The head of the Russian Chess Federation (RCF) Andrey Filatov will continue to hold his post after winning the elections, which were held in Moscow on December 17. He was opposed by the current grandmaster, world vice-champion Sergey Karyakin. As a result, 58 delegates of the FSR congress voted for Filatov’s candidacy, Karyakin received seven votes, two ballots were declared invalid. Karjakin conceded defeat but declared that he would continue on his path to become a functionary. The delegates of the FSR congress also unanimously voted to recognize the work of the organization for the past four years as satisfactory. In addition, State Duma deputy, 12th world champion Anatoly Karpov lost the post of vice president, but was elected to the post of honorary president of the federation.
58:7
Businessman, head coach of the Russian men’s team Andrey Filatov has been heading the FSR since 2014. Almost all the time he enjoyed the support of Sergey Karyakin. In the last elections in 2018, Karjakin, on his own initiative, came to the FSR congress to publicly support Filatov’s candidacy in the confrontation with long-term FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. Then the grandmaster said that he owes a lot to the federation, including help in the match for the world chess crown – 2016, and also stressed that the FSR does a lot for professional and mass sports, supports talented children.
However in 2022, Karjakin’s rhetoric has changed dramatically. Sergey began to criticize the management decisions of the federation, and on December 3, his name appeared among the candidates for the post of president of the FSR. In a conversation with Izvestia Karyakin admitted: he goes to the polls largely because the 12th world champion, State Duma deputy Anatoly Karpov could not run for health reasons (at the end of October, he was admitted to the hospital with a fractured femoral neck and head injury).
Although The titled grandmaster had practically no chances to win. Filatov was nominated for the post of head of the FSR at once by 22 federations out of 67, and Karjakin, who decided to participate in the elections at the last moment, was nominated by only one. Therefore, no one was surprised by the final result – 58:7 in favor of the current head of the FSR.
— I will head the federation for the next four years. The congress was dynamic. We discussed all our pressing issues. We came up with many solutions. I hope that before the end of the year our guys will please us with high results at the World Rapid Chess Championship in Almaty. And next year we intend to become the first Russian federation to move from a European confederation to an Asian one. The issue will most likely be considered in February, Filatov said after the meeting.
Karjakin maintains political ambitions and spoke about his next step after losing the election of the head of the FSR.
— I ran rather late, I did not have enough time to work with delegates by region. My journey is just beginning. I think the final score does not reflect the real degree of my support. Now I am considering the possibility of running for the presidency of one of the regional federations, – he said. — Nevertheless, I would like to draw attention to the problems in the FSR. There is no proper attention to the regions, children’s sports, there are few tournaments for top-level chess players. With this constructive criticism I came.
What kind of regional federation he intends to lead, Karjakin did not say. But he noted that “there is a solution, but I would not like to announce it ahead of time.”
– We have a democratic procedure, I need to be approved. My desire is not enough. I hope we will announce it officially within two weeks. My desire is to build work with chess players using the example of a single region. First of all, with young talents.
New role
Filatov emphasized that he personally would like Karjakin to continue his career as a grandmaster. Now Sergei is ranked tenth in the FIDE rating, of the Russians only Ian Nepomniachtchi (third place) is higher than him.
“We hope that Karjakin will return to the sport and will continue to bring medals to our country,” continued the head of the RSF. — There are many functionaries, but few great chess players. I am convinced that he still has every opportunity to win the chess crown. While he tries himself in different professions. But hopefully he doesn’t bury his talent.
Same five vice-presidents were elected at the FSR congress organizations. Their the governor of Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug Natalya Komarova, Vice-Speaker of the State Duma Alexander Zhukov, President of the Russian Association of Fertilizer Producers Andrey Guryev and General Director of the Franco-Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Pavel Shinsky retained their posts. And here the fifth place of vice-president in the Filatov team instead of Anatoly Karpov will now be taken by one of the leaders of the Moscow Chess Federation, grandmaster Sergey Smagin. Karjakin criticized this decision, but Filatov explained that the 12th world champion even went for a promotion.
— Karpov remained in our team,” the functionary explained. “His status has become even more significant. He elected Honorary President of the FSR. I hope he will actively and on a large scale develop chess in Russia. His authority is our era. We respect and appreciate him very much.
Dmitry Peskov, Chairman of the FSR Board of Trustees, Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation, congratulated Filatov’s team on the re-election.
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