MARK RUBERY CHESS

The controversial former FIDE President, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, revealed the following interesting stories of when he met Bobby Fischer, and how he came to have a minor planet named after him…

‘When Russia recognized the debts of the former USSR, Bobby Fischer wrote to the Kremlin with a request to return him the royalty payments for his book, “My Sixty Memorable Games,” that was published in a print run of 100,000 copies in the former USSR. Many wellknown chess players studied it. It was also, by the way, a book that I’d enjoyed reading. However, Moscow rejected Fischer’s request. He was angry and declared that he wouldn’t have anything more to do with the Russians. Then I wrote him a letter indicating that I was personally prepared to pay the Soviet Union’s debt. I flew to Budapest and Fischer met me at the airport. We went to his flat and made lunch: I’d brought caviar and vodka. I remember we also cooked pelmeni. I gave Bobby 100,000 dollars and he wept: “For the first time in my life I haven’t been deceived, I’ve been paid for my efforts”.’

‘I also have a certificate: they named planet number 5570 (discovered in 1976 by Chernykh and Nauchnyj) after me. It’s between Jupiter and Mars… 310 million kilometers from the Earth. So that if anything happens, I tell everyone, I’ll have somewhere to run. It’s curious that the International Astronomical Union were against giving the star my name. Their statutes include: stars can’t be named after politicians. Even in 1964 when they wanted to name a star after John Kennedy they weren’t permitted. But here they found a way out as “Planet Kirsan” isn’t named in honor of the President of Kalmykia, but in honor of the Sportsman and President of FIDE.’

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