Despite criticism from Ukraine and other parts of the chess world, the Russian Arkady Dvorkovich has been re-elected president of the world federation FIDE for four years by a large majority. This was confirmed by the electoral commission in India on Sunday. Dvorkovich, former Deputy Prime Minister under Vladimir Putin in Russia’s government, has headed FIDE since 2018.
At the Chennai Congress, Dvorkovich got 157 out of 179 votes. His opponent, the Ukrainian grandmaster Andrii Baryschpolets, only got 16 votes. Before Sunday’s election, Baryshpolets pointed out his opponent’s “enormous connections” to the Russian government. “You are in charge of building the Russian war machine,” he told Dvorkovich.
He denied the allegations. He “took a strong position on the tragic events in Ukraine,” Dvorkovich replied. In fact, in an interview with the US news site “Mother Jones” in March, he described Russia’s invasion as a war and showed compassion for the Ukrainian civilian population.
However, after a strong reaction from the Kremlin, Dvorkovich seemed to be backtracking. And he still sits on the board of directors of the Russian Chess Federation together with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
Russia, which Peter Heine Nielsen, head coach of the Norwegian chess king Magnus Carlsen, also criticized, according to the FAZ, has dominated the chess world for years. Dvorkovich exercises “soft power” for his home country. “Chess must become independent of Russia, in our own interest and as a matter of moral obligation,” wrote Nielsen, a supporter of Baryshpolets, in April.