It’s a chess showdown quite unlike any other: on one side, arguably the greatest player of all time, Garry Kasparov, former world champion and now Russian exile. On the other, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, a Russian multimillionaire perhaps best known for his closeness to dictators such as Bashar al-Assad. That and his claim to have been abducted by aliens.
After officially registering earlier this week, the two are now facing off for the presidency of the World Chess Federation (Fide), which will be decided in August at the World Chess Olympiad in the Arctic city of Tromsø, Norway.
Alec Luhn 