(Press Release)

The FIDE Presidential Board (PB) meeting with an agenda of 80 items was held on March 5-8th in Istanbul, Turkey, concurrent with the first Women Grand Prix event organized by TCF.

FIDE President advised that he has visited ten countries in the last three months and was delighted that chess was now in the school curriculum in Moldova and Armenia and that chess among women has growing popularity. He was very pleased that Women's World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk participated in the PB meeting. In his report, he also stressed the importance of strengthening the relationship with IOC and the NOCs.

The PB approved the new structure for FIDE Commissions and Committees the details of which will be announced on the FIDE website. The PB agreed on a commission to be set up to consider the zonal structure of FIDE. The PB approved changes in the Laws of Chess including that the default time would be zero unless otherwise specified in the regulations of the tournament. The PB finalized Title and Rating regulations and dealt with other matters left from the Dresden meetings. It agreed to postpone the World Championship Match between World Champion GM Anand and Challenger GM Topalov until the latest April 20th, 2010 and asked for bids for the match. The PB corrected the mistake done by the organizer of the World Senior Championship and announced GM Kaufmann and GM Suba as co-winners. The PB decided upon a commemoration schedule of the former world champions starting with W. Steinitz in 2009.

The PB acknowledged and accepted the bid from UEP for the World Chess Championship Cycle 2010-2011. In 2011, there will be a Candidate Matches/Tournament consisting of GM Kamsky, the loser of the Anand-Topalov match, two players from the Grand Prix series and one player from the World Cup, two highest rated players not already qualified and a player nominated by the organizer. The winner will play the World Champion in 2011.

The PB discussed several future events and decided upon the bid dates which will be published on the FIDE website. The FIDE President thanked the Turkish Chess Federation and its President Mr. Yazici for the excellent organization of the event.

Peter Rajcsanyi

Public Relations and Marketing Director