Russia squares off against Ukraine in a battle for chess control

The brutal war between Russia and Ukraine has now spilled over into the chess world.

After the all-out attack on Moscow in 2022, the International Chess Federation (Fide) voted to ban the Russian national team and officials from the tournaments.

For a country with a history of chess dominance, it was a crushing blow. But now, the Kremlin is fighting back.

A vote at next week’s Fide congress in Budapest could fully reinstate Russia in international chess tournaments.

The Ukrainians, supported by allies from the UK, Germany and other nations, are trying to stop them.

“Russia’s control over Fide is complete,” said Malcolm Pein of the English Chess Federation.

The president of Fide was the former deputy prime minister of Russia, Arkady Dvorkovich, and Mr. Pein talks about Moscow planning to take over the alliance gradually, by making changes to its constitution, which affects the way decisions are made.

“We have a kind of manifestation of what was known in the Soviet days as ‘direct power,'” he explains. “Any vote that Russia wants to pass is always passed.”

Fide is part of the International Olympic Committee and Malcolm Pein wants the IOC to put pressure on the federation to keep the sanctions against Russia.

The proposal to lift all sanctions against Russia was put on the table by the Chess Federation of Kyrgyzstan, Russia’s largest federation in Central Asia.

However, other countries are expected to support Moscow at the Fide conference.

The head of the German Chess Federation, Ingrid Lauterbach, says that all federations have one vote and that many countries in Africa and Asia are “easily influenced to vote.” [Russia’s] grace”.

“You see [pro-Russians] they are trying to take over. It’s really worrying.”

On the other hand, the Fide commission imposed sanctions on the Russian Chess Federation (CFR) last June, banning it for two years for “bringing chess into disrepute” and violating the rules of the international organization.

It found that the Russian federation had organized competitions in Ukrainian territories illegally occupied by Russian troops and reprimanded the president of Fide in Russia for his membership in the CFR board.

Former defense minister Sergei Shoigu and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, both of whom are subject to international sanctions, are board members.

Arkady Dvorkovich said at the time that many of his colleagues in the Fide council did not agree with the ban on the alliance and would appeal. “Yes, the meeting will not fail to consider such an important issue for the whole world of chess movement,” he told Match TV.

But next week’s key vote at the Fide General Assembly concerns separate sanctions that were implemented in 2022 – namely, the exclusion of the Russian national chess team, flag, anthem and officials from all international chess events.

Ukraine’s attempt to stop Russia from dominating the global chess body is gaining ground.

President Volodymyr Zelensky gave the task to his strategic affairs adviser, Alexander Kamyshin, who made a name for himself at the beginning of the war by keeping Ukraine’s railways running despite repeated attacks.

“I was very surprised by this vote in Budapest,” said Mr. Kamyshin, the new head of the Ukrainian Chess Federation.

“We have killed 21 chess players in this war. It is wrong to bring this issue up on the show while Russia is killing our people, our chess players in Ukraine.”

The Russian Chess Federation and Arkady Dvorkovich declined to comment to the BBC, although Russian officials called the decision to punish the RCF “deliberately political and unsportsmanlike”.

Malcolm Pein fears that if Russia is brought back into the chess fold, it would be “massive propaganda”.

“They will be able to point to it and say, look, we have been allowed to return to chess. They can show their citizens that they don’t have to suffer as much as they have to because of war. “

For Ukraine and its Western allies, chess is one part of their campaign to maintain sanctions pressure on Russia.

But after two and a half years of war, calls for Moscow to be accepted by the international community are growing.