4/23/2020 – In a press release the International Chess Federation FIDE and Chess.com just announced the Online Nations Cup, a team competition held May 5-10, 2020. Six teams are due to take part in this competition: Russia, USA, Europe, China, India, plus a team representing the "Rest of the World." Garry Kasparov will be the captain for the European team, Vishy Anand will defend the first board of the Indian team.

3/30/2020 – French Grandmaster Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who jointly leads the now suspended 2020 Candidates is back in Paris. After an eventful fortnight, that included a surprise call to the event, the consequent last-minute scramble for a visa, an impressive performance at the tournament and returning home after passing through an empty airport. In an exclusive interview with Dhananjay Khadilkar, MVL, as he is popularly known, speaks about his surreal experience. | Photos: Lennart Ootes/FIDE

3/26/2020 – The Candidates Tournament is postponed! In a statement from March 26, 8:42, the FIDE announced that the "FIDE President decided to stop the tournament. It will be continued later, with the exact dates to be announced as soon. ... The results of the 7 rounds played remain valid, and the tournament will be resumed in the same composition starting with the games of the 8th round."

3/25/2020 – Originally, the 44. Chess Olympiad was scheduled to take place from 5-17 August 2020 in Moscow and Khanty-Mansiysk. But yesterday, 24 March, the FIDE declared in a statement that it decided to postpone the Olympiad "to the summer of 2021 at the same locations".

1/7/2020 – The Women’s World Chess Championship match is from January 5-26, 2020. The first six games will be played in Shanghai, China and the remaining six games, plus any tiebreak games, will be played in Vladivostok, Russia. The match features Women’s World Champion Ju Wenjun of China against challenger Aleksandra Goryachkina, of Russia. Here, Alexey Root, a lecturer teaching courses about chess in education at The University of Texas at Dallas, answers questions about the Women’s World Chess Championship. | Photo: Lewis Liu

10/24/2019 – A jury appointed by FIDE, headed by Vladimir Kramnik, has chosen the coaches of the year 2018. The awards go to John Donaldson (pictured), Yu Shaoteng, Michal Konopka, Ramachandran Ramesh and Adrian Mikhalchishin. | Photos: FIDE

10/7/2019 – An editorial from CHESS Magazine's executive editor IM MALCOLM PEIN announcing the 11th London Chess Classic, the latest news from Chess in Schools and Communities, thoughts on the FIDE calendar, and the standings of the Grand Chess Tour.

9/20/2019 – The new FIDE administration headed by Arkady Dvorkovich has made a number of organizational changes in its first year in charge. Some are more visible than others, and most have been generally regarded as positive. Now the FIDE website has received a fresh new look. What do you think?

7/25/2019 – FIDE continues to encourage public participation in its wide-ranging survey with research firm Nielsen and the survey closes this weekend. Now is your last chance to participate! Meanwhile, another Nielsen, Magnus Carlsen's second Peter Heine Nielsen, continues to engage FIDE leadership in a public discussion around financial transparency and leadership.

7/12/2019 – No, not Carlsen-second Peter Heine Nielsen, but rather the global measurement and data analytics company which has been contracted by FIDE to evaluate the chess market. Chess players of all levels from casual fans to grandmasters are encouraged to participate in a survey, and the international chess federation is offering an incentive in the form of two hours of training with none other than the 14th World Champion, Vladimir Kramnik.

4/26/2019 – Today FIDE has released new regulations for the upcoming World Championship cycle (both Open and Women). The overall championship match is being extended from 12 to 14 games, and draws will no longer be permitted before move 40. Players can qualify to the Candidates Tournament via the revised Grand Prix, now a series of knockout tournaments, and a new "Grand Swiss" to be held in October on the Isle of Man.

3/16/2019 – He became an IM at the age of 19. The next logical step would have been to work towards his GM title. But Armin Juhasz from Hungary had different plans. He decided to devote his time towards becoming a trainer. Working hard on the subject he was able to create a World under-12 champion, a Hungarian champion and much more. What attracted the youngster to the field of training at such a young age? How does he prepare and what according to him are the qualities that a good coach must have? IM SAGAR SHAH decided to find out. | Photo: www.theophoto.hu

3/1/2019 – The organizers of the Olympic Games periodically consider proposals for new sports to be included. FIDE has applied for chess to be on the list. Just two weeks ago we reported "the Olympic dream is alive", but once more the sport did not make the cut. LA 2028 anyone?

2/13/2019 – When, if not now? FIDE tries again to include chess into the Olympic Programme. In 1924 FIDE was founded when the Olympic Games took part in Paris, and in 2024 FIDE wants to celebrate this anniversary by making chess olympic. Conrad Schormann explains why the chances for this to happen are better than ever.

1/23/2019 – The road to the Candidates tournament in 2020 is starting to emerge. World Chess / Agon will no longer organise either the Candidates or the 2020 World Championship match. FIDE has launched a new qualification path — the FIDE "Grand Swiss"— a Swiss tournament for which 100 players will be eligible. The winner (and maybe more) qualify for the Candidates Tournament. The Grand Prix series is back too, albeit as a quintet of knockout tournaments. Dates and host cities are still TBA. Here's what we know now...

10/7/2018 – The FIDE Presidential election was not the only heated contest at the FIDE Congress. The African Chess Confederation held an election for its President and deputies as well, which proved to be much closer than the FIDE election and included its own case of "withdraw and endorse" at the eleventh hour. But unlike Nigel Short, ACC candidate Tshepo Sitale's plea to support insurgent candidate Essoh Essis failed to tip the scales sufficiently to stave off Lewis Ncube — an Ilyumzhinov loyalist who supported Dvorkovich — who was narrowly re-elected to a new term. | All photos: Macauley Peterson

10/5/2018 – We present the highlights and analysis of an extraordinary day in Batumi: The FIDE General Assembly convened Wednesday in Batumi, in a hotly contested presidential election that was closer than it has been in decades, but not as close as expected, with many delegates still undecided right up until the end. It will be a new chapter in the history of FIDE as the reign of Greek International Master Georgios Makropoulos draws to a close after 103 federation delegates voted in favour of the Russian Arkady Dvorkovich. Nigel Short, who made a dramatic last-minute endorsement of Dvorkovich, was later appointed to be one of several Vice-Presidents. | All photos: David Llada / batumi2018.fide.com

10/2/2018 – "Georgios Makropoulos, the person who has ruled chess for almost three decades, has barely given any interviews," starts a new interview profile of the FIDE presidential candidate on the new American Chess Magazine blog. Indeed, while ChessBase has previously published long conversations with Makropoulos' running-mate Malcolm Pein, as well as Makropoulos' rivals, self-proclaimed "insurgent candidate" GM Nigel Short and Russian economic policy expert Arkady Dvorkovich, the incumbent has declined other interview requests. We run down the topics and key quotes with kind permission of ACM. | Photo: David Llada

9/30/2018 – The FIDE Ethics Commission ruled this afternoon that the Serbian Chess Federation President is guilty of selling his vote as a delegate to the FIDE Congress. However, there was "absence of sufficient proof" linking the money to the Dvorkovich campaign. The case was seen as an important prerequisite to the October 3rd election at the General Assembly. Had Dvokovich been found guilty, he could have been suspended from the race, with no time to appeal to the Court of Arbitration and Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland. | Pictured: Ethics Commission chair Francois Strydom (left) and member Ion-Serban Dobronauteanu at a hearing on September 28th | Photo: Niklesh Jain

9/27/2018 – Less than a week before the FIDE election, the international chess community is focused on who shall govern chess in the next four years. JOHN FOLEY and STEFAN LÖFFLER want to bring the conversation back to the principles, structures and procedures by which chess should be governed. Chess, they suggest, can learn from other sports, and what better way than to bring together international experts on sports governance in a conference "New Governance Standards in Sport: Lessons for Chess" which will take place this Saturday, September 29th, in Batumi during the 43rd Chess Olympiad. Entry is free. | Photo: Frederic Köberl / ChessBase

9/26/2018 – One week from today, FIDE delegates will meet for their General Assembly and elect a new President. (Vote in our reader poll!) With the era of Ilyumzhinov now over, the race has become quite competitive. It remains a three-way contest between Georgios Makropoulos, Nigel Short and Arkady Dvorkovich. The election campaign is in full swing (with gloves off) and we'll be bringing you up to date on the major events of the past weeks as well as late-breaking news, in a series of articles leading up to the big day on October 3rd. Who would you vote for?

9/13/2018 – The World Chess Championship 2018 is still two months away but some federations are already looking ahead to 2020. Depending on the winner of the forthcoming World Championship match in November in London, the USA or Norway may, of course, want to host the next edition. However, the Austrian Federation would also like to celebrate its 100-year jubilee with a very special event and recently received an official visit. | Pictured: Central Vienna | Photo: Public domain via Creative Commons

8/11/2018 – Given the recent history of Russian diplomatic resources being exercised to aid the re-election bids of FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, it is not terribly surprising that evidence is emerging of similar official government actions in support of the Russian candidate in 2018, Arkady Dvorkovich. However, in a new development, the Russian leader Vladimir Putin himself has apparently directly intervened in the Kremlin’s global campaign to get national chess federations to support his former deputy prime minister, adding weight to communiqués from embassies which are also surfacing. | Photo: kremlin.ru

7/27/2018 – Arkady Dvorkovich has been on tour for his electoral campaign and made stops at the Biel International Chess Festival and, a day after, at the Sparkassen Chess-Meeting in Dortmund (where he made the ceremonial first move for the game Kovalev-Kramnik). Macauley Peterson and Georgios Souleidis interviewed him on topics ranging from his plans for FIDE if elected, his connection to the Russian government, Agon, and political campaign wrangling. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis