Pavel Kolobkov said that the chess world missed Russia

Former Russian Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov sees his election as one of the vice-presidents of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) as evidence that the chess world misses Russia. He told TASS about this.

The elections were held on Saturday at the FIDE General Assembly in Samarkand. The new president of FIDE was the representative of Kazakhstan Timur Turlov.

“I am pleased that 78 delegates voted for me — a serious result. I regard this not so much as support for me, but rather as an assessment of Russia as a great chess power, Kolobkov said.

He believes that the delegates miss Russian chess players and cannot imagine the development of chess without Russia. In fact, this is an assessment of Russia’s contribution to world chess. This is very important for me, Kolobkov said.

According to Kolobkov, he was approached by many delegates from different countries, who congratulated and expressed hope for cooperation. “This is a new stage of my career, a lot of new ideas – we will work,” concluded Kolobkov, Sydney Olympic champion in swordfencing.

On June 11, 2026, FIDE temporarily suspended the membership of the Russian Chess Federation (FSHR) for non-compliance with the decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, according to which the FSHR had to stop regulating chess activities and events in Sevastopol, Crimea, DPR, LPR, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions.

Kolobkov is 57. He served as Minister of Sports of Russia from October 2016 to January 2020.