Member of Russian Parliament Claims He Was Abducted By Aliens
His name is Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. Since 1995, he’s served as president of the World Chess Federation (FIDE – Federation Internationale des Echecs), which made household names of such chess legends as Boris Spassky, Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov. Since 1993, Ilyumzhinov also has served as a member of the Russian Parliament – an “MP,” as they say – representing Kalmykia, Russia’s only Buddhist republic.
And since 1997, he's claimed to have been abducted by aliens.
A self-made millionaire, he staged a religious revival in Kalmykia where he funded construction of the largest Buddhist temple in greater Europe. He also spearheaded construction of the massive and growing complex of buildings known as City Chess.
Located in a suburb of Kalista, Kalmykia’s capital, City Chess was constructed specifically for the 33rd Chess Olympiad in 1998. It continues to expand, a bold and controversial economic development gamble in a region suffering severe economic hardship.
So what is one to make of Ilyumzhinov’s ongoing claims, the most recent during an April 26 interview with television host Vladimir Pozner on Russia’s Channel One, that he was abducted by aliens from his Moscow apartment in 1997?
Ilyumzhinov says he was taken to another star system by “people like us.” He also says that he believes that chess itself “comes from space.”
His theories about the origins of chess, however, like The Independent’s 2007 intimation that Ilyumzhinov had the editor of an opposition newspaper murdered in 1998, aren’t nearly as interesting as the mere fact that he’s making such statements to begin with.
One doesn’t advance or maintain one’s elected positions within either the Russian parliament or the World Chess Federation by claiming to have been abducted by aliens.
The best explanation I can offer is that Ilyumzhinov believes what he’s saying and doesn’t give a damn about what anyone thinks of his claims. After all, he’s independently wealthy and, I would imagine, so deeply embedded in the Russian political machine that nothing short of a tactical nuke could ever dislodge him.
Is he crazy? Could be, I suppose, but if so, he’s one of the most highly functional crazies on the planet.
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