The electorate that will decide who runs world chess for the next four years is taking shape.
FIDE has published its official list of federations entitled to vote at the General Assembly election in Samarkand, where Jan Henric Buettner, Wadim Rosenstein and Timur Turlov will contest the presidency on September 26.
At present, 202 national federations are listed with voting rights, with each represented federation entitled to one vote. The number ultimately required to win will depend on how many valid votes are cast.
But not every FIDE member can take part.
Russia and Rwanda are the only two federations currently suspended by FIDE and are therefore not included among the 202 eligible voters.
Russia's exclusion is particularly significant given its huge historic influence within FIDE. The Chess Federation of Russia (CFR) was temporarily suspended by the FIDE Council in June after FIDE said it had failed to meet requirements arising from a Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling.
FIDE stressed that the suspension applies to the federation rather than individual Russian players. The issue has also spilled into the Chess Olympiad, with FIDE confirming that teams representing suspended federations cannot compete in Samarkand.
There is also a third category.
FIDE has marked 13 federations on the voting list with an asterisk indicating that “a complaint or a request for additional information is pending”.
They are Aruba, Belize, Bermuda (the federation that famously hosts a big party at every Chess Olympiad), Central African Republic, Curaçao, Ecuador, Gambia, Pakistan, Peru, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Sudan and Vanuatu.
For now, those federations remain on the list of 202 entitled to vote—the notation does not itself mean their voting rights have been removed—but their status gives the electoral roll another potentially important moving part with just weeks until the ballot.
The roll also contains some intriguing names. Rosenstein himself is listed as Germany's delegate, while Buettner's running mate Malcolm Pein is England's delegate and Turlov is listed as president of the Kazakhstan Chess Federation.
With 202 eligible to vote, two unable to do so and questions still pending over 13, the electoral arithmetic in the race to control FIDE is not quite settled yet.