Ask for Advice: will FIDE disband the Russian national teams

Alexander Tkachev, Executive Director of the Russian Chess Federation (FSHR), and Alexander Ryazantsev, coach of the Russian men's national team, participated in a press conference at the Izvestia International Center, answering the most pressing questions. In particular, the topics of cheating in online chess, the upcoming World Chess Olympiad under 16 (where all our young stars will go) and the complete lifting of sanctions against Russian chess were touched upon. Let us remind you that on February 28, 2022, FIDE allowed our athletes to participate in international competitions in a neutral status, and on March 16, the organization's council banned the national teams of Russia and Belarus from participating in competitions under the auspices of the organization. Because of this, we have already missed a number of major competitions, including two Olympic Games.

Zemlyansky and company

It should be recalled that last year the Chess Federation of the Kyrgyz Republic put on the agenda the issue of "restoring the rights of the national chess federations of Russia and Belarus in full." In other words, if the delegates of the General Assembly vote successfully, our athletes could once again have the opportunity to compete at tournaments under the auspices of FIDE under their flag, play at the national team level, and Russia could once again host the largest international competitions.

Unfortunately, in September 2024, the FIDE Council did not support the proposal to lift the restrictions (41 delegates voted to maintain the sanctions, and only 21 people voted for the complete lifting of restrictions, as well as 11 abstained), suggesting an interim option - to lift the ban only on the performance of youth national teams and teams of athletes with disabilities from Russia. and Belarus.

This is, of course, more than nothing. From August 16 to 23, in the Colombian city of Barranquil, our national team will participate in the World Chess Olympiad under 16 years of age. Moreover, we have assembled a powerful team that will fight for gold.

"This is a unique team," said Alexander Ryazantsev, who will travel with the team to Colombia. — For the first time in history, there will be four grandmasters on the same team at the youth level. We are talking about Ivan Zemlyansky, the Russian record holder, Savva Vetokhin, who has been successfully competing in adult competitions for the past few years. Ivan and Savva's rating is already approaching 2600. I hope they will continue to make progress in the coming years and their entry into the top 100 is just around the corner. Artyom Uskov has made a powerful breakthrough this year. Anna Shukhman is a chess player with great prospects. I am sure that in the future she will be able to compete for the highest places in elite tournaments among women. I hope that with this squad we will fight for the first place in Colombia. Although it just definitely won't be. Our main competitors are India, China, Iran, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Plus, there are often unpredictable results at the youth level. Do not pay attention to the rating of the opponents, it may be underestimated.

Recall that in April 2025, the head of FIDE, Arkady Dvorkovich, said that this year the organization would consider the issue of the return of national teams.

— Literally on July 18-19, the FIDE Presidential Council will be held, — said Alexander Tkachev. — And once again, we hope that FIDE will finally decide on the complete lifting of sanctions against Russia. It will be a very good gift for all chess lovers. Moreover, there are already positive examples. The International Swimming Federation has allowed our athletes to participate in the World Cup in Singapore, including in team disciplines. I would also like to emphasize that it is no secret that a positive decision depends on one person.

Last year, the key issue in the General Assembly's vote was whether the regime was open or closed. After Arkady Dvorkovich, referring to the charter, decided to hold the vote openly, 60 delegates left the meeting room. The results were predetermined. In this regard, it was interesting to hear the opinion of the Executive Director of the Russian Federation on Kirsan Ilyumzhinov's plans to re-nominate his candidacy for the election of the head of FIDE next year.

"The FHR has not decided on the support of one candidate or another," Alexander Tkachev continued. — Here I will quote the president of the Russian Federation Andrey Filatov, who clearly and unequivocally said the following: "We will support any candidate who returns Russian teams to international tournaments. Who it will be — Dvorkovich, Ilyumzhinov or someone else - is not so important."

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Support and respect

Tkachev and Ryazantsev also spoke about Vladimir Kramnik's efforts to combat unfair play in online chess.

— I fully support Vladimir Kramnik's fight. Cheating is the main plague of online chess, which causes irreparable harm to our game. If doping in cyclical sports can be combated, then computer prompts cannot. You just need to eradicate cheating in all possible, accessible and, most importantly, legal ways. Thank you for Vladimir Borisovich leading this movement. And FIDE's position on this issue is causing misunderstanding. Kramnik has long been talking about the need to create a special commission. FIDE officials have been silent for a long time, and recently they even began to make claims to the 14th world champion (the organization called on Kramnik to withdraw the defamation lawsuit against Czech chess player Davil Navara. — Ed.), — said Alexander Tkachev.

—Vladimir raised a serious topic, and he did a lot of work on it," Alexander Ryazantsev emphasized. — It can be discussed for a long time that his abilities are not perfect. There will always be dissatisfied couch experts. But we are talking about a world champion, one of the best chess players in history. He has studied the problem of cheating in depth, understands all the mechanisms, explains the details. This is an important work, if only because the topic has become discussed all over the world, has reached a new level. Previously, these were just conversations on the sidelines of chess.

At the end of May, Kramnik filed a complaint with the EU authorities about the platform. Chess.com . The complaint was filed, among other things, about systematic violations of EU legislation by Chess.com . Earlier, the 14th world champion criticized the chess platform for its ineffective fight against cheating. In December 2024 Chess.com She disqualified Kramnik for six months and banned him from playing in prize tournaments because of his public statements about other chess players.