Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Si duo dicunt idem non est idem

Dmitry Sergeyevich Peskov, Chairman of the Russian Chess Federation’s Board of Trustees as well as spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, told TASS on Monday that “We believe that everything possible must be done to avoid any possible disruption in the organization (of upcoming international tournaments) and most importantly to evade all barriers in the direction of further development and popularization of the sport of chess”.
On the other hand, FIDE’s Greek junta, through its Press Officer Anastasiya Valeryevna Karlovich, confirmed in an email to Bloomberg News the statement of Kirsan Nikolayevich Ilyumzhinov’s resignation, but declined to provide further details.
Ilyumzhinov’s Executive Assistant Berik Tuktybekovich Balgabaev, for his part, trumply called FIDE’s statement “fake news”. Yes, Ilyumzhinov attended the Athens Presidential Board meeting on 25 and 26 March, Balgabaev told Bloomberg News, “but he never gave any resignation, and he never intends to do so”.
And, finally, Kirsan Nikolayevich Ilyumzhinov, the President, who in a March 27 interview with Russian news agency TASS, said that “This intrigue has been whipped up by the U.S. Chess Federation and its allies, and this attempt is the latest among many. They tried to raise the issue of my resignation during the session in Athens, but it failed. In general, I sometimes receive threats demanding that I resign”. Yesterday Ilyumzhinov sent FIDE Executive Director Nigel Freeman a vehement letter of denial regarding his alleged resignation.
And today came FIDE’s reply, yet addressed to Kirsan Nikolayevich Ilyumzhinov as President:


Meanwhile in elsewhere, life goes on.

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