Emergency Call

FIDE President Kirsan Nikolayevich Ilyumzhinov told Murad Akhundov of 1News.az that he is seriously thinking to move FIDE’s headquarters from Athens to Lausanne, Switzerland or, as an alternative, to Baku, Azerbaijan. Lausanne, of course, would guarantee to the organization both the nontaxability and the global visibility. On the other hand, he highly praised Şəmkir as the “Azerbaijani Linares” of chess. Ilyumzhinov then reiterated that he intends to run again for FIDE President in 2018 elections, so that his dream of “1 billion of chess players” can come true. He then unveiled some other details about the “coup” of March 26, 2017, which, apparently, took him absolutely by surprise. “They announced my resignation, without I knew anything about it. And, when I asked them some explanations, they did not respond anything”. As a result, Ilyumzhinov felt betrayed by FIDE Deputy President Georgios Makropoulos: “When I read the news about my resignation on FIDE’s web site, I immediately called Makropoulos, but he didn’t pick up the call. I sent a telegram, which was also refused. I could not get through my office work! As Lenin teached, in order for the revolution to succeed, the coup perpetrators must take over the telegraph, the post office and the telephone network”. Ilyumzhinov, however, don’t want to be remembered as a conspiracy theorist and, regardless of frontiers, he will continue to spread Caïssa’s Word, even if “Someone else apparently thought he is a great leader and feels himself in the right to turn off my phone”. Finally, the reporter asked him if he has ever heard again the voice of Makropoulos. “I haven’t yet turned on the phone”, Ilyumzhinov smilingly answered.

FIDE President Kirsan Nikolayevich Ilyumzhinov visiting the Vugar Gashimov Chess Academy in Baku, Azerbaijan. Photo © Sanan Shafizade.