Ignatius Leong (born 1956) is a professional

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

organizer in Singapore and has been one of Asia's leading organizers for more than 20 years. He was awarded by the International Chess Federation (FIDE) as an

International Arbiter {{No footnotes, date=April 2022 In chess tournaments, an arbiter is an official who oversees matches and ensures that the rules of chess are followed. International Arbiter ''International Arbiter'' is a title awarded by FIDE to individuals deemed ...

in 1979, International Organiser in 1995 and

FIDE Senior Trainer FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating an ...

in 2004. He was also the president of the Singapore Chess Federation from 2007-2015, Founding President and president of

ASEAN Chess Confederation ASEAN ( , ), officially the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is a political and economic union of 10 member states in Southeast Asia, which promotes intergovernmental cooperation and facilitates economic, political, security, mi ...

from 2000 to 2015, FIDE Vice President from 2002 to 2006 and FIDE General Secretary from 2005 to 2014. At 23, he became one of the world's youngest International Arbiters. Leong is also Director of the ASEAN Chess Academy. He had played in three

Chess Olympiad The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in 2020 an ...

s. Leong once formed a "World Chess Organization", which promised to overthrow FIDE. However, he abandoned that effort when not enough people joined. He has also swung wildly between being a supporter and an opponent of FIDE President

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov Kirsan Nikolayevich Ilyumzhinov (russian: link=no, Кирса́н Никола́евич Илюмжи́нов, ; Kalmyk: Үлмҗин Кирсән, ''Ülmcin Kirsən'', ; born 5 April 1962) is a Russian business oligarch, administrator and po ...

. In 2002, Leong announced that he was running for FIDE President against Ilyumzhinov. Later, he changed his mind, saying that he was not running. Then, changing it again, saying that he had never withdrawn his candidacy. It was eventually ruled that once he had withdrawn, it was too late to become a candidate again, so no election was held because Ilyumzhinov was the only candidate. However, Leong became FIDE Secretary-General.

Controversy

A few days before the 2014 FIDE Presidential Elections, the ''New York Times Magazine'' published a lengthy report on the Presidential Elections campaign. Included was information about a leaked contract between

Garry Kasparov Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born 13 April 1963) is a Russian chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist and commentator. His peak rating of 2851, achieved in 1999, was the highest recorded until being surpassed by ...

and Leong from Singapore, in which the Kasparov campaign reportedly "offered to pay Leong $500,000 and to pay $250,000 a year for four years to the Asean Chess Academy, an organization Leong helped create to teach the game, specifying that Leong would be responsible for delivering 11 votes from his region ... In September 2015, the FIDE Ethics Commission found Kasparov and Leong guilty of violating its Code of Ethics and later suspended them for two years from all FIDE functions and meetings.

Controversy

References

External links