On behalf of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) and me personally let me extend cordial congratulations on the occasion of your 90th birthday!

Your anniversary is a great date, not only for you, but for all of us – those who love you, your colleagues and friends. You enter this age as a wise man, who has created his own fate and has achieved a lot in your life.

You are known as an open person of a principle, who has a lot to offer and to learn from. You are actively sharing your rich life and sportive experience to younger chess players and serve as a true model of an International Chess Grandmaster!

Your chess career has lots of achievements: Champion of the Soviet Union, International Arbiter in Chess and Chess Composition, Honored Master of Sports of the USSR, National team member at many top chess events, Editor-in-Chief of “Chess in the USSR” and “Chess Bulletin” magazines, an author of a number of chess books, which are still popular.

You have been at the apex of the Russian Chess Federation for forty years and witnessed the success of the representatives of the Russian chess school when they would be at the top of pedestal. Your professionalism and great experience have secured you respect and indisputable authority among your colleagues.

Let me on this wonderful day, dear Yuri Lvovich, wish you the best of health, all the success, new opportunities, victories, optimism and endurance in any life situations, well-being and all the best.

Always stay a winner and reach your aims!

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov
President