“€6.2 million. That is about $7 million. Plus $1.5 million for media. That brings the minimum commitment to development funding alone to $8.5 million. But in reality, I think the total will definitely exceed $10 million,” says Timur Turlov, founder and CEO of Freedom Holding Corp., estimating how much he is prepared to invest in developing the International Chess Federation if he wins the FIDE presidential election.
For Timur Turlov, this is not an experiment. Over the past several years, he has applied a similar model in Kazakhstan, where private investment in chess has reached tens of millions of dollars. Now he wants to apply the same approach internationally, first building a financial and organizational foundation, then scaling projects.
Money as a Tool for Development
Timur Turlov has headed the Kazakhstan Chess Federation since 2023, with Freedom Holding Corp. becoming one of the country’s main sources of chess funding. The company invested around $30 million in chess development over three years, including $11.2 million in 2025.
In an interview with Forbes Kazakhstan, Turlov said his group provided around 5 billion tenge, or approximately $11.2 million at current exchange rates, to the federation in 2024, while roughly the same amount went toward international tournaments organized with FIDE. The money supported young players, coaches and grandmasters, as well as travel to international competitions.
Tournament activity also expanded sharply. According to Inbusiness.kz, the number of tournaments supported by Freedom increased from 1,538 in 2023 to 3,853 in 2025.
Timur Turlov now proposes a similar approach at FIDE. His baseline commitments include around $7 million for a development fund and another $1.5 million for media initiatives, with total investment expected to exceed $10 million.
“Good governance is essential, but it is not enough for a federation to be successful. Sometimes someone needs to help get things moving. That is why I am offering a financial safety net,” Turlov said during the candidates’ debate.
The development fund would support tournaments, training for arbiters and coaches, player travel, national federation staff, marketing, and communications. Turlov says the goal is not to make FIDE dependent on one investor, but to use initial funding to launch projects that can later become sustainable.
His proposed Chess Media Fund would similarly help national federations develop digital channels, produce content, work with sponsors, train communications teams, and increase the visibility of chess.
From a Digital ID to a Two-Year Calendar
In an interview with The Times of Central Asia, Timur Turlov argued that FIDE should move away from year-to-year planning and establish a calendar of major events two years in advance. A more predictable schedule, he says, would help players and organizers while giving broadcasters and commercial partners greater certainty when planning investments.
Digitalization is another major focus. His program includes a unified FIDE digital platform, a digital FIDE ID, modern CRM tools, and an online learning system for players and coaches.
Some of this infrastructure is already being developed through FIDE’s partnership with Salesforce. Turlov’s aim is therefore not to start from scratch, but to accelerate the process and make digital tools available to national federations regardless of their size or budget.
Education is another priority. Turlov advocates integrating chess more widely into school curricula, pointing to Kazakhstan, where, according to him, chess has been introduced as a subject in 1,500 schools as of 2026, with a target of 2,500 schools.
His broader program includes support for federations with limited resources, higher professional standards, women’s chess, larger prize funds, social initiatives, and a more predictable World Championship cycle.
Timur Turlov also wants to broaden chess’s commercial base. He named companies including Alibaba, Citibank, and Tencent as potential partners. Sponsorship revenue, he argues, could help finance digitalization and the expansion of chess in markets such as Africa and Latin America.
The FIDE presidential election will take place on September 26, 2026, at the federation’s General Assembly in Samarkand. Turlov is running with five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand against two other presidential tickets. Each national federation represented at the General Assembly has one vote.
Chess as a Family Tradition
There is also a personal connection to chess behind Turlov’s financial and management program.
“I learned to play chess as a child – my grandfather taught me,” Turlov said.
He later stepped away from the game for many years before rediscovering it through his children. Turlov has six children, and chess, he says, has become a shared family activity, a way to spend time together while discussing decisions, mistakes, victories, and defeats.
That experience also shapes his view of chess as an educational tool: one that teaches children to analyze mistakes, accept outcomes, and think several moves ahead.
“Having six children teaches you a great deal about patience and the ability to listen,” he said.
For Timur Turlov, chess can be a professional sport, an educational tool, a mass-participation activity, and a commercial product capable of attracting major sponsors and a global audience. He sees Kazakhstan’s experience as evidence that these elements can coexist within one system.
And as he approaches the election in Samarkand, Turlov says the campaign is not only about presenting his own plan, but also about hearing from the wider chess community.
“It is an opportunity to listen as much as to speak,” he said.
