Ilyumzhinov: Chess to be in Olympics

FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov was visiting the Asian Club Chess Championships and stated that he confident that chess will be included in the quadrennial Olympic Games in the future. He mentioned the progress being made in chess in various regions of the world.

My aim is to ensure that chess becomes a part of the Olympic movement and is one of the events in the Olympic Games soon. Today, FIDE is made up of 165 countries and we would jointly appeal to get recognition from the International Olympic Committee.

He was asked on which regions chess has grown the most and he had some pride.

Chess is now being played in all continents. However, Asia, Europe and America are organising more chess tournaments every day. It is nice to see chess even being played regularly in Mexico and Argentina. “In Asia there has been a boom of tournaments especially in Vietnam and I am delighted that the UAE is also contributing immensely to popularise the game. Shaikh Sultan Bin Khalifa Al Nahyan as president of Asian Chess Federation is a very active organiser of tournaments. I am also very impressed with the amount of young talent in this region.

At the last Olympiad in Dresden, President Ilyumzhinov made it clear that many of the rule changes were designed to impress the International Olympic Committee, but they were met with some opposition. It is uncertain how chess would actually fit in the Olympic Games and whether it would merely be a demonstration sport.

Source: Gulf News (https://www.gulfnews.com/sport/Chess/10272255.html)