Samarkand Chess Olympiad Hosts FIDE Election as Timur Turlov Outlines His Plans

The 46th FIDE Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, brings national teams together from September 15 to 27. Alongside the competition, delegates will elect the next leadership of FIDE, the International Chess Federation. Three presidential tickets have been approved for the September 26 election. Entrepreneur Jan Henric Buettner, co-founder of Freestyle Chess with Magnus Carlsen, is running with Malcolm Pein for deputy president. WR Chess founder and WR Group chairman Wadim Rosenstein is standing with Gordon Tang. Freedom Holding Corp. founder and CEO Timur Turlov, who also heads the Kazakhstan Chess Federation, is running with Viswanathan Anand. The Times of Central Asia spoke with Turlov about his experience of chess within his family and his proposals for managing the international federation. TCA: Before we talk about professional chess and FIDE, let’s start at the beginning. What is your personal history with chess? Turlov: I learned to play chess as a kid; my grandfather taught me. He saw it as a parenting tool, and it just became part of the family. Over time I drifted away from the game, but I eventually came back. What brought me back wasn't nostalgia or any urge to win; it was my kids, and the sense that real relationships are built on substance, on actually connecting with and sharing with people. Having six children has been one of the great blessings of my life, and when they started playing and asked me to join them, I had good reason to pick the game back up, this time as a parent, and not as a student. It's a small thing, but it reminded me how much family life keeps you grounded, thinking about someone other than yourself. Chess is one way for people to develop relationships and grow in virtue. TCA: You describe chess as a parenting tool as much as a sport. How does that work in practice? Turlov: With six children, finding one consistent way to connect with all of them isn't easy. They're each unique, of different ages, and with different personalities. Chess turned out to be that common ground for us that could be cultivated year after year. Sitting across the board from your child is different from a conversation at dinner. It's slower, calmer, and it opens the door to talking about things that usually don't come up otherwise. Honestly, some of my favorite moments as a parent have happened over a chessboard, not in spite of the game but because of it. TCA: Can you give an example of what a chess game actually teaches a child that a normal conversation can't? Turlov: Beyond strategic thinking- call it looking ahead- there's something in chess that matters even more: learning how to win, and especially how to lose. Chess is one of the few structured experiences where a child loses clearly, sees exactly why, and has to sit with that calmly, without a tantrum, without blaming anyone else. As a parent, that's also a moment for reflection. You can talk through the...

Leaked Recording Stirs Controversy Ahead of FIDE Presidential Election in Samarkand

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...