An audio recording attributed to Russian chess organizer Mark Glukhovsky has surfaced online ahead of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) presidential election in Samarkand. In the recording, the speaker makes derogatory remarks about Uzbeks and Uzbek officials and appears to discuss bribery as one of the tactics used during the 2018 FIDE election campaign. Glukhovsky has acknowledged that a private conversation was secretly recorded but maintains that the material released online was edited and partly reworked using artificial intelligence.
The Ukrainian Chess Federation published the audio on its Facebook page. Its full context and authenticity, including whether it had been edited, could not be independently verified.
In it, the speaker describes his involvement in Arkady Dvorkovich’s campaign for the FIDE presidency in 2018. Glukhovsky was Dvorkovich’s campaign manager at the time. According to the speaker, the team had to work with around 200 delegates from different countries.
“You need to talk to some people, send the program to some, bribe some, and connect some in an alliance with someone else,” the speaker says in the recording.
Dvorkovich, a former Russian deputy prime minister, won the election and became FIDE president in 2018. He was reelected in 2022.
On July 23, 2026, the European Union added Dvorkovich to its Ukraine-related sanctions list. The same day, he said he considered the sanctions unlawful and intended to challenge them, but would voluntarily suspend the exercise of his powers as FIDE president for as long as the restrictions remained in force. His duties were assumed by FIDE Deputy President Viswanathan Anand, a former world champion, who became interim president.
The recording then turns to Uzbekistan and Otabek Umarov, first vice president of the National Olympic Committee of Uzbekistan. The speaker questions why an Uzbek representative was part of Dvorkovich’s team and uses several offensive expressions to describe him.
“Some Uzbek guy. Why the hell is this Uzbek even there?” the speaker says. He refers to Umarov’s position on the National Olympic Committee of Uzbekistan and appears at first to be unaware of his family connection to the president.
The tone changes after the speaker says he searched for information about Umarov and learned that he is President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s son-in-law.
“Then I googled him – the president’s son-in-law. That, I would say, changes things,” the speaker says in the recording.
The speaker also refers to Uzbekistan’s prime minister, claiming that the official had previously assured Dvorkovich of his support. He then questions whether such a commitment would still carry weight with Umarov involved in Dvorkovich’s campaign.
The recording also contains a dismissive assessment of Uzbekistan’s role in the FIDE election. “Uzbekistan’s vote by itself doesn’t matter at all,” the speaker says before making further offensive remarks about Uzbeks.
The recording appeared less than a month before the FIDE presidential election. Voting will take place on September 26 during the organization’s General Assembly in Samarkand. Each member federation represented at the General Assembly is entitled to one vote.
FIDE has approved three presidential tickets. Timur Turlov, president of the Kazakhstan Chess Federation and founder of Freedom Holding Corp., is running with Viswanathan Anand as his candidate for deputy president. The other two tickets are German entrepreneur Jan Henric Buettner with British chess organizer Malcolm Pein, and entrepreneur Wadim Rosenstein with Gordon Tang.
The FIDE Congress will be held in Samarkand from September 20 to 27, with General Assembly meetings scheduled for September 26-27.
Glukhovsky has advised Turlov during the campaign, although Turlov said on September 4 that Glukhovsky held no leadership position on the team and provided advice only on individual issues.
The 46th Chess Olympiad is scheduled for September 15-27 in Samarkand. FIDE has confirmed 400 teams, including 208 in the Open competition and 192 in the Women’s event, surpassing the record set at the 2024 Olympiad in Budapest.
Following the publication, Glukhovsky said the private conversation had been secretly recorded in the Netherlands without his consent. He also said he had filed a report with Dutch police against the person responsible for publishing the material.
Although Glukhovsky acknowledged that an underlying private conversation took place, he disputed whether the published version faithfully reflected it. At the time of publication, no independent technical analysis of the recording was publicly available.
Uzbek authorities and FIDE have not publicly commented on the contents of the recording.
