Chess, Russia out of the Olympics for the third time. The wrath of Moscow

Russia will not participate in Chess Olympics of Samarkand, Uzbekistan. The Open and women’s national teams will remain out of the 46th edition of FIDE’s main team competition, scheduled from 15 to 27 September. The executive director of the Russian Chess Federation confirmed the exclusion, Alexander Tkachevwho, speaking to the Tass agency, attributed the decision to the Council of the International Chess Federation. “Our national teams won’t be there,” he said. FIDE has so far not published a detailed statement on the August 23 Council meeting.

For Russia it will be the third consecutive Olympics without its own representativeafter Chennai 2022 and Budapest 2024. A particularly significant absence for one of the countries that has most profoundly marked the history of world chess. The Russians, moreover, did not already appear in the lists of teams released by FIDE on 5 August but they had more than one reason to hope for a reinstatement. At least compared to the recent past.

The exclusion, in fact, is not only the continuation of the measures adopted against Russian sport after the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In recent months the picture has changed several times and, at the end of last year, FIDE had formally reopened the way for a return of the Moscow teams to international competitions. The progressive easing of restrictions on Russian athletes decided by some international sports federations also contributed to strengthening this perspective. What changed the scenario again was above all the suspension of the Russian Chess Federationtaken in June after failure to comply with a decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. And this is precisely where we need to start.

The CAS award and the suspension of the Russian Federation

The decisive step dates back toMarch 11, 2026when the Lausanne Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled on the dispute relating to the activities of the Russian Chess Federation in the occupied Ukrainian territories. The award required Moscow to cease regulating chess events and activities in Crimea and Sevastopol and in the regions of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia within 90 days, as well as formally communicating compliance to FIDE. Otherwise, the Russian Federation was expected to be suspended from FIDE until the conditions set by the court were met.

Once the deadline expired, the FIDE Council verified the implementation of the decision. The June 10th found that the award had not been respected and ordered the new suspension of the Russian Chess Federation with immediate effect. However, the sanction concerned the federation and its representatives, not the individual players, who can still continue to participate in international competitions according to the conditions already established by the FIDE regulations.

However, the June decision left a margin open. The Council had in fact foreseen the possibility of evaluating the participation in team competitions of teams composed of Russian citizens under neutral flaghowever subjecting it to a subsequent green light from FIDE. It is precisely on this glimmer that the confrontation focused in the following weeks, fueling the protests of Ukraine and other European federations. With the decision taken in view of Samarkand, this hypothesis has also been ruled out at least for the 2026 edition of the Olympics.

A first reopening for Russia in December

On 14 December 2025, however, FIDE seemed to have taken a different direction, approving two resolutions on the return of Russia and Belarus to international competitions. One was presented by the Russian Chess Federation, the other by the FIDE Council. He got the first one 61 votes in favour, 51 against and 14 abstentions; the second 69 yes, 40 no and 15 abstentions. Both were open to the readmission of Russian and Belarusian teams into official tournaments, but with a difference regarding the use of national symbols.

FIDE had therefore chosen the Council resolution as an operational reference: Russia and Belarus could return to team competitions; in the youth and junior tournaments the flag and anthem were again allowed, while the neutrality regime remained for the adult teams, pending further consultations with the International Olympic Committee.

That passage, however, concerns a different dossier from the one that led to the suspension of the Russian Chess Federation the following June. In that case the issue was no longer the general regulation on international participation, but the controversy over chess activities in the occupied Ukrainian territories and the subsequent failure to comply with the CAS award.

Ukraine’s protest

The possibility of seeing a team made up of Russian players in Samarkand, even under a neutral flag, caused new protests in the weeks preceding the final decision. Before the meeting on August 23, the Ukrainian Chess Federation addressed the members of the international body with a request that Russian participation in the Olympics was not allowed.

Kiev recalled the suspension of the Russian Federation following the CAS ruling and also contested the hypothesis of a neutral team, arguing that allowing a collective team of Russian citizens to participate in the Olympics would have circumvented the effects of the sanction. The Ukrainian federation also warned that, in the event of a decision in favor of Russia’s return, it would consider new steps before the competent sports judicial bodies and courts to obtain compliance with the referee’s decision.

The issue, therefore, had now moved from a political controversy on the presence of Russian sport in international competitions to a strictly legal discussion on the interpretation of the FIDE statute and the effects of the CAS award.

Belarus, on the other hand, returns with its own flag

The picture is therefore different for Belarus withMinsk which will return to the Olympics with its national symbols.On 21 July, FIDE revoked all restrictions still in force against the Belarusian Chess Federation, referring to the new indications of the International Olympic Committee. According to FIDE, in May the IOC Executive Board had decided to no longer recommend limitations on the participation of Belarusian athletes, including teams, in competitions organized by international federations. Hence the green light for the return of Belarus players and representatives under their own flag. Samarkand will thus be one of the first major FIDE events in which Minsk will return to compete in the national colours.

The difference with Russia is linked to the status of the two federations. The restrictions against Belarus were removed after the IOC’s change of line while the Russian Federation, as mentioned, remains blocked due to the affair linked to the Lausanne tribunal last June.

Criticism from Moscow

The exclusion from Samarkand provoked a harsh reaction from the Russian Chess Federation. Tkachev, writes Tass, attributed the initiative to the interim president of FIDE, Viswanathan Anandarguing that interests other than those of sport prevailed within the Council. “Our teams will not be at the World Olympics. At the initiative of the interim president of FIDE, Mr. Anand, this decision was made by the Council,” Tkachev said. The Russian leader then accused some of the members of the organization of putting personal interests before those of the game.

He added to the criticism Anatoly Karpovtwelfth world champion, always close to Vladimir Putin. In statements to NEWS.ru, Karpov accused the international federation’s leadership of being “out of control” and called the decisions made towards Moscow “Russophobic”. “FIDE’s leadership is out of control. FIDE is led by a Russian, Arkady Dvorkovich, but Russophobic decisions are being made,” the former world champion said. Criticism also came from the former president of the international federation Kirsan Ilyumzhinovwho contested the Russian exclusion and told his country’s media that he found the decision incomprehensible.

The Vice President of the Russian Chess Federation, Sergey Smaginargued instead that Moscow’s absence will also penalize the level of competition. “The lack of admission to the 2026 Olympics concerns both us and the tournament itself. Everyone understands that without the greatest chess power in the world the tournament cannot be considered complete,” Smagin told Tass, adding that he believes Russia’s return to international team competitions is “inevitable”: “The only question is when it will happen.”

The decision one month before the FIDE elections

The controversy also takes place in a particularly delicate phase for the balance of FIDE. The September 26thwhile the Olympics are still underway in Samarkand, the General Assembly will elect the new president and deputy president of the international federation. The FIDE Congress will be held in the Uzbek city from 20 to 27 September, with the general assembly continuing the day after the vote. There are three tickets submitted by the deadline: Jan Henric Buettner with Malcolm Pein, Deputy Chief Rosenstein with Gordon Tang and Timur Turlov with Viswanathan Anand. Each affiliated federation will have the right to one vote.

What makes the picture even more delicate is Anand’s role. The former world champion India currently exercises the duties of president after the decision of Arkady Dvorkovich to voluntarily suspend his powers on July 23. Dvorkovich, a former Russian deputy prime minister who has led FIDE since 2018, made the decision after being placed on the European Union’s sanctions list. In an official statement, Dvorkovich defined the measures as “illegal and unfair” and announced his intention to contest them, explaining however that he wanted to temporarily suspend his functions to avoid repercussions on the regular functioning of the federation. According to the FIDE statutes, the powers have therefore passed to deputy president Anand, who will continue to exercise the interim presidency as long as the restrictions against Dvorkovich remain in force.

Italy is also in Samarkand

Meanwhile, the 46th Olympics promises to be the most attended in the history of the event. They are expected in Samarkand 400 teams208 in the Open tournament and 192 in the women’s tournament, twenty more than the previous record set in Budapest. The opening ceremony is scheduled for September 15th, while the eleven rounds will be played from the following day until the 27th. In the Open tournament the United States they start in front of everyone, followed byIndia reigning champion, fromUzbekistan landlord, from China and from Germania. In the women’s, however, India leads the seeding ahead of Georgia, China, Kazakhstan and the United States.

And Italy? We’ll come back to it later. The Azzurri will start without the underdogs, with the aim of trying to improve their position, gain some satisfaction against the strongest national teams and remain permanently in the world top 30.