FIDE presidential elections have rarely been genteel affairs.
From the ousting of Friðrik Ólafsson back in '82, to the rise of the last permanent president Arkady Dvorkovich, they are notoriously rough, bitchy and backstabbing. Each campaign is like a new season of Succession. So buckle-up for the 2026 contest, already it is proving absolutely no exception.
On September 26, FIDE's members will elect a new president in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, in one of the most unpredictable and increasingly bitter elections in the governing body's recent history. You may have to trust us here, but it can be great entertainment for the neutral.
Three presidential tickets are standing: Timur Turlov with five-time World Champion GM Viswanathan Anand, Wadim Rosenstein and Gordon Tang, and Jan Henric Buettner and IM Malcolm Pein. All names you should get to know.
The winner will take control of a governing body representing more than 200 national chess federations and inherit everything from the responsibility of holding the World Championship and Olympiad to the deep rift over FIDE's relationship with Russia and its continuing struggle to get Western commercial interest in the game.
And with three serious candidates in the race going hell for leather, nobody can safely assume how it will end.
This page will be updated throughout the campaign and on election day.
When is the 2026 FIDE election?
The 2026 FIDE presidential election takes place on September 26 during the FIDE General Assembly in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
The General Assembly runs across September 26 and 27, during the wider FIDE Congress, which is being staged alongside the Chess Olympiad.
Who are the candidates for FIDE President?
There are three official presidential tickets:
Timur Turlov / Viswanathan Anand
Wadim Rosenstein / Gordon Tang
Jan Henric Buettner / Malcolm Pein
FIDE confirmed the three tickets after nominations closed in July.
It is a remarkably business-heavy field. Turlov, Rosenstein and Buettner are all eye-wateringly rich entrepreneurs who have invested heavily in chess. Great for the game, but all three are relatively new to the scene.
Their routes to the election—and their visions for FIDE—are very, very different.
Who is Timur Turlov?
Russian-born Timur Turlov is a 38-year-old billionaire businessman, founder and CEO of Freedom Holding Corp and president of the Kazakhstan Chess Federation who has been gradually becoming a more and more prominent figure in chess. Oh, and he's a father of six.
Turlov didn't enter the election as a presidential candidate. He was a sponsor appearing at big events like the FIDE Candidates in Cyprus in front of signage showing his business interests. It was almost accidental that Turlov is now hoping to lead the chess world, thrust upon him.
Turlov was initially the running mate of incumbent FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich, the technocratic former deputy prime minister of Russia who was seeking a third term. That changed dramatically, and swiftly, after 54-year-old Dvorkovich was sanctioned by the European Union and withdrew from the election.
Turlov moved to the top of the ticket and the legend Anand, Dvorkovich's deputy president and now FIDE's interim President, became his running mate.
"This was not originally my plan," he told the August edition of the British Chess Magazine. "My original ambition was to help FIDE with digital transformation. But when Arkady decided not to continue, I felt that the experience I have in building institutions, managing international organisations and developing chess could be useful in taking FIDE to its next logical stage."
Turlov's late entry into the race, replacing Dvorkovich, makes him the closest thing this election has to a continuity candidate. Whether that's a good thing is a matter of opinion.
Dvorkovich won the 2018 election by a landslide and the previous election in 2022 by 157 votes to 16. Controversies aside, in those eight years he managed to drag the federation from Cold War relic to functioning sports body.
Turlov cannot simply assume those votes transfer to him, but he potentially inherits a formidable network of relationships built up during Dvorkovich's time in office.
Dvorkovich himself has since publicly backed Turlov to succeed him. Those opposed to Russia's influence on FIDE see this and his business background in Moscow as a problem, although Turlov insists he has severed interests in Russia and renounced his citizenship in 2023.
Who is Jan Henric Buettner?
Jan Henric Buettner is a breezy German entrepreneur best known in chess as the driving force behind the Freestyle Chess project, which this year put on its first Freestyle World Championship event in partnership with FIDE. The event was held at Buettner's plush Weissenhaus Private Nature Luxury Resort in Germany and came after Buettner fell out publicly with Dvorkovich.
FIDE and Freestyle eventually made up after last year's successful Freestyle Chess Tour concluded in Cape Town. The new version of a chess world title, with the two sides working together, was announced shortly after.
This was before Buettner decided to go for Dvorkovich's job.
Buettner's running mate is IM Malcolm Pein, the English chess organiser, publisher and International Director of the English Chess Federation. Pein has strong credentials himself and may have considered a run, having been involved in the 2018 election as a running mate.
Buettner is pitching himself as a reform candidate and has argued that FIDE's national federations should be treated as the organisation's owners rather than its clients.
Buettner and Pein have also become increasingly outspoken about the conduct of the election itself, raising concerns about FIDE's neutrality, electoral rules and the relationship between the governing body and Turlov's campaign.
In an interview published on the Perlen vom Bodensee chess blog published on August 22, Buettner made at least one eye-catching claim when, with as direct a comment as you'll find in a FIDE election, he put a price on a vote.
Buettner alleged that a corrupt system has developed in which "every four years someone comes along and distributes money," while saying his campaign will not pay federations for votes.
"The price for a vote is $40,000 in Europe, $5,000 in Africa," he said. Wow, there it is, out in the open.
Buettner's campaign, which has focused on winning delegate votes rather than publicity, has promised as an antidote to distribute 20 per cent of FIDE revenue, excluding prize funds, to national federations.
Pein remains one of FIDE's biggest critics and vociferous on the subject of Russian influence.
Who is Wadim Rosenstein?
Germany's newly-installed FIDE delegate Wadim Rosenstein is another super-rich German-based businessman and is also another one of chess's most prominent recent investors. Along with Turlov he has had to clarify questions about his business interests with Russia.
The 36-year-old Rosenstein is the founder of WR Chess and has backed a series of major events, including the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Team Championships in Hong Kong where he played in the same team alongside GM Magnus Carlsen. He has also pushed the WR Women’s Chess Tour, which appears to have been a strong success.
Rosenstein, who appears the most PR savvy of the candidates, is running alongside Singapore-based businessman Gordon Tang.
In April, before he had declared himself as being in the running, Rosenstein made a cheeky offer to "help out" FIDE by providing an alternative venue, free of charge, to host the FIDE's flagship Candidates Tournament when fears were raised over the safety of players. FIDE swiftly declined.
Rosenstein's campaign has been particularly active in seeking and publicising federation endorsements in South America, Europe, Africa and Asia, and has positioned itself as an alternative to the existing FIDE leadership.
Rosenstein has also been involved in some of the election's fiercest disputes, including formally asking FIDE's Electoral Commission to examine questions surrounding Turlov's eligibility and disclosures.
How does the FIDE election work?
The basic principle is remarkably simple. Too simple, some say. It is the controversial one federation, one vote mechanism for choosing a president. It is a system that creates a level playing field but, say critics, is also wide open to abuse.
Each eligible FIDE member federation represented at the General Assembly receives a single vote.
That means India, the U.S. and China have exactly the same voting power as far smaller chess nations. Some are microstates and remote island territories no bigger than a village club, such as St. Helena, Palau, Tuvalu. Djibouti, a historical example, famously had only a single active FIDE-rated player for years.
We've explained the system in more detail in How The FIDE Election Works: Sport's Most Bitter And Backstabbing Vote Explained
How many votes are needed to win the FIDE election?
The important number is a majority of the valid votes cast.
The exact winning number therefore depends on how many eligible federations are represented and cast valid ballots in Samarkand.
With roughly 200 federations potentially involved, 100 is a useful shorthand for the race—but it should not be treated as a fixed magic number.
And with three candidates, the first ballot could be particularly important.
If nobody secures the required majority, the contest can move to another ballot, making the fate of the weakest candidate's supporters potentially decisive.
Who is winning the FIDE election?
At this stage, we really don't know and don't want to make a prediction. Nobody really knows.
Public endorsements give us some idea, but the election is conducted by secret ballot and federation delegates can ultimately vote however they choose.
World Chess has been tracking the public endorsements here, but to reiterate, this is not a prediction.
At our latest count, Rosenstein had publicly identifiable support from at least 12 federations, Turlov at least nine and Buettner eight.
Turlov's potentially much more important advantage is the Dvorkovich electoral network he inherited when the former president withdrew.
Buettner, meanwhile, has extensive connections through Pein and European chess, while Rosenstein has been campaigning aggressively across several continents.
But for all anyone knows, this election could be decided by federations that never publicly endorse anyone at all.
You can also follow World Chess's FIDE Election tracker for coalitions, federation support and projections.
Why isn't Arkady Dvorkovich standing?
Until July, the expectation was that Dvorkovich, the son of a prominent Soviet arbiter with chess in his blood, would seek a third term.
Indeed, he formally launched his campaign with Turlov as his candidate for deputy president.
Then everything changed, in a way that was just so-FIDE.
The European Union imposed sanctions on Dvorkovich, and he subsequently stepped away from the election and suspended his FIDE presidential activities.
Turlov replaced him at the top of the ticket, with Anand moving into the deputy presidential slot.
That transformed the election overnight.
But Dvorkovich has not disappeared from the campaign. He was, somewhat controversially, at the recent African Chess Confederation where Bernard Wanjala was elected as the new president. It's clear Dvorkovich's relationships with national federations—and the question of how much of his formidable electoral coalition Turlov can inherit—remain central to the contest.
What are the big issues in the FIDE election?
Where to start? The future of chess. Geopolitics (allegedly). Russia's meddling (again, alleged), corruption (definitely alleged), Carlsen's on-going participation in the big events. You name it, the election of the president of FIDE will have a bearing on it.
Why has the FIDE election become so bitter?
Because the candidates have increasingly started complaining about each other.
Rosenstein has asked FIDE to investigate questions surrounding Turlov's eligibility and disclosures.
Turlov has rejected allegations made against him and his representatives have threatened legal action over claims they regard as defamatory.
Buettner and Pein have raised concerns about election integrity and FIDE neutrality.
The result is an election increasingly being fought not only for federation votes but through FIDE's own electoral, legal and disciplinary machinery. It's all quite bewildering, to be honest. Who are the good guys here? It's difficult to work out.
As World Chess put it earlier this month: They're All Turning On Each Other: FIDE Election Turns Into Bunfight Between Candidates
Can Russia vote in the FIDE election?
The thorny issue. The answer is: no.
The Chess Federation of Russia is suspended, our full report on that is here, and therefore does not have a vote in Samarkand.
But that doesn't mean Russia is just going to lie down and have its tummy tickled.
Dvorkovich spent eight years working the room in FIDE, doing things the Russian way. Turlov was Dvorkovich's original running mate and is now backed by the former president.
The big question is therefore where Dvorkovich's votes go.
When is the FIDE presidential debate?
The three presidential candidates are due to face each other in a live debate on September 9.
The debate will feature Buettner, Rosenstein and Turlov and will be moderated by GM Maurice Ashley.
It will be the first time in this campaign that all three presidential candidates have appeared together in a debate, just 17 days before the vote.
Where is the FIDE election taking place?
The election takes place in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, during the FIDE General Assembly and alongside the 46th Chess Olympiad.
That means, for a few days in September, virtually the entire political and playing elite of world chess will be in the same city.
The Olympiad will decide the strongest chess nations in the world.
A few rooms away, their federations will decide who runs the sport.
Who will be the next FIDE President?
For now, there is no convincing answer.
Turlov has the enormous potential advantage of inheriting support from the existing administration.
Rosenstein can point to a growing list of publicly declared federation endorsements.
Buettner and Pein are pitching themselves as the strongest break with the status quo.
And because this is a secret ballot involving national federations rather than a public election, social-media popularity and public endorsements can only tell us so much.
What we do know is that one of Timur Turlov, Wadim Rosenstein or Jan Henric Buettner will emerge from Samarkand with one of the most powerful jobs in chess.
World Chess will be tracking the endorsements, controversies, debate and electoral arithmetic throughout the campaign—and will update this page as the race develops.