Bengaluru: It’s now a three-horse horse race between entrepreneurs Jan Buettner, Wadim Rosenstein and incumbent Fide president Arkady Dvorkovich for the top Fide job. Dvorkovich announced on Monday that he will seek a third term in office, with five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand not running for deputy president alongside him this time.
The Indian Grandmaster together with Dvorkovich had contested and won in 2022. This time, founder and majority shareholder of Freedom Holding Corp, Timur Turlov, will run as Dvorkovich’s deputy. Turlov also serves as the president of the Kazakhstan chess federation.
The Fide elections will be held in September 26-27, in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, during the Olympiad.
Though he will not run for deputy president this time, Anand who has held the office since the last four years, is likely to continue to offer his expertise to Dvorkovich’s team.
“I will continue supporting the campaign and contributing my experience to Fide’s work, especially in helping emerging and developing federations grow the game,” Anand said.
German entrepreneurs Buettner and Rosenstein had announced their respective candidacies earlier on. Buettner entered the chess ecosystem in 2024 by backing the Freestyle Chess, together with world no 1 Magnus Carlsen, who has been a promoter of Chess960.
Buettner, who has announced British IM, tournament organizer Malcolm Pein as his deputy, has had a public face-off with the current Dvorkovich-led Fide over the right to organise the Freestyle Chess World Championship.
Rosenstein, running with Chinese businessman Gordon Tang as his deputy, has been a private organizer of chess events including the WR Chess and was a catalyst for the creation of the Fide World Rapid and Blitz Team Championships.
