The 2026 FIDE presidential election is scheduled for September 26, 2026, during the federation's General Assembly in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. The core of the process is straightforward: the President and Deputy President run on a joint ticket, each eligible Member Federation represented at the General Assembly has one vote, and the election is conducted by secret ballot.
Quick answer: what is set for the 2026 FIDE election
| Point | Confirmed rule or status |
|---|---|
| Date | September 26, 2026 |
| Location | FIDE General Assembly in Samarkand, Uzbekistan |
| What is elected | President and Deputy President on a joint ticket |
| Who votes | Each Member Federation entitled to vote and represented at the General Assembly has one vote |
| Voting method | Secret ballot |
| Valid presidential tickets | Jan Henric Buettner–Malcolm Pein; Wadim Rosenstein–Gordon Tang; Timur Turlov–Viswanathan Anand |
| Rule with three tickets | A ticket needs 50% plus one of the votes cast to win on the first ballot; if no ticket reaches that threshold, the two leading tickets advance to a second ballot |
The three tickets moved from “submitted” to valid candidacies
The status distinction matters. On July 26, when the deadline closed, FIDE said only that it had received three presidential tickets. At that stage, the Electoral Commission still had to conduct a preliminary examination of the applications, including checks of the required information and declarations and the relevant eligibility requirements.
On July 28, FIDE published the next step: after the preliminary examination, the Electoral Commission approved the list of valid presidential ticket candidacies. So, when following the election in September, these three pairs should no longer be described merely as submitted applications.
Who are the presidential tickets in the 2026 FIDE election?
| Presidential candidate | Deputy President candidate | Status published by FIDE |
|---|---|---|
| Jan Henric Buettner | Malcolm Pein | Valid candidacy after preliminary examination |
| Wadim Rosenstein | Gordon Tang | Valid candidacy after preliminary examination |
| Timur Turlov | Viswanathan Anand | Valid candidacy after preliminary examination |
The order above follows FIDE's official publication, which listed the tickets alphabetically by presidential candidate. Validation does not amount to an institutional endorsement by FIDE and does not predict the outcome of the General Assembly.
Who votes in the presidential election?
FIDE's Electoral Rules provide that each Member Federation represented at the General Assembly has one vote. The right is exercised through the federation's FIDE Delegate or, under the conditions set out in the rules, through the federation President. The rules also prevent Presidents or Delegates from representing more than one Member Federation at the same time.
In practical terms, the electorate is not made up of chess players, rating leaders, grandmasters or the public. The vote belongs to eligible and represented Member Federations. FIDE publishes in advance a list of federations entitled to vote, with their Presidents and Delegates, as well as a separate list of suspended federations. On September 1, FIDE published the list for the 2026 General Assembly.
There is also a timing caveat: under the Electoral Rules, the Electoral Commission must approve a final version of the voting list before the election within the prescribed timetable. Anyone checking the names close to September 26 should therefore use FIDE's latest published version rather than assume an earlier list is necessarily final.
How does a ticket reach the ballot?
For the presidential election, the President and Deputy President form one ticket and may not represent the same Member Federation. Each ticket needs nominations from at least five Member Federations, including at least one from each of FIDE's four continents, and may have no more than eight nominating federations. Each federation may endorse only one presidential ticket.
After the nomination deadline, the Electoral Commission performs the preliminary examination and FIDE publishes the list deemed valid. That is the process that took the three applications received on July 26 to the three valid candidacies announced on July 28.
How the Samarkand ballot determines the winner
- The presidential election comes before the other elections. The rules require the President and Deputy President ticket to be elected before the other elective positions considered by the General Assembly.
- The ballot is secret. Each presidential candidate may appoint one observer for the counting of ballots.
- With three candidates, there is a threshold to win on the first ballot. The rule says a ticket is elected if it receives 50% plus one of the votes cast.
- If no ticket reaches that threshold, there is a second ballot. Only the two highest-polling tickets advance.
- Relevant ties are not settled by an external tiebreak. If there is a tie on any ballot, voting among the tied candidates is repeated until the tie is broken.
This is different from simply declaring the first-round plurality leader the winner. With three contenders, finishing first without the required majority can still lead to a final vote between two tickets.
What the presidential election decides — and what follows
The main ballot jointly elects the FIDE President and Deputy President. The General Assembly also holds other elections and confirmations as part of FIDE governance, but those should not be confused with the presidential ticket. Under the rules, the presidential election comes first; the election of four elected Vice Presidents follows, while other Council positions have their own procedures.
The 2026 FIDE Congress is being held alongside the Chess Olympiad in Samarkand. FIDE has stated that the Congress runs from September 20 to 27 and includes the September 26 election, when delegates choose the federation's leadership for the next cycle. The overall schedule is set out in the official Congress and Olympiad invitation.
What to watch before September 26
- the latest version of the list of Member Federations entitled to vote and their authorised representatives;
- any Electoral Commission decisions or notices;
- official election documents and the General Assembly agenda;
- the first-ballot result and, if necessary, the second-ballot result.
The safest reference is FIDE's official Congress page, which centralises election documents. The process is easiest to read as a sequence: tickets submitted → preliminary examination → valid candidacies → voting federations → secret ballot in Samarkand.
