It was backstabbing and bitchy. There were billionaires, allegations of bought votes, sanctions, lawsuits, complaints, disappearing candidates, millions of dollars in promises—and, allegedly, a Bentley.
Then, eventually, in a rather jazzy conference room on the margins of the 2026 Chess Olympiad, there was an election.
Timur Turlov's victory in Samarkand on Saturday brought the curtain down on the latest edition of the game's great soap opera, the FIDE presidential campaign.
The Russian-born Kazakh billionaire defeated German businessman Wadim Rosenstein 110-85 in a second-round ballot after falling just short of an outright victory first time around.
But the numbers barely begin to tell the story.
The election had started with Arkady Dvorkovich seeking a third term and Turlov as his proposed deputy. Then Dvorkovich was hit by EU sanctions and withdrew, Turlov moved to the top of the ticket and five-time World Champion GM Viswanathan Anand joined him.
From there, things got messy. Even Dvorkovich admitted as much before the vote took place:
All three campaigns filed formal complaints. Rosenstein and Jan Henric Buettner separately challenged Turlov's eligibility, with questions raised over his former Russian citizenship, Ukrainian sanctions against him, his business interests and Freedom Holding's relationship with FIDE.
Turlov rejected the allegations and fired back. His campaign challenged Rosenstein over his sponsorship of the German Chess Federation, among other issues, and sought to have him removed from the ballot. A subsequent ethics complaint concerning Rosenstein and the German federation was dismissed.
Read more: FIDE election 2026 overview
Buettner, meanwhile, alleged that votes in FIDE elections were effectively being bought, claiming a going "price" of $40,000 in Europe and $5,000 in Africa. He did not provide evidence identifying who was allegedly making such offers, and the claims were not independently verified.
There were accusations that FIDE itself was favouring Turlov. There were arguments over Russia. Rosenstein went to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Turlov threatened legal action against former FIDE communications chief David Llada over a claim about his Russian citizenship.
At one point it appeared that everybody involved in chess politics had become a lawyer.
Even the presidential debate descended into farce.
Rosenstein opened by saying a FIDE president needed to be available "24/7"—then disappeared from the broadcast after around four minutes and never returned.
The promises were scarcely less dramatic.
Turlov pledged more than $6 million of his own money for a FIDE Chess Media Fund to dish out to federations.
Buettner promised something very different: to build FIDE revenues towards $50 million, redistribute 20 per cent to national federations and create an organisation that did not depend financially on its president.
Rosenstein promised to reform FIDE's structures, tougher conflict-of-interest rules and an attempt to persuade GM Magnus Carlsen back into the classical World Championship cycle.
In the final few days of the campaign, Rosenstein even cosied up to FIDE's former president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. Ilyumzhinov had previously hoped to launch his own comeback campaign.
Rosenstein also managed to turn the re-elected European Chess Union (ECU) president Zurab Azmaiparashvili to his side, but his federation. The ECU was forced to clarify that while its president personally backed Rosenstein, the ECU as an organiszation remained strictly neutral.
The campaign had a tragic moment. Just days before he was due to fly out to Samarkand, the longtime FIDE powerbroker Georgios Makropoulos died. He was one of 18 candidates fighting for four elected FIDE vice-president positions.
And through almost all of it ran Russia.
Turlov, born in Moscow but now a Kazakh citizen, insisted he was independent of Dvorkovich and said respecting the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling restricting Russian participation was a "red line".
Rosenstein also said FIDE had no alternative but to follow CAS.
Then came Samarkand.
Campaign teams filled the Olympiad venue. Delegates were courted. Votes were counted and recounted before they had even been cast. One unconfirmed rumour circulating at Congress even had Rosenstein and Buettner betting a Bentley on whether Buettner would win 30 votes.
He got 20.
And there was one final twist.
Days earlier, Buettner and running mate IM Malcolm Pein had publicly insisted there was "no deal" with Turlov, "no promised position and no second-round arrangement".
After Buettner was eliminated on Saturday, he and Pein endorsed Turlov for the runoff. Turlov won 110-85.
After months of allegations, lawyers, money, promises and intrigue, world chess finally had its new president.