Rosenstein's El País Interview
By Douglas C. · Thu, 24 Sep 2026
El País published an interview with Wadim Rosenstein on September 24, conducted in Samarkand by Leontxo García, two days ahead of the FIDE presidential vote.
El País published an interview with Wadim Rosenstein on September 24, conducted in Samarkand by Leontxo García, two days ahead of the FIDE presidential vote. A few background details from the piece itself: Rosenstein is 36, has a Russian mother and Ukrainian father, was raised partly in Germany, and built his fortune through import, export, and mining businesses. The article frames him as running very close behind frontrunner Turlov and well ahead of Buettner in current predictions, though it doesn't cite a specific source for that assessment. Worth noting: García discloses at the end of the piece that he also works as a FIDE advisor on educational chess, relevant context for how the interview was likely arranged and framed.On the €10 million federation pledge, announced hours earlierRosenstein said 3 to 5 million of the total would go directly to federations, with the remainder building the communications, marketing, and image infrastructure he says most federations currently lack. He agreed directly with the premise that federations are generally weak in those areas.On whether a "Soviet mentality" still shapes FIDEAsked whether Soviet-era thinking still lingers in FIDE's culture 35 years on, Rosenstein reframed the question, arguing it's less about labeling any mentality by its cultural origin and more about having the right one, achieved by putting the job in professional hands. His stated principle: players should play, and the management and organization of chess should belong to professionals instead.On making chess feel accessible rather than eliteResponding to the idea that chess is seen as difficult or only for the very intelligent, he said the priority should be making the game accessible to everyone, which requires experts who can explain its benefits for education, quality of life, and slowing cognitive aging in older adults.On chess in schoolsHe distinguished between chess as a sport and as an educational tool, saying he believes it could work as a subject that improves the overall quality of education rather than replacing another subject, while acknowledging the approach needs to adapt to each country's specific situation. He also argued for a stronger bridge between chess-as-sport and chess-as-education.On Dvorkovich's Olympic strategyAsked about predecessor Arkady Dvorkovich's approach of gradually introducing chess into continental games (South America, the Caribbean, Africa) as a path toward eventual Olympic inclusion, Rosenstein declined to discuss Dvorkovich directly, but said his own team includes people connected to national Olympic committees, which he expects to help, and that he'd hand the effort to professionals rather than assume it requires a strong playing background. He noted, pointedly, that being a grandmaster deserves real respect but doesn't make someone an expert in management.On the proliferation of formats and titlesHe said he's generally in favor of promoting anything that attracts fans or creates new ones, formats included, but was clear that classical chess should remain the most important format and tradition, warning that chess's image would collapse without it. He did flag one area he thinks needs real reform: he noted there are roughly 150 different "world champion" titles awarded each year across all ages, genders, and formats combined, and said that specific proliferation deserves a serious debate about introducing some order.On whether chess and FIDE are ready to capitalize on post-pandemic growthThis produced his most pointed line of the interview: FIDE is not currently ready, he said, but he trusts it will be "next week", an unmistakable reference to winning Saturday's vote. He cited figures claiming roughly 600 million people know how to play chess and that close to half of humanity recognizes what it is, while FIDE's own reach extends to only a few million of them. He closed with the line that gave the piece its headline: he wants chess to become part of the culture in countries where it's still barely known, saying, "I know chess is a joy, because I've enjoyed it since I was a child. Now I'm asking for the chance to explain that to everyone."