He is considered by many to be the greatest chess player of all time — but the mighty Garry Kasparov was silenced by Bermudian senior Larry Ebbin after he disrupted an event in Siberia.

Mr. Ebbin made newspaper and television headlines in Russia after he jumped out of his seat in front of hundreds of spectators at the World Chess Olympiad and ordered the retired grandmaster to shut up for disrespecting other delegates.

The 67-year-old grandfather — whose actions prompted an astonished look from Kasparov and loud applause and cheers from the audience — told The Royal Gazette he would do the same thing again.

"He was being totally disrespectful," said Mr. Ebbin. "He started inciting the crowd. I could not hear.

"After it had taken me three days to travel there at my own expense, I was being denied the right to hear.

"I jumped up and shouted to Garry Kasparov to shut up. It was complete calm after I did that."

Mr. Ebbin, who runs his own woodwork business and the street chess at Harbour Nights, went to Siberia to vote as the Bermuda delegate in the World Chess Federation (FIDE) elections.

Former world chess champion Anatoly Karpov was challenging incumbent Kirsan Ilyumzhinov for the post of FIDE president — with the support of Kasparov.

The contentious battle to become president had already seen Karpov's lawyers unsuccessfully take the World Chess Federation to court.

And in May this year, Kasparov, 47, publicly denounced Ilyumzhinov's team of officials, including FIDE treasurer Nigel Freeman, who is also president of the Bermuda Chess Association.

At the election in Khanty Mansiysk, Siberia, on September 29, as a roll call of the delegates was being taken, members of the Karpov team began standing up to shout their objections to the way the contest was being run.

Mr. Freeman, 56, of Somerset, said: "Kasparov was jumping up and down to say things.

"Larry said: 'Excuse me, you are interrupting our rights.' Kasparov started shouting back.

"Larry was a row or so above Kasparov. I think he [Kasparov] was so taken aback that he shut up rather quickly. Eventually, after five or ten minutes, I read out the rules."

Father-of-three Mr. Ebbin, of Warwick, said: "Garry Kasparov was not a delegate, nor was he a president or anything, so he had no right to be speaking."

Ilyumzhinov, the head of the Russian republic of Kalmykia and a multimillionaire businessman who claims to have travelled with aliens, eventually won the presidency by 95 votes to Karpov's 55.

And he was so grateful to Mr. Ebbin for shutting up Kasparov that he put him up in a hotel in Moscow for the night so he could take part in a press conference with Russian media.

"The president's assistant was my translator," said Mr. Ebbin, club organiser for Bermuda Chess Association. "Most of the reporters were Russian and they asked how was it that I can stand up to one of the most powerful men in Russia.

"I told them: 'Well, simply because I could not hear.' A few times the president himself has thanked me because he believes I sort of helped stop the insanity."

Mr. Ebbin left Russia shortly after the press conference but has been told his face appeared on television news and in national newspapers there.

His actions have also produced an unexpected result for Bermuda. David Kaplan, CEO of FIDE's Moscow office, has pledged to send a financial donation for junior chess on the Island.

• To see footage of Mr. Ebbin's moment of glory visit www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6710 and click on the video marked: FIDE Elections — The Battle Starts!

• To find out more about Bermuda Chess Association visit www.bermudachess.com or call 236-1622.