Guinea, The Marshall Islands And Kiribati Welcomed Into The FIDE Fold (And Burkino Faso Welcomed Back)

While there was undoubtedly chaos and confusion at the 2025 FIDE General Assembly over the weekend—we didn't expect anything less—there were other more positive points to note.

One of them is that FIDE came together to agree to expand further with the entry of three new nations which pushes membership of the game's governing body past 200.

Guinea, The Marshall Islands and Kiribati are all tiny, nascent federations making their first steps in international chess. All applied for membership to FIDE this year following efforts by FIDE's Director for Chess Development GM Nigel Short.

All three nations had their entry finalised by delegates, who gave overwhelming support, and were given immediate full membership and voting powers.

A new Burkino Faso Chess Federation was also re-admitted after its predecessor had been thrown out of FIDE for alleged financial irregularities.

Short, the former world title challenger, has been a controversial figure in chess in the past but few will argue with his promotion of the game in areas of the world where chess structures are not established.

Following the votes, Short said: "While the 2025 FIDE General Assembly will no doubt be overshadowed by a rather chaotic vote on eligibility of Russian and Belarussian teams, I was personally delighted with the admission of Guinea, the Marshall Islands, and Kiribati into the global chess family."

Short has also been busy trying to tighten up FIDE's oversight concerning how smaller federations are governed.

He added: "I was also happy that my proposal to close a constitutional loophole, whereby a person with zero connection to a country had been hitherto able to infiltrate and hijack the vote after just one year, was approved."

On a visit to Guinea in July, Short said: "I still find it very hard to understand how Guinea has had a government-recognised chess (and checkers) federation for 43 years, but somehow didn’t manage to join FIDE."

Now, it has.

FIDE makes a big noise about being a family of nations, as per its motto Gens una sumus is Latin for "We are one family."

Spreading the word of chess is one of its core missions.