The head of the FIDE chess federation and former president of the Russian Republic of Kalmykia, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, plans to launch the international chess party to promote chess and unite other political movements.

      In an interview with the Izvestia newspaper, Ilyumzhinov said the Chess Party is expected to be an international movement uniting all 178 countries that are FIDE members. He emphasized that the representatives of the party would run for parliaments of all levels and in various countries.

      Currently, Ilyumzhinov is a member of Russia’s largest party United Russia and he says he will remain in it and his role in the new project will be of an informal coordinator.

      50-year old Kirsan Ilyumzhinov headed Kalmykia from 1993 till 2010. He also was elected president of the World Chess Federation FIDE in 1995 and still holds this post. He attracted attention to his person in 2011 when he went to Tripoli with a personal visit at the invitation of Muammar Gaddafi and played a game with the embattled dictator.