Arkady Dvorkovich played the presidential game – Sport – Kommersant

Arkady Dvorkovich became the first representative of Russia after the start of the military operation in Ukraine, who managed to “purely”, without reservations, win the election for the post of head of a large sports structure. Mr. Dvorkovich, who has held the post of President of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) since 2018, retained it, overwhelmingly defeating the Ukrainian Andrei Barishpolets in Chennai, India, who turned out to be his only competitor. To keep the position in rather specific circumstances, he may have been helped, among other things, by a subtle strategy for resolving the “Russian question”, which became extremely acute in the spring.

On Sunday, at the General Assembly of the International Chess Federation, one of the largest sports structures, presidential elections were held. They were won by the former Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Arkady Dvorkovich, who has held a key position in FIDE since 2018. And it was an overwhelming victory. 157 delegates voted for Mr. Dvorkovich, and only 16 delegates voted for his only rival, Ukrainian Andrei Barishpolets. Thus, Arkady Dvorkovich became the first representative of Russia after the start of the military operation in Ukraine, who managed to win the election with the status of head of a major international sports federation in horse “purely”, without any reservations.

Previously, such organizations were led by four Russian functionaries. President of the International Fencing Federation (FIE) Alisher Usmanov announced back in March that suspended activities in it “until justice is restored”, that is, the removal of EU sanctions imposed on him on “trumped-up” and “unfounded” accusations. President of the International Sports Shooting Federation (ISSF) Vladimir Lisin is expected to be elected in November. And the president of the International Boxing Federation (IBA), Umar Kremlev, was re-elected to the post in May, but the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) immediately annulled the voting results, having considered the claim of Mr. Kremlev’s main competitor, Boris van der Furst. Shortly before the IBA Congress, the Boxing Independent Integrity Unit, the body of the federation responsible for the integrity of the structure and the observance of the rules of fair play, ruled that the Dutchman violated the rules by actually opening the election campaign “outside the electoral period” and banned him from running. CAS solution canceledby authorizing new elections to be organized in the fall.

In fact, the Chennai success of Arkady Dvorkovich, or rather his style, seems rather unexpected.

Russia has not given up the presidency of FIDE to anyone for more than a quarter of a century. Mr. Dvorkovich’s predecessor was Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who headed the federation in 1995. However, it was never about the complete “usurpation” of power.

In fact, every time after the end of the next presidential term, Mr. Ilyumzhinov faced fierce competition in the struggle for the opportunity to continue work. At various times, he was opposed by the well-known chess businessman and promoter Bessel Kok, and even a bunch of two great world champions – Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov. Each time the election campaign turned into an exciting attraction with a desperate fight for the votes of the FIDE congress delegates. And Mr. Dvorkovich himself in his first elections four years ago took over over his rival, vice-president of the federation Georgios Makropoulos, who was considered the initiator of the “coup” that squeezed Kirsan Ilyumzhinov out of the organization, in the conditions of precisely such competition.

Now there was no hint of her. Apart from Arkady Dvorkovich, not a single real “heavyweight” from the world of chess or chess politics showed up for the Chennai elections (see Kommersant dated August 6). Moreover, just before the vote, the Frenchman Bashar Kouatly, who has a long but too long experience in dealing with it, withdrew his candidacy. Few people in the chess world knew before the current election campaign that grandmaster Andrey Barishpolts, who lives in the USA, has no serious achievements. During it, Arkady Dvorkovich had a number of trump cards related to his activities over the past four years and made him forget about the fresh state of emergency – the failure of FIDE in negotiations with the world champion Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, after all refused from playing in the championship match against the Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi and thereby reducing the value of the fight. This, for example, is the fact that the federation went through the period of the coronavirus pandemic with minimal losses, retaining sponsors, calendar density, interest in the game, and resources that allow announcing the continuation of multi-layered reforms in several areas. Or the fact that, in conjunction with Mr. Dvorkovich, the 15th world champion Viswanathan Anand, who enjoys colossal authority in the chess community, agreed to run for the vice-presidential position.

Mr. Barishpolts had, in fact, the only trump card – the opportunity to play on a political topic that had become a trend in the sports industry since spring.

But, as it turned out, his argument that in the current situation a Russian at the helm of FIDE is unacceptable, did not make any impression on the General Assembly. Perhaps, including because of the subtle strategy of Arkady Dvorkovich in the sphere of resolving the “Russian issue”.

On the one hand, FIDE, like most federations, condemned the special military operation and applied sanctions against Russia, for example not allowing her teams to participate in the World Chess Olympiad, which is ending in Chennai.

In addition to this, the structure disqualified for public support of the military operation of the famous Russian grandmaster Sergey Karyakin, preventing him from fighting for the status of a contender for the world champion title. Speaking about it already before the elections, Arkady Dvorkovich himself used the expression “tragic events.” But at the same time, FIDE has not approved any other “discriminatory” measures against Russia: Russian chess players continue to play in prestigious competitions, and Ian Nepomniachtchi, taking in June, first place in the Candidates Tournament, won the right to fight again for the championship title.

This tactic proved to be extremely effective. The position of Arkady Dvorkovich was quite favorably accepted not only in FIDE, but also in his homeland – in any case, those whose opinion is important for the strength of his position.

Congratulating Mr. Dvorkovich on his re-election, Andrey Filatov, President of the Russian Chess Federation (RCF), said that it shows that “Russia is not in isolation.” And the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov called the election results “good news” and “a very significant victory.”

Alexey Dospekhov