Kazakh businessman Timur Turlov elected president of world chess body FIDE

On September 26, 2026, in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Kazakh businessman Timur Turlov was elected president of the International Chess Federation (FIDE), defeating German entrepreneurs Wadim Rosenstein and Jan Henric Buettner. Turlov won a runoff against Rosenstein with 110 votes to 85. He succeeds Arkady Dvorkovich, who withdrew after being sanctioned by the EU. Turlov, who renounced Russian citizenship in 2022, campaigned on expanding chess's digital reach and supporting smaller federations. He pledged to uphold CAS rulings barring Russian teams. Russia's former sports minister Pavel Kolobkov was also elected as a FIDE vice-president.