Timur Turlov was elected FIDE President today in Samarkand, winning the runoff 110–85 over Wadim Rosenstein after taking 96 votes in the first round (one short of an outright majority; Jan Henric Buettner took 20). At 38, he is the second youngest president in FIDE's history, after Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. Turlov succeeds Arkady Dvorkovich, who led FIDE from 2018.
Turlov is the founder and CEO of Nasdaq-listed Freedom Holding Corp., FIDE's principal commercial partner, and has run the Kazakhstan Chess Federation since 2023. He renounced Russian citizenship for Kazakh in 2022. His pitch was financial muscle and federation-level investment — he says he has already put around $30 million into chess — and on Russia he backs the current CAS-driven suspension while leaving the door open to reinstatement if conditions are met.