Kazakh Finance Mogul Sets Sights on Reshaping Global Chess
In September, Samarkand will host a vote for the next leader of the world’s chess governing body. Three teams are running for the top spot. One pair includes a German entrepreneur and an International Master. Another team pairs a chess startup founder with a businessman. The third ticket features Kazakh financier Timur Turlov and five‑time world champion Viswanathan Anand. Turlov, 38, built a massive financial empire. He launched Freedom Finance in 2008, took Freedom Holding Corp. public on Nasdaq in 2019, and expanded into banking, insurance, payments, telecoms and lifestyle services. By 2026 his firm’s market value topped $9 billion and his personal wealth reached $6.3 billion. The shift from finance to sport may seem odd, but Turlov says he wants to bring the same ecosystem thinking he used in business to the chess world.
His involvement in chess began before this election. He became president of the Kazakhstan Chess Federation in January 2023, the same year the government approved a chess development plan that runs through 2027. The structure grew quickly. Regional offices opened in all 20 provinces, support for national teams and young players rose, and the number of tournaments listed in international databases jumped from 1,538 in 2023 to 3,853 in 2025. The school program is especially notable. The Chess in Education initiative now reaches more than 1,500 schools and about 60,000 children, with roughly 2,800 teachers trained. The results are clear. Kazakh players collected 126 medals in 2023, 162 medals in 2025, and the women’s national team earned silver at the Olympiad in 2024 for the first time. Success is not just his doing; government, schools, coaches and private partners all helped. Still, Kazakhstan’s progress is the strongest point in Turlov’s campaign résumé.
Turlov sees a parallel between his business and chess. Freedom now works in over 20 countries, serves more than 600,000 clients in Europe, and is pursuing a banking license there. The firm recently earned a brokerage license in Turkey, the first broad license for a foreign firm in 34 years, and opened its own bank. He believes chess has a similar gap: many participants and services exist, but they are not linked. A player might have a FIDE profile, accounts on several online platforms, separate tournament registrations, and ties to different federations, coaches and clubs, with none of these pieces connected. His proposal is a global chess account. Under the plan, each player would receive one FIDE digital identity that stores ratings, results, tournament history and achievements. This ID could be used to sign up for competitions and access educational tools. Artificial intelligence would assist with game analysis, coaching and stronger fair‑play monitoring. Where FIDE has focused on regulation and organization, Turlov envisions a worldwide service platform for the game.
Children are at the heart of his vision. The International School Chess Federation was created in 2024 to link federations with schools, universities, teachers and education systems. In 2025 it joined forces with FIDE to run the World Schools Team Championship and an education summit in Washington. The two bodies also declared 2026 the Year of Chess in Education. The initiative also carries a social purpose. By helping schools and national federations introduce chess at low cost, the International School Chess Federation aims to give kids from disadvantaged backgrounds a chance to play a game they might otherwise never meet. This approach could be most valuable for federations in developing nations and for underserved communities elsewhere. The idea is simple: stars draw attention, but a sport’s true foundation grows when many young minds learn the game early.