After the general assembly session on September 26, 2026, the newly elected President of the International Chess Federation (FIDE), Timur Turlov, outlined the tasks he has set for his new term. Among them are strengthening the organization's role, attracting new partners, and promoting chess to the Olympics. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
According to the CEO of Freedom Holding Corp., one of the new leadership's tasks will be strengthening FIDE's authority and preserving its neutral status.
"Our main task is to unite our community as much as possible, to ensure that every federation is heard and seen, so that FIDE unites the whole world and all the countries that are part of it," Timur Turlov said after the FIDE presidential election results were announced.
Timur Turlov also named among his priorities raising FIDE's authority, attracting new partners, and overcoming disagreements within the chess community. As a separate goal, he stated the inclusion of chess in the Olympics and increasing funding through major sponsors. At the same time, the new FIDE President intends to transfer the experience of the Kazakhstan Chess Federation to the international level.
"We will try to use all our experience, the culture of negotiation and peace that exists in Kazakhstan as a neutral but respected country, so that FIDE is likewise an organization respected by all," the FIDE President said.
According to him, such an approach should help FIDE preserve and develop the potential of world chess.
"Our task is to strengthen the prestige, maximize it, bring in new partners, overcome old disagreements, and ultimately lead chess to success, so that it becomes a truly Olympic sport," he added.
On September 26, 2026, Timur Turlov was elected President of FIDE. In the second round of voting, he received 110 votes out of 196 from other federations worldwide. The elections were held in Samarkand as part of the organization's General Assembly, which is taking place simultaneously with the 46th Chess Olympiad.
On the eve of the elections, Timur Turlov met with national teams from six countries — participants of the Freedom Asian Chess Initiatives (FACI) project, who were trained by Kazakh coaches.