Kirsan Ilyumzhinov visits Bachar Assad in Damascus reads the headline.
Sorry but I thought this was a chess forum. Oops my bad!
Kirsan fits into “all things chess” since he’s the FIDE president.
Oops. Your bad.
Then make a point about chess.
Ok Mr Williams-Lawrence, I will spell it out for you. I see you have played in no rated tournaments AC (that’s ‘After Computer’), so the possibility exists that you have been in a coma for the past two decades. AsCrume states, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov is the President of FIDE, which is the governing body of world chess. The United States Chess Federation belongs to FIDE. Everything Mr Ilyumzhinov does, since he is the President of FIDE, reflects upon chess. Since USCF is a member of the organization he heads, what he does reflects upon the USCF. Last year Mr Ilyumzhinov visited Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. Now he is in the news for visiting the latest despotic dictator perpetuating cold-blooded murder, and worse, on his own people, the Western educated and so-called ‘enlightened’ ruler, President of Syria, Bachar Assad. Personally I would prefer he continued his dialogue with the ETs as that only amuses the world press, while consorting with tyrants is serious business. I have always heard that if you lie down with dogs, you get fleas.
Someone should stand up to the President of FIDE and ask, as Joseph N. Welch , US Army legal counsel, did to Senator Joe McCarthy, “Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
I would like to see the Executive Director of the USCF ask that of the President of FIDE, at the very least. I would also like to see the USCF make a statement that would be heard around the world, and probably end the chess career of Kirsan, by pulling out of FIDE because the man continues to consort with known criminals who rain death and destruction down on their own people.
Is that point enough for you, sir?
Mr. Bacon:
There is something to be said for being comatose.
Dicatators should take note that a pattern may be emerging. A visit by Kirsan I. might mean the end of a regime and an execution to follow. Pretty bad karma that even the Dalai Lama cannot fix.
I just read that Kirsan believes that he was once abducted by aliens.
How did this get elected FIDE President?? 
Sounds like a typical chessplayer to me.
The statement is old - correction - very old news.
The question explains why some get cynical about FIDE.
Obviously, assuming the abduction happened years ago. I read about it today in an online article about his meeting with President Assad.
In an article published in the NY Times, May 12, 2012, Chess Leader Visits Syria Under Cloud of Ambiguity, by Andrew E. Kramer, it is written, “Mr. Ilyumzhinov has remarked in the past that he judges leaders above all else on their attitudes toward chess.”
It is also written, “The plan is already coming apart, with reports of violence emerging from Syria daily. An estimated 9,000 people have died.”
What difference does it make how many people die as long as the despot has a positive attitude toward chess?
This is the last paragraph: “During his shuttle diplomacy in Libya, Mr. Ilyumzhinov was often dismissed as an improbable ambassador for Moscow because he has, over many years, declined to back down from his publicly asserted belief in space aliens, including a detailed account of an abduction. In fact, Mr. Ilyumzhinov’s frequent comments about extraterrestrials would seem to rule out any formal role as an envoy, although they also mean he can be easily distanced from official Kremlin policy in the event of failure, as happened in Libya.”
The entire article can be read at: nytimes.com/2012/05/03/world … syria.html url
Yes Assad is a ruthless dictator, like his father.
I wonder, though, if hundreds of armed citizens began attacking certain Washington, DC sites, and then thousands more took arms around the capital, how our government would react.
Do you think Michelle would greet them with a tray of sliced raw vegetables from the White House garden? After all, even insurgents are susceptible to the ravages of type 2 diabetes.
Or would we blow them to smithereens like Assad has been doing?
(Scratching my chin, wondering).
This should answer your question, Mr DePalma:
thrasherswheat.org/fot/ohio.htm
I think Mr. Ilyumzhinov should be asked two questions: How did your meeting with Mr. Assad go? How did your meeting with Mr. Qaddafi go?
Ilyumzhinov’s infuriating meeting with Syrian President
IM Malcolm Pein - Thursday 3rd May 2012
I take no pleasure in having predicted this. The FIDE President completed a hat trick of photo calls with modern dictators as he appeared with Syrian President Bashar Assad over the weekend. Ilyumzhinov was spotted in Baghdad just days before the US led invasion in 2003 and was seen with Colonel Gaddhafi in Tripoli shortly before his downfall last year.
Of course with such a wonderful track record, Ilyumzhinov’s latest blunder could be very good news for the Syrian people. We are used to the ridiculous from the former Kalmyk President but his latest utterances from Damascus were sickening.
Speaking in a country now notorious for child torture, Ilyumzhinov declared via the Russian press that “in early June, as a dedication to the International Day of Children, we are planning to organize the first international youth chess tournament, where young players of Arab countries, will participate”
So, I ask, should chess involve politics or shouldn’t it? Unfortunately, I would prefer politics be left out of chess. Which means, much as we despise the situation in Syria, if his visit was purely for chess purposes, well, that’s a FIDE head’s job. I do question his timing of visiting Syria at this very moment though.
The alternative is, the next time some GM refuses to play with an Israeli, the same people are yelling to “leave politics out of chess”. You can’t have it both ways. The easiest way to fracture international chess is to start in on the politics. “I’m boycotting this one, I’m boycotting that one” is very very easy to begin.
None of my thoughts are in any way any indication of my political opinions, and that should be obvious.