E-2 to E-4 and make it clear to Gaddafi that his side is close to the endgame’. However in an interview in May this year, ignoring Margelov’s statement, Ilyumzhinov took pains to point out that he was acting independently on all of his more controversial visits, without political affiliation or interest. There was just no need, he stressed, to politicise the issue. Yet even FIDE’s official press release on his recent visit to Syria pointed out that Assad pledged ‘a number of times’ in person to Ilyumzhinov his commitment to Annan’s peace plan. The exact details of Assad-Ilyumzhinov (2012) have yet to be revealed- although Russia’s closeness to Assad’s regime would possibly rule out E-2 to E-4.

Peter Doggers of ChessVibe remarked on the growing list of leaders who, despite having to deal with domestic insecurities, also have time to promote Illyumzhinov’s Chess in Schools campaign. Similarly, Ilyumzhinov’s visit to Gaddafi was followed by an odd eulogy- or more aptly, a hagiography, for his martyred Libyan friend, which drew heavily on Russian opposition to the NATO mission in the country. June saw the former Kalmyk leader visit President Sleiman of Lebanon, who it appears is a great fan of the game. In July, Kirsan visited President Zardari of Pakistan to discuss links with FIDE (also, according to FIDE’s official press release on the visit, meeting Dr. Assim Hussein, Pakistan’s Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources- doubtless to discuss Chess in Schools). The Independent reported that Ilyumzhinov once wrote to New York mayor Bloomberg requesting permission to build a chess centre on Ground Zero. In his own words, Ilyumzhinov visited some 108 countries in 2011, and asserts that he has never once been on holiday.

The World Chess Federation, it would seem, is a harsh mistress.

One would not dream of politicising the issue, but it seems fortuitous to say the least that the Presidents of Pakistan, Syria, Libya, and Lebanon found time in their doubtless busy schedules for FIDE. Andrew Kramer of the New York Times suspected that Ilyumzhinov’s repeated visits to Muslim nations in turmoil could have been unofficial attempts at diplomacy by the Kremlin; his many eccentricities making him a useful envoy who Kremlin officials could distance themselves from in case of failure. The Russian Foreign Ministry, says Kramer, declined to comment.

Ilyumzhinov’s leadership of FIDE has exasperated many in the Chess world, with Gary Kasparov apparently even going so far as to say that he was a real harm to the game’s reputation. Many Kalmyks see Chess as something more than simply a Presidential whim, and are eager to support the place of Chess in their Republic, where- as in Armenia and a growing number of Indian regions- the game is compulsory for schoolchildren. In an interview reflecting on his life after the Presidency of Kalmykia, Ilyumzhinov thanked chess for allowing him to ‘keep a few steps ahead in life’. Accordingly, in 2011 when UFOs were sighted over Elista, Ilyumzhinov cryptically stated that these spacecraft ‘did not fly for [him]’. If they flew for current Kalmyk President and Ilyumzhinov’s protégé Alexey Orlov, then they are deeply mistaken. The more restrained Orlov showed no interest in his extraterrestrial guests, who are now presumably once more in search of Ilyumzhinov, wherever he may be. Ilyumzhinov is an enigmatic figure, and those who follow his antics are aware that they should expect nothing but the unexpected. Fittingly, he admitted in an interview on his personal website in April that, despite his belief that the end of the world could be nigh (quoting both the Mayan Calendar and an asteroid he names Planet Nibiru which is, apparently, fast approaching), FIDE is still planning events as far in advance as 2017.

Saddam, Gaddafi, and Assad. Kalmykia’s Chess King, it would seem, will outlive us all. Ingmar Bergman’s iconic figure of death could not have done better.

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  This is an interesting piece but it would have benefitted from a little more research. Contrary to what is stated in the first sentence, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov was not dismissed as President of Kalmykia. It was during his fourth term as president, Russian law changed and it was no longer possible to hold the leadership of a sporting body (chess in Russia is defined as a sport) and a political position. Thus Kirsan Ilyumzhinov had to choose whether to remain President of Kalmykia or President of FIDE, and he chose the latter. In his second paragraph, Maxim Edwards mentions that the Buddhist temple in Elista is ‘one of Europe’s largest Buddhist temples’. It is actually the largest in Europe. And in his third paragraph, Mr Edwards mentions that Chess City was built or the 1996 FIDE Chess Olympiad ‘after the outcry over its planned venue in Baghdad’. Mr Edwards has obviously confused a few chess events. The 1996 Olympiad was held at Yerevan (Armenia). There were never any plans to hold it in Baghdad and the venue was decided before Kirsan Ilyumzhinov became President of FIDE. Chess City was actually built for the 1998 Olympiad. The event which was planned to be held in Baghdad was the FIDE World Championship. The Olympiad involves over a thousand chess players. The World Championship involves two. The difference between the two events is obvious. And Maxim Edwards also states that Kirsan Ilyumzhinov offered to build a chess centre at Ground Zero. Wrong again. If Mr Edwards carefully reads the article in The Independent (22 September 2010), the idea was for a chess centre to be located at the planned Islamic community center known as Park51. It is two blocks away from Ground Zero, not at Ground Zero.

• http://journalisted.com/maxim-edwards Maxim Edwards

  Thanks for bringing these up; I won’t confess to being an expert on Chess, but the circumstances surrounding Ilyumzhinov’s dismissal are acually part of a wider political issue. From 2008 to 2010, a large number of stronger regional leaders (Rossel (Sverdlovsk), Shaimiev (Tatarstan), Rakhimov (Bashkortostan), Fyodorov (Chuvashia), to name but a few) resigned or were pressured to resign during a series of political moves curtailing autonomy in many of Russia’s autonomous Republics. Ilyumzhinov was many things but he was certainly not a pliant and bidding subordinate as regional leaders were increasingly supposed to be. We can argue about what to call it- a dismissal or a voluntary resignation-and I’m sure you’ve got the facts right but I think it’s reasonable to assume that, given similar developments in other Republics at the time, giving Ilyumzhinov the choice between FIDE and Kalmykia was politically motivated.

  The Golden Temple, Burhan Bakhshn Altan Syume, in Elista is certainly impressive and I would certainly recommend a visit to anybody, but only at the time of its construction (and of my visit) was it the largest in Europe. A larger complex was inaugurated on the 22nd of June outside Paris for the Fo Guang Shan monastic order. Elista’s temple is certainly now one of the biggest, but no longer the biggest.

  Thanks again for your comment