Russian-born businessman elected as new world chess chief

Russian-born businessman Timur Turlov has been elected president of the International Chess Federation (FIDE). The vote by representatives of 196 nations took place on Saturday after the previous FIDE chief, Russian national Arkady Dvorkovich, resigned under EU pressure.

Turlov led in the first round with 96 votes as he competed against two Germans, Wadim Rosenstein and Jan Henric Buettner, who trailed with 76 and 20 votes respectively. He won the second round with 110 votes.

Dvorkovich congratulated his successor, saying the new chief “has already done a great deal for chess, and… will do even more now as FIDE president.” He added that Turlov’s victory shows that he had “significant backing” within the international chess community.

Turlov called it “a great responsibility and a vote for a better future of our sport.”

Born in Moscow in 1987, Turlov lived in Russia until the early 2010s, when he moved to Kazakhstan. He is the founder of the Freedom Finance investment company, which was established in 2008 to provide retail investors with access to US stock exchanges and has since expanded to 22 countries worldwide.

Turlov became the head of the Central Asian nation’s chess federation in 2023, a year after giving up his Russian and Saint Kitts and Nevis passports in favor of Kazakhstani citizenship. He is also the founding president of the International School Chess Federation (ISCF), established in September 2024.

The vote comes amid tensions within FIDE over Western pressure on Russian sports. In July, the EU put Dvorkovich, a Russian economist and former deputy prime minister who had led FIDE since 2018, on its sanctions list over alleged “public support” for Russia’s military operation against Kiev. Dvorkovich blasted Brussels’ move as “unlawful and unfair” and vowed to challenge the sanctions.

FIDE is registered in Switzerland, where sanctioned individuals cannot legally act as the “owner, holder or controller” of an organization’s assets, meaning its bank accounts, sponsorships, and contracts could have become compliance issues had Dvorkovich remained in office.

Russian Chess Federation President Andrey Filatov earlier suggested that Russian Grandmaster Sergey Karyakin could seek the post after Dvorkovich. However, Karyakin, a native of Simferopol and now a senator representing Crimea, is also under EU sanctions.

In August, FIDE also barred Russian teams from returning to the Chess Olympiad, prompting prominent names in Russian chess to accuse its leadership of Russophobia.

“There are… people who prioritize personal interests, and they currently predominate on the Council. This time, they prevailed,” Russian Chess Federation Executive Director Aleksandr Tkachev said at the time.

Moscow has condemned the sanctions imposed on Russian athletes by international sporting bodies as politically motivated. President Vladimir Putin has argued that comparable measures have not been applied to athletes from other countries involved in conflicts.