Back in 2007 I was invited to visit the capital of the Russian Republic of Kalmykia. Just getting there was an adventure. I was invited to attend the Chess Candidates Matches in Elista — by none other than the President of the Republic. That is not as big a deal as it may sound. Kalmykia is located directly north of the Caucasus, and is populated by less than 300,000 people — as much as the local district in Hamburg where I live. The invitation came from the millionaire Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who at the time was the President of the mini-republic, and, as a fanatical chess enthusiast, also President of the International Chess Federation (FIDE). He was a very controversial figure, someone people in the chess world loved to hate. I was a declared opponent, assisting in every challenge to his presidency in FIDE elections. But never did he show animosity or displeasure over this.
Before accepting the invitation to Elista I had conducted stern negotiations with FIDE. I insisted that I should be picked up at the airport in Moscow, brought to my hotel, and taken to the connecting flight to Elista the next day. This was important, since a colleague of mine had undertaken the same trip earlier, on his own. He had had problems finding his hotel in Moscow, and on the next day had taken a cab to the airport for his connecting flight. But he couldn’t check in: it was the wrong airport! He had to spend two more days in Moscow rearranging his onward flight. I am not as brave as him, which is why I insisted on full chaperone service. FIDE agreed.
The trip from Hamburg to Moscow, in an Aeroflot Airbus A400, was comfortable and quick. I arrived at Sheremetyevo Airport after just two and a half hours’ flying time, twenty minutes early. Piece o’ cake ... so far.
Ah, yes, they have funny letters there, Cyrillic. “Mockba” — the C is an S, the B is like our V, so it translates to “Mos-kva”, which is what they call it. Like to try the airport? W is SH, P is an R, M is M, the b is a softening vowel. So it translates to Sheremetyevo, the famous international airport. You figure out yourself how Cahkt-Netepbypr works.
Let’s do one more: the fourth arch-shaped letter in the second picture is derived from the Greek Pi and, logically, stands for a P. The big A-like letter is from the Greek lambda and is an L, the H is an N. All this just to confuse us foreigners. Fortunately there are often useful little hints given, as on the signs above.
My trip from Moscow to Elista started on the second day with a car ride to the national airport. My God, it’s full of Yaks — the airfield at Vnukovo. These planes are named after the Russian aircraft designer and manufacturer Alexander Sergeevich Yakovlev. The planes are called Yaks, with a numeral added to denote the specific aircraft model. The company has been building planes since 1934, including some famed fighter aircraft during World War II. I swear that’s a machine gun bay in the front of our Yakovlev Yak-40.
Forget your wide bodies and A380 s — this is pioneer times in commercial air travel. You have to travel in this aircraft, at least once in a lifetime, to experience history. With these two pictures you have seen the entire passenger area — believe me.
The… well, emergency exit door, with ample space for carry-on luggage. I must mention that the service on board was extremely friendly and that the meal came with genuine red beluga caviar — show me that on a $99 Ryan Air flight.
We were taken by car to the city and our final destination. “City-Chess” (Russian: Сити-Чесс) lies somewhat on the outskirts of Elista. It is a large residential complex devoted to chess and chess competitions and was built by Ilyumzhinov. I told him it should be called “Chess City”, but you think he would listen?
The central building of City- Chess, where the chess tournament was played — and where we went to eat in the restaurant three times a day. My absolutely favourite dinner companion was World Chess Champion Boris Spassky. There is a lot to tell about the week-long encounter with this chess legend, including a story about a trip with him to the Kalmykian steppe. Fifteen years later I wrote about it in a book, and talked about it in a video interview.
