On 24 July 2026, Arkady Dvorkovich announced that he was voluntarily suspending his duties as president of Fide, the international federation. Dvorkovich is a former deputy prime minister of Russia, so when he was named in the EU’s 21st sanctions package, there was little room for manoeuvre. Rather than let the sanctions paralyse the federation’s operations, he stepped back ‘with immediate effect’, handing over to deputy president Viswanathan Anand, the five-time world champion.
This is not the first time Fide has found itself in this position. Dvorkovich’s predecessor Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, former president of the Russian republic of Kalmykia, was added to the US Treasury Department sanctions list in 2015 (albeit removed in 2025), which led, in 2018, to the closure of Fide’s Swiss bank accounts – the same year Dvorkovich was elected.
In any case, Fide will soon elect a new president; the next election is due to take place alongside the Olympiad in Samarkand late next month. Surprisingly, Ilyumzhinov announced his candidacy, and the Russian federation gave its support. But when the final trio of candidates was announced, Ilyumzhinov’s name was absent.
The closest to a continuity candidate is Timur Turlov, the Kazakh billionaire founder of Freedom Holding, which has sponsored several major Fide events and was announced in April as a partner of Fide during 2026. Turlov had planned to run as Dvorkovich’s deputy but will now run for president with Anand as his deputy.
