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Kirsan Ilyumzhinov

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Kirsan Nikolayevich Ilyumzhinov (Russian: Кирса́н Никола́евич Илюмжи́нов) (b. April 5, 1962) is the President of the Republic of Kalmykia of the Russian Federation and the President of FIDE. He has been the head of FIDE (a.k.a. the World Chess Federation), the preeminent international chess organization, since 1995. He has striven to become an "Asian authoritarian" like his Singaporean, Korean and Chinese role models (even though his republic is in the southern European portion of Russia). He has spent millions of dollars on chess, religion, building a Catholic church at the instigation of the Pope. He has also built a mosque, a synagogue, 22 Orthodox churches and 30 Buddhist temples.

Ilyumzhinov features prominently in two recent books, Curse of Kirsan: Adventures in the Chess Underworld by Sarah Hurst (ISBN 1888690151) and The Chess Artist, by J. C. Hallman (ISBN 0312272936).

On June 2, 2006, Ilyumzhinov was reelected as FIDE President by a margin of 96 vs 54 against his opponent Bessel Kok. [link]

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