The Russian Chess Federation moved to the Asian Chess Federation. The transition was approved by 29 delegates, one opposed, and six abstained.
Prior to that, the CFR was part of the European Chess Union. The decision of the FSH Supervisory Board to withdraw from the European Chess Union was made on April 14, 2022. The transition was approved by the International Chess Federation (FIDE) on February 22, 2023. FIDE is headed by the former prime minister of the government of the Russian Federation Arkady Dvorkovich. In 2022, he opposed the Russian invasion of Ukraine and was re-elected as FIDE President.
The executive director of the Russian Chess Federation, Alexander Tkachev, previously reported that the move to Asia is not connected with the start of the war in Ukraine. “The Supervisory Board of the FSR decided to apply for the transition back in April last year. And I would like to emphasize that this decision was not due to circumstances that arose a little earlier than April 2022. We have been working on this issue for a long time and looked to the east as an important direction in the development of domestic chess. If a positive decision is made, we will have the opportunity to both freely travel to competitions and hold international competitions on the territory of our country, ”Tkachev said then.
In addition to the FSR, after the start of the war, the Russian Football Union also tried to change the region and federation, the option of moving to Asia was also considered, but later it was decided to abandon the plans.
