Three candidates vie for FIDE presidency as Russian era ends amid financial scrutiny

The World Chess Federation gathers in Samarkand on Saturday, September 26, to elect a new president—and for the first time in more than three decades, that president will not be Russian. The incumbent, Arkady Dvorkovich, stepped aside after the European Union placed him on its sanctions list for his support of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. His departure marks a visible break from an era, yet the three candidates competing to replace him—Kazakh billionaire Timur Turlov, German investor Jan Henric Buettner, and entrepreneur Wadim Rosenstein—each carry their own entanglements with Russian money, Russian business, or Russian influence. The federation's motto is "Gens una sumus," we are one family. The election in Uzbekistan will test whether that family can govern itself with transparency, or whether the financial architecture that has long sustained international chess remains too deeply rooted in Moscow to be easily dismantled.

Timur Turlov is the favorite. Born in Moscow, he became a Kazakh citizen in 2022 and built his wealth through Freedom Holding Corp., a publicly traded financial firm that has served as FIDE's principal sponsor for years. At thirty-eight, he is considered close to Dvorkovich and embedded in the federation's establishment. Yet his candidacy carries immediate complications. Freedom Holding Corp. and Turlov himself appear on Ukraine's sanctions list; Ukrainian authorities accuse the company of financing Russia's war effort. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has also taken interest in his financial operations. In the spring of 2026, Turlov acquired Chessbase, a Hamburg-based chess software company. Shortly after the purchase, the company's bank, Hamburger Sparkasse, closed its business account. The bank declined to comment on the specific case but told Deutsche Welle that it must terminate relationships that fall under existing sanctions regimes. Turlov did not respond to requests for comment. Volodymyr Kovalchuk, vice president of the Ukrainian Chess Federation, was blunt: "If Turlov wins the FIDE election and poses a threat to Ukraine's security, then we will push for him to be sanctioned by the EU as well." Yet there are signs of movement—Turlov is now advocating for a Ukrainian official to be elected as a FIDE vice president, a gesture that may signal an attempt at rapprochement.

Jan Henric Buettner, a sixty-two-year-old from Hamburg, represents the clearest break from the Russian financial model. He has no known ties to Moscow and has built his chess profile through collaboration with world champion Magnus Carlsen. His running mate for vice president, Malcolm Pein, told Deutsche Welle: "We are the only team with no connection to Russia." Buettner's platform calls for reducing reliance on Russian backers and making chess commercially viable. He proposes distributing twenty percent of FIDE's revenue to chess federations worldwide and cites Formula 1 motor racing as his model—a vision many in the chess establishment regard as too radical. Consequently, Buettner is seen as an outside candidate, despite the clarity of his position on Russian entanglement.

Wadim Rosenstein, the third contender and the official candidate of the German Chess Federation, has faced the most intense scrutiny. Born in Ukraine in 1990, he moved to Germany at age nine and began organizing elaborate chess events in autumn 2022. His Düsseldorf-based "WR Group" operates across multiple sectors—toilet paper trading, real estate, industrial logistics—and until 2022 focused on supporting German companies in Ukraine and Russia. Rosenstein told Deutsche Welle he is no longer active in Russia and now operates "globally" across seventy countries. Yet one of his Russian companies tells a different story. "WR RUS," based in Moscow and owned by Rosenstein since 2021, has thrived. Its profit grew from approximately €300,000 in 2022 to €1.7 million by 2025. Records show that Rosenstein's German companies collaborated with "WR RUS" through the end of 2023, and the Russian entity paid a dividend of around €30,000 in 2023 that apparently went to Rosenstein and one of his German firms. When Deutsche Welle asked for comment, Rosenstein did not respond.

Since 2022, millions have flowed into Rosenstein's chess events annually. He has sponsored a top-tier tournament featuring Magnus Carlsen, the 2023 World Team Blitz and Rapid Chess Championship at Düsseldorf's Rheinterrasse, and the "WR Women's Chess Tour," with its finale scheduled for November at Rosenstein Palace in Stuttgart. His FIDE campaign itself is costly; social media images show him aboard a private jet during his international tour. According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper, a wealthy real estate entrepreneur from Singapore is helping to cover campaign expenses. Rosenstein has not disclosed the total cost of his chess activities or the precise sources of funding, saying only that he has used his own money and brought on partners who trust him. But who are these partners? In April 2026, Rosenstein introduced Glotech, a Düsseldorf company, as a sponsor providing €250,000 for European chess activities. He called himself "proud" to announce the partnership. Glotech's managing director, Evgeni Schukin, contradicted this entirely: "There was no agreement, and we did not make such funds available." Rosenstein's campaign platform emphasizes professional operation and transparent communication, yet he has not explained the discrepancy.

Rosenstein has secured backing from the German Chess Federation and its president, Paul Meyer-Dunker, who argue that Rosenstein represents "consistent professionalization" and "greater transparency." In early September, Rosenstein met with Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann, who subsequently issued a statement of support. The Bavarian Interior Ministry later clarified to Deutsche Welle that this support concerned only the "sport-specific focus" of the bid and did not constitute an assessment of Rosenstein's business activities or any potential regulatory review. The DSB learned of the meeting only after it occurred.

In early September, a U.S. chess website organized an online debate for the three candidates to address questions about FIDE's financial future. Rosenstein delivered an opening statement lasting just under four minutes, then abruptly announced "See you in Samarkand!" and disconnected. Deutsche Welle asked him multiple times why he did not participate in the remainder of the discussion. He did not respond. The federation that claims to be one family will choose its leader on Saturday in Uzbekistan. The outcome remains uncertain, but the questions—about money, about Russia, about who funds what and why—will not disappear with the vote.