BREAKING: Zurab Joins Team Rosenstein
By Douglas C. · Wed, 16 Sep 2026
Zurab Azmaiparashvili, President of the European Chess Union, has joined Wadim Rosenstein's FIDE presidential campaign, Rosenstein announced on X, calling it "a powerful message" that experienced chess leaders believe in his vision for FIDE.
Zurab Azmaiparashvili, President of the European Chess Union, has joined Wadim Rosenstein's FIDE presidential campaign, Rosenstein announced on X, calling it "a powerful message" that experienced chess leaders believe in his vision for FIDE.Azmaiparashvili brings genuine institutional weight to the announcement. He's a grandmaster, a former European Champion, a past FIDE Vice President, and has led the European Chess Union, the continental body representing dozens of national federations, for years. Rosenstein's own post leaned on exactly that résumé, describing him as one of the most experienced and respected leaders in international chess.There's a wrinkle worth knowing about how these two arrived at the same team. Back in July, Azmaiparashvili was the incumbent standing for re-election as ECU President in Bucharest, and the ticket Rosenstein had thrown his support behind, led by Bachar Kouatly, lost to him decisively, by a wide margin that marked one of the roughest moments of Rosenstein's early campaign. Two months later, the man who beat Rosenstein's preferred candidate is now campaigning for Rosenstein himself.Whatever the backstory, the timing matters more than the irony. This endorsement lands ten days before FIDE's General Assembly convenes in Samarkand to elect the federation's next president, and it adds a genuinely senior, currently-serving continental leader to a campaign that's already been tracking ahead of its rivals in publicly identifiable federation support. Azmaiparashvili's own network across European chess administration is exactly the kind of endorsement that can move votes at the federation level rather than just generate headlines, and Rosenstein's campaign is clearly treating it that way.