FIDE Presents Administrative Team
By Douglas C. · Fri, 30 Oct 2026
FIDE names the first members of its new administrative team, led by Secretary General Alina Dvoretskaya and including GM Pavel Tregubov.
A reorganization is only as good as the people who carry it out, and FIDE has now started putting names to its. On October 30, the federation introduced the first five members of its new administrative team, a line-up that mixes a school-chess executive, a lawyer, two experienced organizers and a grandmaster who is a former European champion.
Where this fits
The announcement follows FIDE President Timur Turlov's October 26 statement setting out a new structure, in which day-to-day operations move to an administration led by the Secretary General. A separate document describing the departments and their responsibilities was published the same day. A day before the team announcement, on October 29, FIDE also named a group of Special Representatives and Representatives of the President, among them Emil Sutovsky, Victor Bologan and Dana Reizniece, who sit in the President's Office headed by Adil Kozhikhov.
The five names
Alina Dvoretskaya is the Secretary General and heads the administration. FIDE says her team will carry out the federation's decisions and coordinate the departments. The announcement gives no biography, but earlier coverage by ChessBase describes her as the former Director General of the International School Chess Federation.
Marat Umutpayev takes the legal portfolio. FIDE describes him as an international lawyer from Kazakhstan with experience in cross-border legal matters, and says he will support FIDE's activities and make sure they comply with its regulations.
Nadezhda Kravchuk moves to External Relations and Communications. According to FIDE, she has held several roles within the federation, with growing responsibility over time. The announcement does not list those earlier posts.
Anton Zhuravlev will head Events. FIDE says he has spent many years organizing major international chess competitions, and that his work will cover planning and coordination with tournament organizers.
Pavel Tregubov leads Sports, overseeing competition regulations and cooperation with the relevant FIDE bodies. He is the name most fans will recognize. FIDE calls him a grandmaster and former European champion, and Wikipedia adds that he won the inaugural European Individual Championship in 2000 with 8 points from 11 games. It lists his GM title as dating from 1994 and his peak rating as 2658 in 2008. He represented Russia until March 2023 and France since then, according to the same source.
Tregubov's administrative credentials are in the Association of Chess Professionals. Wikipedia lists him as a co-founder, a former president, treasurer and board director, and the current ACP Tour director. FIDE's announcement refers only to "experience in international chess administration" and does not say whether he will keep his ACP role.
What comes next
FIDE calls this the first stage of assembling the team, covering four areas, and says it will combine existing staff with newly joining professionals. The federation is also inviting expressions of interest from qualified professionals for other administrative roles, and promises further announcements in due course. The announcement does not name who the department heads report to beyond the Secretary General, give start dates or say who fills the remaining posts.
For a federation that has just changed presidents and is rewriting its structure, the team will be judged by how smoothly events, rules and communications run. With Zhuravlev, Kravchuk and Umutpayev, FIDE has told the public little beyond their titles, so their records will be built in the work itself.
Sources
- FIDE, FIDE introduces the first members of its administrative team (Oct 30)
- FIDE, FIDE announces new appointments to the President’s Office (Oct 29)
- ChessBase, Timur Turlov outlines plans to restructure FIDE (Oct 27)
- SPORTMAPS, Reforms in FIDE (Oct 28, citing Championat.com)
- Wikipedia, Pavel Tregubov
- FIDE, FIDE: The Next Stage of Development (Oct 26)
