The Russian Chess Federation is leaving Europe for Asia

The Council of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) approved the transfer of the Russian Federation to the Asian Chess Federation from the European Chess Union. As stated in the FIDE press release, the final decision on Russia’s membership should be made on February 28 at the meeting of the assembly of the Asian Chess Federation.

The decision also states that support will be provided to Russian chess players who want to represent any of the countries of the European Chess Union.

If the transition is approved, the Russian Chess Federation will become the first Russian sports organization that, after the start of the war in Ukraine, will change its membership in the European Federation to Asian registration. The Supervisory Council of the FSR made a decision about this back in April of last year, until today the application was considered by FIDE. At the same time, Russian chess officials emphasize that the Asian federation includes a number of the strongest chess-related countries, such as China, India, and Uzbekistan.

After the start of the war in Ukraine, Russian and Belarusian athletes were not deprived of the right to compete in competitions under the auspices of FIDE – as happened in many other sports. However, they do not act under national flags and in an individual capacity.

• Last year, the Russian Football Union also thought about moving from the European UEFA federation to the Asian one, but the decision has not yet been made. Such a transition would allow the Russian national team to compete in tournaments at the continental level, but hardly at the world level, since after the start of the war, the international federation FIFA suspended the Russian and Belarusian national teams from competing under its auspices.