The head of the World Chess Federation (FIDE), Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, has temporarily transferred most of his powers to his deputy after being added to a US sanctions list for alleged ties to the Syrian regime, the organization said Sunday.
At a FIDE meeting in Athens, Ilyumzhinov "informed the presidential board that he will withdraw from any legal, financial and business operations of FIDE until such time as [he] is removed from the [US] Office of Foreign Assets Control sanction list," FIDE executive director Nigel Freeman said in a statement.
"Mr Ilyumzhinov's decision... is to enable him to concentrate on clearing the situation with the US Department of the Treasury," he said.