One of the important decisions at the upcoming FIDE Congress during the Chess Olympiad 2024 is the resolution by the Kyrgyzstan Chess Federation to restore the full membership rights of the Russian Chess Federation. Several sources of Chessdom.com confirmed that Russia “most probably” has the needed votes for the resolution to pass.

The resolution was proposed by Babur Tolbaev, the President of the Chess Federation of Kyrgyzstan. David Llada talks about systematically to reward submission and in this FIDE Congress we see Babur Tolbaev among the candidates for FIDE Ethics Commission chairman.

The newly elected President of the Ukrainian Chess Federation Alexander Kamyshin has activated upon this news. In a statement in his Twitter/X account, Kamyshin says, “I am starting my work at the Ukrainian Chess Federation with a challenging and important battle on the international front. Yes, it’s again about Russia. And no, we will not let them prevail, as we don’t let it on the battlefield.”

Kamyshin continued, “On September 22, a meeting of the FIDE General Assembly is scheduled in Budapest, where the agenda includes the issue of restoring the full rights of the national chess federations of russia and belarus. It’s about the return of the right for the teams of aggressor countries to participate in international competitions under their own flags and anthems. russia and belarus also want to regain the right to host international tournaments under the flag of FIDE on their territory. I would like to remind you that currently, neither the russian nor the belarusian national teams have the right to participate in international competitions under the auspices of FIDE, and their chess players can only compete in tournaments under the neutral FIDE flag. This issue was brought to the agenda by the Chairman of the Chess Federation of the Kyrgyz Republic, Babur Tolbaev. While chess players in Ukraine are killed by russian military terrorists, there is no place for the russian and belarusian flags at chess tournaments. The russian anthem has no right to sound in the countries of the free world. Moreover, no self-respecting chess player who values their reputation will go to a country that is daily killing the peaceful people of another country.
I would like to remind you that since the beginning of the Great War, 21 chess players have already been killed in Ukraine, and two more chess players are still missing. And these are only the data that are currently known. Therefore, on behalf of the Ukrainian Chess Federation, I officially declare our categorical disagreement on this agenda item. I urge FIDE to remove this issue from the agenda.

1. All official appeals from the Ukrainian Chess Federation to FIDE will be sent by the end of the week. All appeals to the national federations of FIDE member countries will be sent similarly

2. I ask our grandmasters to reach out to their colleagues from other countries. National federations need to hear our chess players. FIDE must hear grandmasters from around the world.

3. We are involving the Ukrainian Ministry of Youth and Sports. Their support on the international arena is crucial

4. We are engaging the diplomatic apparatus of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine I will ask our ambassadors in all countries to carry out the necessary work

5. I ask journalists to get involved, both Ukrainian and foreign. The world must hear us.

6. Personally, over the next two weeks, I will conduct online negotiations with all heads of national chess federations — whoever I can reach

7. I will personally attend the FIDE General Assembly. I will hold in person negotiations with all delegates who are willing to hear the voice of justice

We will not allow terrorists and military aggressors to return to the civilized world of chess under their blood-stained flags while they are killing chess players in Ukraine.

#NoBloodyRussianFlagBackInChess
“

Stay tuned for more updates from the FIDE Congress on Chessdom.com

The FIDE congress will take place during the Chess Olympiad 2024 in Budapest. Having in mind the ongoing war and the Olympic commetee / sports world guidelines, the Kyrgyzstan Chess Federation request seems out of line.

The actual letter by the Kyrgyzstan Chess Federation by Babur Tolbaev reads:

Dear Arkady Dvorkovich,
Dear FIDE team,

Please find attached a letter for consideration. It is our proposal for the General Assembly Agenda.

Thank you!

Best,
Babur Tolbaev
Kyrgyzstan Chess Union

Link to original document: https://doc.fide.com/docs/DOC/2024GA/Annex_4.3.1.1.pdf

In order to avoid any ambiguity in the World Chess Championship Cycle qualifications, the ECU notes that all the players who have transferred to the FIDE flag and registered on time in accordance with the official invitation to play in the European Individual Chess Championships, that will take place in Serbia and Montenegro in March 2023, are eligible to do so. The events in Serbia and Montenegro conclude the current cycle at the European level which started in 2020. As for the next qualification cycle, the Russian players who do not transfer to ECU federations will belong to the Asian Continent and would not qualify from Europe if the transfer of the RCF takes place.

The FIDE Council reviewed yesterday, February 21, the report prepared by the Constitutional Commission on the request made by the Chess Federation of Russia (CFR) to join the Asian Chess Federation (ACF).

The Asian Chess Federation is expected to decide on this request at its General Assembly, which will take place in Abu Dhabi on February 28. Its acceptance would automatically imply that the Chess Federation of Russia withdraws its membership to the European Chess Union, since a federation cannot belong to two continents at the same time.

In view of this, and after examining all legal considerations presented to them by the Constitutional Commission, the FIDE Council has made two main decisions:

1) To rename Zone 1.6 (Russia) as Zone 3.8, as part of Asia, effective May 1, 2023, given that the Asian Chess Federation confirms it accepts the Chess Federation of Russia as a member in their General Assembly.

2) To adopt a series of additional measures to protect those players who decide to leave the Russian Chess Federation at this point and join any European chess federation. Players previously belonging to the CFR will be allowed to represent their new federation with immediate effect, from the next day of submitting their application, without any restrictions. All transfer fees, to FIDE or CFR, are waived.

You can read below the full resolution:

FIDE Council Resolution

Whereas:

1) Chess Federation of Russia (CFR)  has informed FIDE about their request to be accepted as a member of the Asian Chess Federation (ACF);

2) FIDE Constitutional Commission (CC) has reviewed the matter from the legal perspective and recommends the FIDE Council revise FIDE zones before such transfer of RCF to ACF;

3) CC has highlighted the need to provide the minimum remedy and fairness to players who have chosen to remain in European Chess Union (ECU),

FIDE Council decides:

1. To approve that Zone 1.6. (Russia) from May 1, 2023, is considered to belong to the Asian zone, and will be renamed as Zone 3.8.

2. To approve that:

2.1. All the transfer fees to FIDE and compensation fees to the CFR are waived for any player who has previously been registered with the RCF and who, from March 1, 2022, until August 31, 2023, has applied or will apply for the membership of any of the ECU’s federation.

2.2. All these players (further – Players) have the right to represent the new federation in all official individual events of FIDE from the next day of submitting their application without any restrictions, provided that all other conditions for the transfer have been met besides paying the fees. Such applications should be checked and confirmed or rejected (only if the application contradicts art. 2.6. of the current Transfer rules) by FIDE 15 days after their submission.

2.3. The conditions mentioned in Articles 2.1 and 2.2 of this resolution also apply to Russian players who have transferred to the special FIDE status.

2.4 In the event that the Players decide to leave the national federation to which they transferred under the above procedure, such a federation is not entitled to receive any compensation fee. Also, these Players can transfer to CFR later with no fees to be paid to their previous national federation or FIDE.

2.5. The right of such Players to participate in European team competitions is determined by the decision of the ECU, without any additional restrictions from FIDE. The decision about the rights of such Players to represent the new federation in FIDE team competitions should be approved by the FIDE Council no later than by May 1, 2023. 

2.6. To avoid any doubt, official FIDE competitions are FIDE world championships and events providing direct qualification spots to FIDE world championships, FIDE Candidates tournaments and the FIDE World Cups.

3. Both above-mentioned decisions come into force, given the Asian Chess Federation (ACF) accepts the Chess Federation of Russia (CFR) as a member of the ACF as of May 1, 2023.

4. If the date of ACF accepting CFR as its member differs, the above decisions apply from the same date, respectively.

5. To create a FIDE working group for further revision of the structure of FIDE zones according to the opinion of the Constitutional Commission.

See Karjakin’s announcement below the picture

“Dear friends! I have important news!

In recent months, I have been actively and to the point criticizing the leadership of the Russian Chess Federation. I sincerely believed that constructive criticism would help the Federation to pay attention to the problematic aspects of its activities.

Alas, after 8 months I do not see any positive changes in the activities of the FSR (Russian Chess Federation). Executive Director Mark Glukhovsky, who initiated the signing of an open letter against the SVO (special military operation), lives quietly in Israel and still remains in his position, despite complete failures in management (at least absence from the workplace) and corruption scandals. The vast majority of chess players and regional federations do not receive any support from the FSR (Russian Chess Federation). Help for young, promising chess players is negligible. The main principle of the Federation is “Genius must be hungry.” Many talented athletes move to other countries, and no one even comes to dialogue with them. As a person who is not indifferent, I cannot stand aside and be silent!

Andrey Filatov, the incumbent FSR (Russian Chess Federation) President, recently announced that he will again run for a third term (he first led the FSR [Russian Chess Federation] in 2014). Federation emissaries have already spread the message to the regions that the elections will be uncontested, and have begun to collect signatures in favor of the “only” candidate.

A team of five vice-presidents is going to the elections with Filatov, all of them are respected and honored people who have done a lot for the development of chess, but the absence of the famous A.E. Karpov, who is the current vice-president of the FSR (Russian Chess Federation). Maybe the whole point is that he had the imprudence to agree with me on some issues of criticism of the activities of the FSR (Russian Chess Federation)?! However, the executive director plays a key role in the day-to-day activities of the Federation, and I regard the extension of Glukhovsky’s powers in this post as a spit in the face of the entire chess community.

Considering the above mentioned circumstances, after much deliberation, I decided to run for the post of President of the FSR (Russian Chess Federation)!

Yes, I might not be able to. Competitors are strong, and over the 8 years of government, a lot of “own people” have been placed.
But I feel it is my duty and a matter of honor to try to change the current situation!
I would really like our sport to develop, despite the current stagnation and stagnation.

My goal is to organize work with young talents, hold many new tournaments, and help in every way to ensure that our players and coaches do not go abroad in search of a better life. And it is equally important to organize real support for the regions from the federal center. Today, they are remembered once every 4 years before the next congress …

I guarantee that I will do my best to improve the activities of the Russian Chess Federation in all areas, I believe that if I am elected, I can give it a new impetus for development!

I express my gratitude to the Chess Federation of the Chechen Republic for nominating my candidacy! (According to the new rules of the FSR (Russian Chess Federation), a presidential candidate must go to the polls from an accredited regional federation).

If we do not win now, we will have to wait for a long 4 years, and there is no such time.
The current President of the Federation Filatov A.V. appointed himself as the head coach of the national teams. But it did not help us to win the Olympic gold.

Comprehensive development of chess in Russia is my task, mission and goal! I call on all caring people who are interested in the development of chess and want positive changes to support me. It would be important for me to see that we are together, and I am sure that this is the only way we can win!“

Among the awarded players were Andrey Esipenko, Polina Shuvalova, Alexey Sarana and Margarita Potapova, graduates of the chess section of “Sirius”, as well as trainers: Andrey Filatov, Alexander Motylev and Sergei Rublevsky.

Currently ongoing: Russian Team Chess Championship 2021

FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich, President of the Russian Chess Federation Andrey Filatov, and Deputy Director of Sirius Dmitry Savin took part in the awarding ceremony.

Photo: Education Centre “Sirius”

Details can be found on the official website of Russian Chess Federation.

The upcoming Carlsen – Nepomniachtchi 2021 match is also discussed. Nepo says, “I think [with Magnus] we first played in the European U12 Championship in Spain in 2002, and back then, it was just another game for me […] Now, it’s a rivalry, an undeclared war (laughs), so the situation has changed a bit”

Full interview by Eteri Kublashvili for Ruchess.ru

Here are some of the key questions and answers by Nepo. The full interview you can see at the video above.

Ian, you won one of the most important events in every chess player’s career and qualified for the World Championship Match. It’s a great achievement, congratulations! So, how do you feel now?

Thank you. I feel really exhausted because it was an incredible tournament in many, many senses of the word. First of all, I guess it took 400 days from start to finish, it is kind of outstanding. Well, when you read about chess history, players were travelling by sea, from America to Europe and so on… In our times, you know, it’s not romantic at all because of the global pandemic thing.

I think the most difficult part was not playing chess, but these 13 months between the first and second legs, during which one somehow needed to keep one’s focus, needed to prepare constantly thinking about other guys: what were they doing, how did they prepare, what were they going to play, because basically, it’s one year between the tournaments and only seven games to prepare for. So, you should be ready that you’re going to face completely different players in a completely different situation.

I believe, for instance, Ding played really poorly in the first leg, scoring –2, and now, in the second leg, he scored +2. He also beat me on the last day. It’s just one of the examples.

More: Carlsen – Nepo 2021 – the reactions

Yes, it was a very long and nervous period of expectation and negotiations, but still, in one of his interviews, Anatoly Karpov said that this one-year break would do you good because probably you would save more energy for the second part. Do you agree with this?

Well, especially now that I know the result – yes. Indeed, I’m not the person who should whine about this long break, since in the end, I won the whole thing. However, I’d say that this also would help other guys, because, you know, the Candidates Tournament is a very difficult competition, the stakes are very high, and there’s only one place, so it doesn’t matter if you finish on +1, or +2, or earn some rating: you should score the maximum amount of points, you should take the first place. Basically, you can earn some rating, you can play some good games, but all this will never make you happy unless you win the Candidates.

If you remember the last year, everyone was afraid of the COVID-19. As for me, on my last training session before the tournament, I got a slight cold, but somehow it was going worse and worse and worse, and by the end of the tournament, I was feeling really bad. As far as I remember, in the last game of the first leg against Maxime, I actually skipped most of my preparation because I was feeling so bad that I just wanted to save as much energy as I could, but it resulted in an opposite effect. I just mixed up moves in the line that happened and quickly got a worse, almost lost position. After that game, the situation wasn’t that clear anymore. I was on a +3 score, in a commanding position, but then I ended up sharing first place on +2 with Vachier-Lagrave, and it was very bad news for me.

Anyway, I was determined to show that this was just a random slump, and I was preparing hard for my next game against Anish… I was very shocked and disappointed when I learned that the tournament was stopped to be resumed “sometime in the future”. Then some time passed, and I understood that I was very far from my best conditions, so I guess this [stopping and resumption] made me a really big favourite.

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, “Covid made Candidates extra tough”

Having won the event in advance, you said that you had worked with Vladimir Potkin, Nikita Vitiugov, Ildar Khairullin, and you also mentioned Peter Leko. That was quite a surprise for the chess fans. What did you get from this cooperation and what did you expect from it?

I think I got even more than I had expected, since the result is so great. But somehow, I always felt that one of my big drawbacks was the general lack of chess culture.

Let’s start with Ildar. He was born in 1990, the same generation as me, Magnus, Karjakin, MVL, Andreikin and so on, and I guess he’s one of the most talented players of our age, although he didn’t make a brilliant career because, perhaps, of stamina problems or health issues. However, he has a really great understanding of chess; he’s outstanding in analysing positions.

Nikita is mostly my sparring partner. Historically, I have a very poor score against Nikita and Ildar. I’ve never beaten Ildar in a classical game. We haven’t played much after our childhood, but if you want to talk about “Kryptonite”, he’s this for me, sort of. And Nikita is the sort of the player who used to beat me quite often, so it was very instructive to play against him.

And Peter is just a chess legend. At some point, he was very, very close to beating Kramnik in their match in Brissago. I think that the last game of that match was heart-breaking because Kramnik managed to strike back and make the score equal. Leko understands chess really, really deeply, you can take an amazing amount of knowledge from him, and this is a chance you should be a big fool not to use.

There were many talks about the tiebreak criteria here. Do you think they are just and right? Don’t you feel that there should be a play-off match between those who tie for the first place?

Well, this is surely up for discussion, so many thanks to Kirill, who won in the last round, so that in this particular edition of the FIDE Candidates I got the clear first place despite the loss in the last round. However, in general, it seems like the fairest thing to me. I’d played a lot of round-robin tournaments, and there were tie-breaks to determine first place. For example, three or four people can share first place in an open tournament. Somewhere, like in Gibraltar, you play tie-breaks. Somewhere, like in the Grand Swiss, you just calculate rating performance, or Buchholz, or direct encounter.

So, technically… I guess FIDE also considered – I’m not sure if so, but I think it was possible to finish the tournament after only one half. Everyone played against everyone, and so Maxime would have qualified because he won the direct encounter against me. Once we start, once we sign the contract, we all, technically, mentally maybe not, but technically we all agree with what’s going on, with the rules. The situation is equal for everyone.

Speaking of Anish and me – you know, I think it was Kasparov who said that because of a win one year ago, it was now unacceptable for Anish to share the first place with me since he would lose on tie-break. But I think he also said after that: “Let’s consider the opposite situation where if Ian shares the first place with MVL, then Maxime wins because of the tie-break”. So this applies equally to everyone. I see nothing wrong with an extra match, for example, in case of finishing on equal points, or maybe, I don’t know, we can discuss some other options, but this system… I think it has been consistent for the previous seven or eight years.

London 2013 was quite interesting because Kramnik had Black against Ivanchuk in the last round. He played the Pirc Defence because he wanted to win and he was sure that Carlsen would never lose with White against Peter Svidler. And they both ended up losing: Carlsen to Svidler and Kramnik to Chucky. And then, because of the tie-breaker, I think it was Berger, Carlsen qualified for the Match and then became the World Champion. So, you know, we should have started these talks at that time. I think back then, there were also lots of discussions, so I guess this is more a question to the FIDE authorities. Once again, when we all start, we’re all in an equal situation, and it’s the game of chess that decides who qualifies and who waits for the next chance.

And now you have qualified for the Match against Magnus Carlsen, so please tell us about your relationship with him, both over and off the board.

I think we first played in the European U12 Championship in Spain in 2002, and back then, it was just another game for me – you know, some guy from Norway, which was not such a chess country. I didn’t think much about the game – OK, he played well, but then he just collapsed, and I won.

Then I suddenly played against him again in the World Youth Championship the same year, and I think we ended up sharing first place, and I won the tournament due to tie-breaks. We also clashed a couple of times in the youth championships, but soon after, he stopped playing in them. It was probably his best decision (laughs) to stop playing in the youth championships. You know, normally when a young player shows good results in his/her age group, experienced coaches always say that one should stop playing opponents of one’s age and start playing against adults, against strong opposition. Yes, one may start losing, but anyway, it’s much more useful for one’s chess career, for improving one’s play.

So, I guess we’ve known each other for almost twenty years. At some point, I think in 2010 or 2012, we used to work a little together; there were some training sessions. Once, I think, I was even second to Magnus in some London tournament in 2012 (I might be mistaken). He has a nice personality, he’s a very nice dude. I can’t say we’re close friends, but I think we have quite a nice relationship. Still, as you know, you can have no friends over the board, and I think we were never friendly to each other when we were playing chess, and especially now, when you think about the Match, you probably should…

Forget your past?

It’s not even about forgetting the past or thinking of the future. Now, it’s a rivalry, an undeclared war (laughs), so the situation has changed a bit.