The Schism between Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and the Presidential Board

The Presidential Board held in Minsk on 7-8 April, 2018 agreed that the relevant extracts of the Minutes of the 25-26 March, 2017 Presidential Board Meeting, the 10 April, 2017 Extraordinary Presidential Board Meeting and the 13-14 October, 2017 Executive Board Meeting regarding the President’s situation be published.

25-26 MARCH PRESIDENTIAL BOARD MEETING

In the 25-26 March, Presidential Board Meeting, at the end of the Agenda, the President raised again the discussion of the Agon debts. This matter had been discussed in detail earlier in the Meeting and the Board had agreed to set up a Committee of the Treasurer, Adrian Siegel and elected Vice President, Israel Gelfer to discuss these debts with Ilya Merenzon and to report to the Presidential Board the next day session about the payments to FIDE.

It was during this discussion that the President was making proposals trying to involve FIDE in his personal problems with Agon and to try and use FIDE to gain control of Agon by blackmailing them with the fact they had a debt to FIDE. As you can see from the Minutes, the Presidential Board did not want to fight with the President, but the President kept returning to the subject. The President did not deny anything that Mr Makropoulos revealed regarding their discussions. Finally the President declared his resignation and thus it was over the matter of the Agon debt that the conflict between the President and the Presidential Board started.

The following are the Minutes of this matter. Please see link here

10 APRIL EXTRAORDINARY PRESIDENTIAL BOARD MEETING

The 10 April Extraordinary Presidential Board Meeting was called to discuss what further actions should be taken by FIDE following the President’s declaration of resignation in the March meeting.

After FIDE announced that the President declared his resignation, the President returned to Russia and immediately denied that he had resigned and started insulting the whole Presidential Board. He started giving interviews saying that the Americans and Kasparov were behind this and that there was a coup attempt being led by the Deputy President and the Executive Director.

During the Meeting, the President apologised for providing wrong information to the media and admitted that he had even asked Ms. Tsedenova to prepare a letter of resignation and that also whatever decision the Presidential Board took, he would agree with it. The Presidential Board unanimously reconfirmed the decision that the Powers of the FIDE President are fully delegated to the FIDE Deputy President and the President agreed that he would withdraw his previous statement that he would reclaim his powers. Finally the Presidential Board unanimously agreed that Mr Ilyumzhinov, while remaining as FIDE President, no longer could act on behalf of FIDE.

The following are the Minutes regarding the situation of the President. Please see link here

13-14 OCTOBER EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING

Unfortunately, the President did not respect the decisions of the FIDE Presidential Board and continued to claim to act on behalf of FIDE. He persisted in attacking Presidential Board members and the attacks were becoming personal and defamatory.

The 13-14 October Executive Board Meeting unanimously ratified the decision of the 10 April Extraordinary Presidential Board. The Deputy President in his Report raised the matter of the President’s behaviour, giving documented concrete examples of the attacks. He also requesting the President to stop those around him from spreading these stories. At no time did the President deny any matter raised by the Deputy President. The Treasurer raised again the problems caused to our bank accounts because of the President being on the US Sanctions list. Following a long discussion, the Executive Board voted 37 to 20 with two abstentions requesting the President not to run in the next election.

The following are the Minutes relating to the Deputy President’s Report. Please see link here