Timur Turlov Elected FIDE President at General Assembly in Samarkand

The elections were held on September 26 by secret ballot during the 46th World Chess Olympiad. In the second round, Turlov gained 110 votes, outpacing Vadim Rosenstein, who was supported by 85 delegates. In the first round, Turlov received 96 votes, Rosenstein - 76, and candidate from Germany Jan Heinrich Buttner - 20 votes. A total of 196 ballots were cast in the first round (according to Anhor.uz - 192), four of which were declared invalid.

Together with the 38-year-old Turlov, world champion Viswanathan Anand took the post of Vice-President of FIDE on the single presidential list. According to Anhor.uz, citing Reuters, Turlov was elected for a four-year term and became the eighth president of the international federation, as well as the first representative of Kazakhstan and Central Asia to head the organization.

Turlov replaced Arkady Dvorkovich as the head of FIDE, who had been leading the federation since 2018. In July 2026, Dvorkovich voluntarily suspended the execution of his duties due to being included in the EU sanctions list, after which the structure was temporarily headed by Anand.