FIDE in Crisis: Dvorkovich's Suspension, Explained

The EU's sanctions entry accuses Dvorkovich of using his position as FIDE President to support Russian policies that undermine Ukraine's territorial integrity, part of a wider 21st package that also targets Russia's energy, financial and trade sectors. Dvorkovich has called the measures "unlawful and unfair." For the full backstory of how his name ended up on this list after avoiding it for over a year, see our sanctions timeline.

Dvorkovich's own statement frames this as voluntary: he is stepping back from exercising his powers because the sanctions could hinder FIDE's stable functioning under EU and Swiss law, the jurisdictions FIDE operates under as a Switzerland-based federation. Critically, he remains FIDE President in title. He has not vacated the office, and if the sanctions are successfully challenged in court, his authority is automatically restored, no re-election or reappointment required. That is a meaningfully different, and more reversible, situation than a resignation would be.

FIDE's Deputy President, five-time World Champion Viswanathan Anand, has assumed the president's day-to-day duties as acting head of the federation. This is a straightforward line of succession, Anand already held the Deputy President role before any of this happened, and steps up automatically rather than through any new vote. Day-to-day FIDE business, tournament sanctioning, rating list publication, event calendars, continues to run through Anand's office for as long as Dvorkovich's suspension holds.

Dvorkovich had already announced plans to seek a third term as FIDE President in the September 2026 election. The sanctions complicate that campaign significantly, a candidate who has had to suspend himself from the office he is running to keep is a difficult position to campaign from. It also explains why Timur Turlov, initially running for Deputy President on Dvorkovich's own ticket, pivoted to running for the top job himself once that ticket became untenable. See our full profile of Turlov's candidacy for that story. Worth noting explicitly: Anand's current role as acting president (an existing office he already held) is separate from his agreement to run as Turlov's deputy candidate in the actual September election, two different things that happen to involve the same person at the same time.

Three threads to follow: whether Dvorkovich challenges the sanctions in EU or Swiss courts, whether he formally withdraws from the September race rather than campaign under suspension, and how the rest of the candidate field, Turlov and Anand's ticket among them, positions itself around a federation that is, for now, being run by someone who was not elected to the top job.