New York Times: President of World Chess Federation Responds to Readers’ Questions

On Sept. 29, Mr. Ilyumzhinov was re-elected to a four-year term at the Chess Olympiadheld in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia; he has led the federation since 1995.

Though Mr. Ilyumzhinov handily won the election against Anatoly Karpov, the former world champion, 95 to 55, with each member of the federation casting one vote, he received little support from Western European countries or the United States. Afterward, he approached The New York Times through an intermediary, Ilya Merenzon, who is a partner at Press Release Group, a company that describes itself as a media-relations firm specializing in Russian-American communications, and offered to answer readers’ questions about the federation and his plans for promoting chess.

Source: New York Times