The FIDE General Assembly was held on 26–27 September 2026 in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, during the 46th FIDE Chess Olympiad and the FIDE Congress 2026. The Congress brought together representatives of FIDE Member Federations, as well as members of the FIDE Council, Zonal Council and FIDE Commissions. The General Assembly agenda included elections, reports and financial matters, membership issues, administrative matters, changes to the FIDE Handbook, the FIDE Chess Olympiad 2030, and other matters.
Elections and Appointments
The General Assembly took the following decisions concerning the FIDE leadership and commissions:
- Mr. Timur Turlov was elected FIDE President.
- Mr. Viswanathan Anand was elected FIDE Deputy President.
The following were elected by the General Assembly as FIDE Vice-Presidents:
- Ms. Yuhua Xu (CHN) • Mr. Michael Khodarkovsky (USA) • Mr. Pavel Kolobkov (RUS)
- Mr. Yassin Souleiman Hassan (DJI)
The following nominees of the FIDE President were elected:
- Mr. Luigi Maggi (ITA) – Treasurer
- Ms. Bouchra Kadiri (MAR) – Vice-President/Secretary of the FIDE Council
- Mr. Mahir Mammedov (AZE) – Vice-President
- Ms. Carol S. Williams Pesqueira (ARU) – Vice-President
- Mr. Mykhailo Podolyak (UKR) – Vice-President
The following nominees of the FIDE President as Honorary Vice-Presidents of FIDE were proposed for approval by the FIDE Council:
- Mr. Rustam Kasimdzhanov (UZB)
- Mr. Javier Ochoa De Echaguen (ESP)
- Mr. Fouad Fahmi Darwish (UAE)
- Mr. Michael Stoettinger (AUT)
The General Assembly also:
- Elected Mr. Francois Strydom (RSA) as a Member of the Constitutional Commission.
- Supported President’s decision to appoint Mr. Jorge Arias (URU) as Secretary of the Constitutional Commission.
Changes to the FIDE Charter and Regulations
The General Assembly considered a number of proposals concerning the FIDE Charter and regulations. Appointing the Honorary Vice-Presidents of FIDE The General Assembly approved the proposal of the FIDE President, to appoint up to 5 Honorary Vice-Presidents entitled to participate in the work of the Council with all rights, except for voting rights. The list of proposed nominees is mentioned above.
Bilingual Institutional Designation
The General Assembly approved an amendment to the FIDE Charter concerning the bilingual institutional designation of FIDE, recognising the historical French name of the organisation alongside its English designation. Under the new Article 5.7, whenever FIDE displays its full institutional name together with the FIDE acronym, seal, flag or emblem, the English and French names will be presented jointly as: International Chess Federation / Fédération Internationale des Échecs. The amendment concerns FIDE’s institutional identity and visual representation only. It does not change the status of English as FIDE’s official and working language and does not introduce a general requirement to translate FIDE documents, regulations, decisions, minutes, contracts, correspondence, news or other communications into French.
Chess960 Rating
The General Assembly approved the establishment of a FIDE rating system for Fischer Random Chess (Chess960), with the condition that the rating system shall be elaborated and implemented no later than 1 June 2027. This responds to the continued growth of the variant and the need for an official competitive rating framework. The proposal was submitted jointly by the German Chess Federation, Icelandic Chess Federation, Norwegian Chess Federation, Irish Chess Union and Faroe Islands Chess Federation. The initiative noted that Chess960 has been growing internationally, while the absence of an official rating system has limited its integration into the wider competitive chess ecosystem.
FIDE Chess Olympiad 2030
The General Assembly noted the readiness of the Qatar Chess Association and the Georgia Chess Federation to host the FIDE Chess Olympiad 2030, together with the FIDE Chess Olympiad for People with Disabilities 2030 and the FIDE Congress 2030. The Assembly instructed the FIDE Management Board to conduct negotiations with the Qatar Chess Association and, subject to the provision of official organisational and financial guarantees, to inform the FIDE Council and sign the respective contract following formal approval. Should the required official guarantees not be provided and the contract not be signed within a reasonable timeframe, the right to sign the contract will pass to the Georgia Chess Federation, subject to the provision of the corresponding organisational and financial guarantees.
Extraordinary General Assembly
The General Assembly decided that an Extraordinary General Assembly of FIDE will convene online in late 2026. The FIDE Council was instructed to prepare the FIDE budget for 2027 and the provisional FIDE budget for 2028, and submit them for review at the Extraordinary General Assembly.
The full list of decisions and the official documentation will be published at a later date.