Kirsan Ilyumzhinov

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Kirsan Nikolayevich Ilyumzhinov (Russian: Кирса́н Никола́евич Илюмжи́нов) (born April 5, 1962) 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. 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.

Ilyumzhinov features prominently in two recent books, Curse of Kirsan: Adventures in the Chess Underworld by Sarah Hurst (ISBN 1-888690-15-1) and The Chess Artist, by J. C. Hallman (ISBN 0-312-27293-6).

On June 2, 2006, Ilyumzhinov was reelected as FIDE President by a margin of 96 to 54 against his opponent Bessel Kok. [1]. 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]

According to the BBC Ilyumzhinov's election platform for the presidency of Kalmykia included a promise of a mobile phone for every shepherd and the affirmation of his belief that he had previously been abducted by aliens.