On February 25-26 the FIDE President arrived on a working visit to Nicaragua where he met with the President of NOC Emmett Lang Salmeron. President Ilyumzhinov told about FIDE's activities, its main objectives and programmes and the efforts that the FIDE is undertaking to become a part of the Olympic family, he addressed to Mr. Salmeron to support this endeavor. Mr. Emmett Salmeron, who is the Head of the Olympic National Committees of Central America, promised not only to support this idea but also he intends to discuss this issue at the forthcoming meeting with the IOC President Mr. Thomas Bach. At the meeting also present were Mr. Jorge Vega, Continental President for Americas, Guy Jose Bendana-Guerrero, President of Nicaragua CF, Berik Balgabaev, FIDE President's Assistant, Victor Popovich and Ilya Nesterov, officials of the Russian Embassy in Managua. The meeting was followed by the press conference.





After NOC the FIDE President visited the Chess Academy, named after him, where he met with the leadership of Nicaragua CF. The Presidents played chess before having a long and detailed discussion on how to overcome the problems of chess development in Nicaragua, cooperation between FIDE and the country's national federation.



Mr. Bendana-Guerrero also suggested to introduce a new title – National Master. He believes that it will help to raise the interest to the game in poor chess developed countries. A more detailed suggestion will be sent to FIDE office for its consideration at the PB meeting.



In Managua President Ilyumzhinov also met with the Russian Ambassador to Nicaragua Mr. Nikolai Vladimir, President of Costa Rica CF Mr. Mauricio Castro, and Vice President of Panama CF Mr. Jose Carrillo.
Also the FIDE President met with the Executive Director of the Sport Institute of Nicaragua Mr. Marlon Torres. President Ilyumzhinov informed on his meetings with Presidents of NOC and chess federation of Nicaragua, and the Russian Ambassador to Nicaragua Mr. Nikolai Vladimir.



In particular at the meeting was also discussed the idea of Russian Ambassador to review the possibility of making Nicaragua a regional center for retraining the Arbiters and Trainers, and sending the student for studying at the Russian State Academy of Physical Culture. Another important issue discussed by both sides was the CiS programme. The head of Nicaraguan sport is ready to render assistance in this matter.