Russian President Vladimir Putin met with the FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov to discuss the preparations for the World Chess Championship Match, which will be held in Sochi this November.

Vladimir Putin: Good evening, Kirsan Nikolayevich!
Firstly, I would like to congratulate you on your re-election to the office of the President of the World Chess Federation.. Secondly, I would like to discuss the preparations for the organization of the World Chess Championship Match. How do you assess the current situation? Are there any questions to the organizers, some additional suggestions?

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov: Firstly, taking the opportunity, Vladimir Vladimirovich, let me on behalf of the Presidential Board of the World Chess Federation that unites today 181 countries, thank you for the opportunity to hold the World Championship match in Russia. It is good for FIDE that the Championship will be held in Sochi, in the Olympic village, because one of the main FIDE’s objectives now is to join the Olympic movement, to become a member of the International Olympic Committee. Therefore, it is very important for FIDE, for chess players to play in Sochi.
Thirdly, the match participants are the greatest chess players. The Norwegian 23-years-old Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen is called a prodigy, “Fischer of XXI century”. The second Grandmaster is the representative of India, “motherland of chess”, Viswanathan Anand, five-fold World Champion. Two generations, the younger and the older generations of chess will compete for the chess crown in Sochi. The distinctive feature of this match is that chess is a sport which is interesting to follow. Last week FIDE sent its inspectors to Sochi. The most important thing for us is the modern means of telecommunications, as the match will be broadcast online. Tens of millions, and we have had cases where up to 400 millions of people, chess players visited the championship website and the website simply collapsed. Therefore, it is very important to have modern means of communication and fast Internet connection. The FIDE inspectors were satisfied with the preparations.

Vladimir Putin: So, the entire preparation is going well and you do not have any problems.

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov: Thank you, Vladimir Vladimirovich.

Vladimir Putin: Good.

The video reportage on the Russian Channel One http://www.1tv.ru/news/social/270865