De Mooi described the events, which saw Kirsan Ilyumzhinov re-elected over Anatoly Karpov, as "a farce of a vote", going on to declare: "You wouldn't believe the blatant breaking of rules and FIDE's written statutes. It's amazing. There wasn't even a pretence of fairness and free speech."
Guests of honor at the event included Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, Advisor to the Russian President Arkady Dvorkovich, People’s Artist of Russia actor and director Stanislav Govorukhin, movie director Yuli Gusman, former lawmaker and radio host Alexei Mitrofanov, politician and FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and other notable persons.