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Athens, 6 December 2015
Following the announcement by the US Department of the Treasury that the US levied sanctions against Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, Russian citizen and FIDE President, Mr. Ilyumzhinov has informed the Presidential Board that he will withdraw from any legal, financial and business operations of FIDE until such time as Mr. Ilyumzhinov is removed from the Office of Foreign Assets Control sanction list.
Mr. Ilyumzhinov advised that he has initiated legal procedures in the US aiming to request additional information and reverse restrictive measures put by the US Department of the Treasury. During the next Presidential Board meeting, Mr. Ilyumzhinov will update the Board as to the progress of the legal procedures.
Mr. Ilyumzhinov’s decision to withdraw from any legal, financial and business operations of FIDE is to enable him to concentrate on clearing the situation with the US Department of the Treasury.
Until further notice, under section A.9.5 of the FIDE Statutes, if the President: “duly authorises, then he can be represented by the Deputy President who shall exercise the powers of the President. The Deputy President can thus represent FIDE officially and can solely sign for FIDE.” Therefore Mr. Makropoulos will now be exercising these powers and representing FIDE officially.
Nigel Freeman
FIDE Executive Director
Source: FIDE
Since at the time of the announcement, Ilyumzhinov had stated this preceded a trip to New York where negotiations were underway for the 2016 World Championship match, this might seem to be intended to remove this obvious obstacle from the equation. However, the ramifications of the US Treasury's announcement go deeper than that mere contract. US players playing in FIDE events would now be forced to question whether they could and even if so, whether there might not be consequences. Even if the World Championship match were staged in another country, what would happen if the qualifying challenger were American, such as Nakamura or Caruana? Could they play in it?
With this statement, these issues are put out of the way while the FIDE president resolves his situation.
Ilyumzhinov: Only chess connects me to Syria!
12/1/2015 – He was intending to go to the US last weekend, but after sanctions were imposed FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov instead took part in a TV interview in Moscow. "I don't sell any ISIL oil to Syria," he states. "We supplied them with a thousand chess sets and three thousand chess books for children." He also opened chess clubs in Aleppo and Damascus, but they were bombed by "the terrorists". Chess-News reports.
US Sanctions against FIDE President
11/26/2015 – It comes at a bad time: on the eve of a visit to the USA, to negotiate the venue of the 2016 World Chess Championship (Los Angeles, San Francisco or New York), FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov has been hit by sanctions of the US Treasury. This is mainly because of dealings with Syria and it President Assad. Currently, US citizens are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with him.
Chess-News: Ilyumzhinov handed over power Makropoulos
Deputy President Georgios Makropoulos, resigned President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov – Photo: Chess-News
Tass: FIDE presidential council suspends Ilyumzhinov’s financial competences
Ilyumzhinov said he had taken this decision as it was necessary to sign contracts in the United States related to the world championship match due to be held in that country in 2017.
