Clash of kings as bid to sex up chess gets dirty
Tim Rayment
Published: 26 January 2014
HE HAS played out some of the most epic clashes in chess, but now the former grandmaster Garry Kasparov is facing perhaps his greatest challenge as he seeks to gain control of the sport he once dominated.
His opponent this time is not his fellow Russian chess genius Anatoly Karpov but Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, former president of a Russian republic, who believes chess was invented by extraterrestrials.
Their battle for the presidency of the World Chess Federation (FIDE) reads like the plot of an espionage novel with secret memoranda, multimillion-pound deals and even an appearance by Vladimir Putin, the Russian president.
At the centre of the clash is the unlikely figure of Andrew Paulson, the American head of the English Chess Federation, and the man who was once seen as the game’s kingmaker.
Full article here.
Dirty and sexy is a good combination.
Kasparov is an honest man.