 At a joint press conference together with the president of Russian Chess Federation Andrey Filatov at Central Chess Club in Moscow, Ilyumzhinov stated that he would remain FIDE President until the next general assembly.He also appealed to the chess federations and executive director Nigel Freeman to cancel the board meeting that he described as a waste of money.Filatov supported Ilyumzhinov and mentioned that he could not be removed from his presidential role against his will and the only way to do it is by the FIDE Congress.