Kirsan Ilyumzhinov was the democratically elected President of the Republic of Kalmykia in the Russian Federation from 1993 to 2010, and was president of FIDE, the international governing body for the game of chess, from 1995 to 2018.
14 Facts About Kirsan Ilyumzhinov
2.
From 1979 to 1980 Ilyumzhinov worked as a mechanic-fitter at the Zvezda plant in Elista.
3.
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov has drawn worldwide attention for claiming that in September 1997 he was taken from his flat by aliens and travelled in their spaceship, visiting another planet.
4.
On 12 April 1993, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov was elected as the first president of the Republic of Kalmykia, and remained president until 2010.
5.
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov called early elections on 15 October 1995 and was re-elected unopposed, this time for a 7-year term.
6.
On 24 October 2010 Kirsan Ilyumzhinov retired as Head of Kalmykia, being replaced by Alexey Orlov.
7.
On 12 June 2011, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov appeared in public in Tripoli alongside the then-embattled, since overthrown and executed, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, after having played a game of chess with him.
8.
In November 1995, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov became President of the International Chess Federation, investing a large amount of his private fortune into the game.
9.
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov managed to persuade the 140 member countries of FIDE to take part in the main team event of the year, the Chess Olympiad, scheduled to start in late September 1998, in Elista.
10.
On his 20th anniversary as FIDE president in November 2015, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov listed his major achievements as: recognition of chess as a sport, unification of the world chess championship, stable financial situation of FIDE, complete FIDE calendar, the number of people playing chess increased more than ten times, the FIDE family has substantially increased, and development of women's chess.
11.
On 27 March 2017, FIDE stated through its website that Kirsan Ilyumzhinov had announced his resignation, and that the extraordinary meeting will be held next month to review and accept the resignation.
12.
On 13 July 2018, the FIDE ethics commission sanctioned Kirsan Ilyumzhinov for violating the FIDE code of ethics.
13.
The Greek Georgios Makropoulos, who had been General Secretary since 1990 and number two in the organization under Kirsan Ilyumzhinov's presidency, was the first to announce his ticket.
14.
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov was followed by the Englishman Nigel Short, a world title contender in the World Chess Championship 1993 against Garry Kasparov.