The Russian Chess Federation has rebelled against a Kremlin aide, supporting Anatoly Karpov's bid for the world's top chess job instead of the incumbent Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, 48, the extravagant leader of Kalmykia known for his wealth and stories of aliens.
Former chess champion Karpov, 58, will run for the president of FIDE, the international chess federation, in elections slated to take place in Russia in September, the federation said in a statement.
Last month, Arkady Dvorkovich, an economic aide to President Dmitry Medvedev and chairman of the Russian Chess Federation's advisory board, promised to support Ilyumzhinov's bid for FIDE.
But Karpov protested Dvorkovich's endorsement, and the Russian Chess Federation sided with him Friday by selecting him as its candidate.
Dvorkovich said the board’s decision to support Karpov lacked “legitimacy,” the Russian Chess Federation said in the statement.
Ilyumzhinov has not commented on his loss of support from the Russian Chess Federation for a new term as head of FIDE, a position he has held since 1995.
But the Kremlin's support for his FIDE bid “is very important for him in light of his appointment to a new term as Kalmykia's president,” said Alexei Mukhin, head of the Center for Political Information.
Ilyumzhinov's term as the leader of the Kalmykia republic, one of Russia's poorest regions with a mostly Buddhist population of 300,000, expires in October. Ilyumzhinov, who was one of Russia’s richest businessmen in the 1990s, has led Kalmykia since 1993, and he has been accused of suppressing dissent there.
But now he is facing a battle to cling to power in the region as well, said State Duma Deputy Oleg Shein of the Just Russia party.
“The opposition, which is connected to businesses operating outside Kalmykia, wants changes,” Shein told The Moscow Times on Monday.
Ilyumzhinov did himself no favors last month by describing on national television how he had been visited by aliens in 1997, analysts said. His remarks prompted Duma Deputy Andrei Lebedev to ask the Kremlin to investigate whether he had divulged state secrets to extraterrestrials.
Karpov accused Ilyumzhinov in April of bringing “a trail of corruption scandals” to FIDE that blocked big corporate sponsors from working with the federation.
Ilyumzhinov retorted that Karpov and Garry Kasparov, a former chess rival turned opposition politician who backs Karpov, had “seriously insulted” his work as FIDE president. He said earlier this month that he and unspecified friends had donated more than $50 million to FIDE over the years.
Ilyumzhinov's re-election bid has the support of four continental presidents from Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe, according to FIDE's official web site. In addition to Russia, Karpov is supported by France, Switzerland, Germany and Spain.
“Ilyumzhinov ... has done a good job, and it is not up to us to criticize him. But there is a need for change in FIDE,” said Horst Metzing, secretary-general of the German Chess Union.
***Irina Filatova contributed to this article.***
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