The FIDE Council reviewed yesterday, February 21, the report prepared by the Constitutional Commission on the request made by the Chess Federation of Russia (CFR) to join the Asian Chess Federation (ACF).

The Asian Chess Federation is expected to decide on this request at its General Assembly, which will take place in Abu Dhabi on February 28. Its acceptance would automatically imply that the Chess Federation of Russia withdraws its membership to the European Chess Union, since a federation cannot belong to two continents at the same time.

In view of this, and after examining all legal considerations presented to them by the Constitutional Commission, the FIDE Council has made two main decisions:

1) To rename Zone 1.6 (Russia) as Zone 3.8, as part of Asia, effective May 1, 2023, given that the Asian Chess Federation confirms it accepts the Chess Federation of Russia as a member in their General Assembly.

2) To adopt a series of additional measures to protect those players who decide to leave the Russian Chess Federation at this point and join any European chess federation. Players previously belonging to the CFR will be allowed to represent their new federation with immediate effect, from the next day of submitting their application, without any restrictions. All transfer fees, to FIDE or CFR, are waived.

You can read below the full resolution:

FIDE Council Resolution

Whereas:

1) Chess Federation of Russia (CFR)  has informed FIDE about their request to be accepted as a member of the Asian Chess Federation (ACF);

2) FIDE Constitutional Commission (CC) has reviewed the matter from the legal perspective and recommends the FIDE Council revise FIDE zones before such transfer of RCF to ACF;

3) CC has highlighted the need to provide the minimum remedy and fairness to players who have chosen to remain in European Chess Union (ECU),

FIDE Council decides:

1. To approve that Zone 1.6. (Russia) from May 1, 2023, is considered to belong to the Asian zone, and will be renamed as Zone 3.8.

2. To approve that:

2.1. All the transfer fees to FIDE and compensation fees to the CFR are waived for any player who has previously been registered with the RCF and who, from March 1, 2022, until August 31, 2023, has applied or will apply for the membership of any of the ECU’s federation.

2.2. All these players (further - Players) have the right to represent the new federation in all official individual events of FIDE from the next day of submitting their application without any restrictions, provided that all other conditions for the transfer have been met besides paying the fees. Such applications should be checked and confirmed or rejected (only if the application contradicts art. 2.6. of the current Transfer rules) by FIDE 15 days after their submission.

2.3. The conditions mentioned in Articles 2.1 and 2.2 of this resolution also apply to Russian players who have transferred to the special FIDE status.

2.4 In the event that the Players decide to leave the national federation to which they transferred under the above procedure, such a federation is not entitled to receive any compensation fee. Also, these Players can transfer to CFR later with no fees to be paid to their previous national federation or FIDE.

2.5. The right of such Players to participate in European team competitions is determined by the decision of the ECU, without any additional restrictions from FIDE. The decision about the rights of such Players to represent the new federation in FIDE team competitions should be approved by the FIDE Council no later than by May 1, 2023. 

2.6. To avoid any doubt, official FIDE competitions are FIDE world championships and events providing direct qualification spots to FIDE world championships, FIDE Candidates tournaments and the FIDE World Cups.

3. Both above-mentioned decisions come into force, given the Asian Chess Federation (ACF) accepts the Chess Federation of Russia (CFR) as a member of the ACF as of May 1, 2023.

4. If the date of ACF accepting CFR as its member differs, the above decisions apply from the same date, respectively.

5. To create a FIDE working group for further revision of the structure of FIDE zones according to the opinion of the Constitutional Commission.