FIDE (a Russian parody)

👉 Introducing Humpy Koneru 🇮🇳 ♟️ Women's #FIDECandidates 2026 Qualification path: 2025 Women's World Cup 2nd place Humpy Koneru stands as one of the defining figures of modern women’s chess, blending early prodigious talent with more than two decades at the top of the game. She burst onto the world stage by winning the World Junior Girls Championship in 2001 and became a grandmaster the following year at just 15, at the time the youngest woman and the first Indian woman to do so. Since then, she has remained a fixture among the elite across all formats. Humpy qualified for the 2026 Candidates by reaching the final of the 2025 Women’s World Cup and arrives with a formidable record in speed chess, including five World Rapid and Blitz Championship medals: one gold, two silver, and two bronze. Her Women’s World Rapid title in 2024 and a fourth-place finish in the 2024−25 Women’s Grand Prix series, including victory at the Pune leg, underline her continued competitiveness at the very highest level. Here’s what you need to know about the event: 🗓 Dates: March 28–April 16 🌍 Location: Cap St Georges Hotel & Resort, Cyprus 🇨🇾 🎟️ Book your tickets now: 🔗 tickets.fide.com #FIDECandidates #Cyprus #FIDE

🤡 The Circus, presented by the European Union: Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs employee and Putin's interpreter Daria Boyarskaya in charge of OSCE oversight of the election in Hungary, as Orban desperate to retain power and avoid prison for his crimes theguardian.com/world/2026/mar…

Dear chess friends, I am closely following the current situation in Cyprus and understand that it is becoming increasingly critical. With @humpy_koneru Humpy Koneru reportedly considering participation in the Candidates Tournament, it becomes even more important to ensure that all players can compete in a safe and stable environment. In this regard, FIDE has already been informed of our readiness to support and provide an immediate solution if required. Should it be necessary, we stand ready to act immediately. We can organize the Candidates Tournament in Germany, ensuring maximum safety and reliability for all participants and officials. Germany offers world-class infrastructure and security - conditions essential for an event of this importance. All organizational and logistical expenses would be fully covered by WR Chess, with our full commitment and responsibility. Our priority is clear: to protect the players, preserve the integrity of the competition, and ensure that the tournament can take place under the best possible conditions. @anishgiri @GMHikaru @FabianoCaruana @ChessbaseIndia @humpy_koneru @rpraggnachess @GMJSindarov @FIDE_chess

FIDE’s Candidates gambit in Cyprus comes with a deja vu from the COVID-interrupted 2020 Candidates indianexpress.com/article/sports…

FIDE will need to find a new bank (again) due to its links with Russia. As I heard this week from different sources: •⁠ ⁠Employees have just received advance payments of several salaries, as FIDE is preparing for the likely scenario of having its accounts suspended. •⁠ ⁠Some players have reported not having received payments for prize money earned in recent events that are already due, a sign that FIDE’s transactions are already limited or under scrutiny. These are strong indications that the Spanish @caixabank, the only bank that accepted them as a customer in 2019 after Ilyumzhinov was included in the U.S. sanctions list, might have reconsidered this decision. And there are two clear reasons for that: Since FIDE has the majority of its staff in Russia (and the number of Russian employees has only increased since the start of the war), they have been using four different Russian banks to pay their salaries (as indicated in their last financial report, dated from 2024). One of them is Gazprombank, an entity subject to full blocking sanctions, and FIDE working with them is a clear breach of these sanctions. Besides, this is a very sensitive topic for CaixaBank right now, as they have recently received a €30 million fine from SEPBLAC (Spain’s financial intelligence unit and the main authority monitoring money laundering and sanctions compliance) for failing to apply proper due diligence to high-risk, non-resident clients and failing to file timely Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs). CaixaBank has also admitted to having an exposure of over €185 million from Russian citizens and Russian-related entities. So now, not only might the FIDE President be included in the EU sanctions list as soon as this April, but the links between this institution and Russian banks on the sanctions list turn FIDE into a problematic customer. No bank wants that liability. As we all know, it is not the first time that FIDE has faced such a situation. After its previous president, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, was placed on the U.S. sanctions list in 2015, the Swiss bank UBS closed FIDE’s accounts, as banks apply strict compliance rules to institutions linked to sanctioned individuals. Even though Ilyumzhinov withdrew from all financial and legal operations of FIDE shortly after the sanctions were imposed, it proved extremely difficult for FIDE to find a new bank willing to accept them. FIDE was effectively a pariah in the banking system for a couple of years, causing an operational nightmare. CaixaBank was ultimately the only institution prepared to take that risk back then. But it seems they will not turn a blind eye anymore.

Deputy Chair of FIDE Management Board visits DR Congo to advance chess ♟️ During her official visit to Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dana Reizniece, Deputy Chair of the FIDE Management Board, held a series of meetings with government officials and representatives from the education and sports sectors to discuss the development and promotion of chess in the country. Read more🔗fide.com/deputy-chair-o… #EducationalChess2026 #EveryLessonCounts

Happy birthday to former FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov! 🎂🎉 With a peak rating of 2816, he is among the few players to surpass 2800. He was also world #1 for a couple of years!

FIDE March 2026 Rating List – Correction❗️ According to Article 0.2.1 of the FIDE Rating Regulations, a tournament and its playing schedule must be registered: 0.2.1 Not later than 30 days before the tournament starts, if one of the players in the tournament is rated in excess of 2700, or a female player rated in excess of 2500. Due to an oversight in the approval process, the Russian Chess Crown match was included in the March 2026 FIDE Rating List in breach of these regulations. Once the error was identified, the Qualification Commission (QC) removed the event from the FIDE Rating System in accordance with the applicable rules. As a result, Sergey Karjakin’s status has been changed to inactive, and he has been removed from the list of active players in the #FIDERating list. The FIDE Qualification apologises for any issues this may have caused with the release of the new rating list, and will work at improving the approval process in the future. The current standard rating list is available here: ratings.fide.com/top_lists.phtm…

FIDE March 2026 Rating List – Correction❗️ According to Article 0.2.1 of the FIDE Rating Regulations, a tournament and its playing schedule must be registered: 0.2.1 Not later than 30 days before the tournament starts, if one of the players in the tournament is rated in excess of 2700, or a female player rated in excess of 2500. Due to an oversight in the approval process, the Russian Chess Crown match was included in the March 2026 FIDE Rating List in breach of these regulations. Once the error was identified, the Qualification Commission (QC) removed the event from the FIDE Rating System in accordance with the applicable rules. As a result, Sergey Karjakin’s status has been changed to inactive, and he has been removed from the list of active players in the #FIDERating list. The FIDE Qualification apologises for any issues this may have caused with the release of the new rating list, and will work at improving the approval process in the future. The current standard rating list is available here: ratings.fide.com/top_lists.phtm…