7/1/2023 – Kazakhstan is gradually becoming a Mecca for chess. In April 2023 the World Championship match between Ding Liren and Ian Nepomniachtchi took place in Astana, at the beginning of June the Asian Continental Championship was held in Almaty, to name just two of the biggest events. While looking back at the Asian Continental Championships, Diana Mihajlova describes the development of chess in Kazakhstan and wonders about the predicament of Russian chess players after Russia left the European Chess Federation to join the Asian Chess Federation. | Photo: Panorama of Almaty | All Photos: Kazakhstan Chess Federation

12/8/2022 – The Chechen federation has nominated the 2016 World Championship challenger to run against incumbent Andrey Filatov. Karjakin was banned for six months by the FIDE Ethics Commission for advocating Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine and continues to be an ardent supporter of Putin. | Photo: Tass

12/24/2020 – Elena Burmistrova has presented the CFR Chess Museum with a unique art gift for the New Year. It comes from a limited edition of handmade chess sets titled “Indian”, manufactured at the porcelain enterprise “Delta-X” of Kislovodsk in the 1990s. To design the chessmen, A. Lyubkin resorted to ancient legends and tales’ motives. Pieces of gilt and overglaze painting join the combat on a chessboard of marble and serpentine stone.

12/23/2019 – In an open letter to the Russian Chess Federation on Monday, the manager of French GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who narrowly missed out on multiple avenues to qualify for the 2020 Candidates tournament in Yekaterinburg next March, calls for a qualification match against Kirill Alekseenko. The RCF has already nominated Alekseenko. | Photo: Nadja Wittmann

2/6/2018 – On Saturday, February 3, the Russian Chess Federation held presidential elections. The current president Andrey Filatov started the day facing several challengers, notably Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the current FIDE president, who is expected to stand for reelection to the body in September at the Chess Olympiad in Batumi. Ilyumzhinov received support from an unlikely source in former ECU president Silvio Danailov, but ultimately Ilyumzhinov withdrew his bid before the actually voting was held, and Filatov was easily returned to office, along with his team. | Photo: ruchess.ru

12/14/2017 – Live from St. Petersburg, it's 70th Russian Championship Superfinal. The final round was December 14th, 2017. The 12-player round-robin, has a first prize of 1 million roubles (~€14,500 euros) plus a Renault Kaptur car. The top three finishers qualify automatically for the 2018 Championship. Peter Svidler, the top seed, defeated Vladimir Fedoseev with black in the penultimate round and also won his final round game to reach 7 / 11 and qualify for a tiebreak with Nikita Vitiugov, who also won. In the 15 minute rapid games that followed, Svidler won both to earn his eighth Russian Championship! | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

4/5/2017 – You know about the power struggle for control of the International Chess Federation FIDE, on which we have reported extensively. On the eve of his 55th birthday the embattled President made an clear attacking move: Kirsan Ilyumzhinov announced that he has registered a charitable foundation, the "Kirsan Fund", in the United States, and plans to invest 30 million dollars in its activities: Chess in Schools, Chess in villages, Chess in families and Chess for people with disabilities. "We set an ambitious task to bring the number of chess players to one billion."

9/20/2016 – Under the motto "Chess is Art" the Russian Chess Federation and the Timchenko Foundation organise important tournaments and matches in museums. In 2012 the World Championship match between Vishy Anand and Boris Gelfand was played in the Tretyakov Gallery and on Saturday the strong 10th Tal Memorial (Elo-average 2760) begins with a blitz tournament in the recently opened Museum of Russian Impressionism in Moscow.

1/18/2016 – In an interview with Oleg Bogatov for the Russian magazine "R-Sport" Andrey Filatov, the President of the Russian Chess Federation, revealed Russia's goals for 2016: winning the Candidates and the Chess Olympiad. Filatov also spoke about the US sanctions against FIDE-President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and proposed to modify the rules for World Championship matches.

5/21/2015 – Historians estimate that the Soviet Union lost about 27 million people during World War II. To celebrate the 70th anniversary of Soviet victory in World War II the Russian Chess Federation organised an exhibition in Moscow that displays documents and materials showing how chess was played during the hard times of the war. Press Release.

4/14/2015 – Andrey Filatov, President of the Russian Chess Federation, likes to combine chess and art. During the transmission of the Women's World Championship in Sochi people could see a virtual exhibtion of Russian Art, and some of paintings shown there were part of the exhibition "The Legacy of WWII in Russian Art" in London that ended a few days ago. Press Release.