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Kirsan Ilyuzmhinov, the president of the World Chess Federation who is running for re-election, has announced that he is resigning a different presidency — the presidency of Kalmykia, a Russian republic on the Caspian Sea.

Mr. Ilyumzhinov is 48 and has been president of Kalmykia since 1993. He made the announcement, which is dated Sept. 7, on his campaign Web site.

The announcement on the site, which originally said that Mr. Ilyumzhinov had resigned, was changed on Tuesday to say, “Kirsan Requests Not to Be Nominated as President of Kalmykia to Focus on FIDE.” FIDE (for Fédération Internationale des Échecs) is the acronym used to refer to the chess federation.

Mr. Ilyumzhinov said that he made the decision voluntarily so that he could devote more time to promoting chess. But he may not have had a choice. In recent months the Kremlin has been cleaning house — forcing many long-time leaders of Russian republics to step down at the end of their terms, among them Murtaza G. Rakhimov of Bashkortostan; Eduard Rossel of Sverdlovsk Oblast; and Mintimer Shaimiyev of Tatarstan.

The Russian central government appoints the presidents of the republics and they serve at the discretion of the Kremlin. Mr. Ilyzumzhinov’s term in office was due to expire next month.

There had been rumors for months that Mr. Ilyumzhinov would not be reappointed. Only two days ago, the campaign Web site of Anatoly Karpov, Mr. Ilyumzhinov’s opponent in the upcoming chess election, carried an article from RBC Daily, a Russian business newspaper, reporting that Mr. Ilyumzhinov was being forced out.

Though the Kremlin has never said anything about whether Mr. Ilyzumzhinov would be reappointed, it is possible that his penchant for talking about his abduction by aliens, which he has mentioned many times, as well as the mysterious source of his wealth and the impoverished state of Kalmykia finally weighed too heavily on him politically.

Now that he will no longer be president of Kalmykia, all of Mr. Ilyumzhinov’s eggs are in one basket: winning re-election to FIDE. He has been president of the federation since 1995.

The election is supposed to be Sept. 29 during the biennial Chess Olympiad, which this year is in Khanty-Mansiysk, Siberia. But the election may not happen.

Mr. Karpov, along with five national federations, have filed a lawsuit with the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland, seeking to have Mr. Ilyzumzhinov’s election ticket disqualified.

The lawsuit alleges that Mr. Ilyumzhinov and one member of his slate, Beatriz Marinello, are not members of the national federations that nominated them — as required by FIDE’s rules. Mr. Ilyumzhinov was supposedly nominated by Russia (though Mr. Karpov, who is also Russian, disputes this), Argentina and Mexico.

Yesterday, Chessbase, a chess news Web site, (which has been attacked by Mr. Ilyumzhinov’s campaign as biased) reported that an Argentinian government official has said that Mr. Ilyumzhinov is not a member of the federation. Mr. Karpov is also claiming that Argentina’s federation is now supporting him and has withdrawn its support for Mr. Ilyumzhinov. That seems to be the case from the Web site of the Argentinian federation.

The arbitration court is holding a hearing on the lawsuit on Sept. 15 and 16.

Mr. Ilyumzhinov says that he has the support of 93 federations, which is more than enough to be re-elected. (Each federation gets one vote and there are about 165 voting members.) Of course, Russia and Argentina are among the countries that Mr. Ilyumzhinov is saying support him, and Mr. Karpov is saying that they will vote for him, so the situation is clearly fluid.