Former Russian top politician elected new president of FIDE
With the election of Russian Arkady Dvorkovich over Georgios Makropoulos, international chess could be cutting ties with the Ilyumzhinov era.
At the World Chess Federation’s General Assembly, held in Batumi, Georgia, FIDE delegates elected Russian Arkady Dvorkovich as the new president with 103 votes over his opponent Georgios Makropoulos, who got 78 votes.
Dvorkovich comes from a position as Russian Deputy Prime-Minister and has also served as chairman of the local organising committee for the FIFA World Cup 2018.
His opponent Makropoulos has been FIDE Deputy President under former president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov since the mid-80s and became de facto head of the federation after Ilyumzhinov went on the US Treasury’s list of sanctioned foreigners in late 2015.
A third candidate, British grandmaster Nigel Short, pulled out immediately before the election took place, and offered his support to the Russian contestant.
Among Dvorkovich’s selling points to the voting assembly were to build "a professional, efficient and transparent institution," seeking long-time funding from corporate sponsors, cutting fees to FIDE and allocating 3 million euro for developing countries, wrote chess.com in a report from the election.
More about the election:
Dvorkovich Elected FIDE President (chess.com)
Good governance conference leads up to chess presidential elections (Play the Game)