Women's game: what to expect from our chess team at the World Cup in Spain

The International Chess Federation (FIDE) has allowed the Russian women's national team to participate in the 2025 World Team Championship, which will be held in Linares in November 2025. In Spain, our team will compete under the FIDE banner. The decision on this was made at the FIDE Presidential Council, which was held on July 18-19. The fate of the men's national team will be decided in the autumn, at the next council of the organization, and there is a high probability that our men will participate in the World Chess Olympiad – 2026. However, unlike the women's national team, it will be harder for them to compete for medals, for more information, see the Izvestia article.

Forward movement

Since March 2022, Russian and Belarusian chess players have participated in tournaments under the auspices of FIDE in a neutral status, and have also been denied the opportunity to participate in team tournaments. In particular, he missed two World Chess Olympiads. In January 2025, FIDE allowed Russian and Belarusian youth teams (under 18) to participate in international competitions in a neutral status. From August 16 to 23, the Colombian city of Barranquil will host the Under-16 World Chess Olympiad, where our team is considered the favorite.

Now it's the turn of the national teams.

"Over the past few years, both the FIDE Council and I personally have repeatedly confirmed the principle of "sport outside politics", this is our firm belief, which we follow," FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich said in a conversation with Izvestia. — At the same time, as an international federation recognized by the IOC, we must follow their recommendations, which was once again confirmed by the FIDE General Assembly last year. With this in mind, FIDE constantly conducted monitoring work and consultations with the IOC. As a first step, in January, the FIDE Council, with the approval of the IOC, allowed youth teams from Russia and Paralympians to participate under a neutral flag. The boys will take part in the World Youth Olympics in Colombia in August, and the Paralympics will start in October in Kazakhstan. At the FIDE Council, we discussed the issue of admitting the Russian women's national team (also under the FIDE flag) to the 2025 World Team Championship. Taking into account the practice of a number of federations that have already granted admission to swimming, gymnastics, fencing, judo, and consultations with the IOC, the FIDE Council allowed the Russian women's team to participate under the FIDE flag, subject to receiving a corresponding letter from the IOC. We expect this letter within 7-10 days, according to preliminary consultations, the IOC supports our decision.

This is a positive decision, but we want it to be made for all our national teams, Alexander Tkachev, Executive Director of the Russian Football Federation, emphasized in an interview with Izvestia.

— The IOC has long expressed its view that the admission of teams is the prerogative of international federations. It's all about FIDE here. The World Cup in Spain will be the first competition in which our national team will compete after a forced break," the official said.

FIDE stated that the admission of the men's national team will be discussed in the fall of 2025. The next official start of the men's teams is scheduled for September 2026, when the World Chess Olympiad will be held in Uzbekistan.

Medal hopes

The World Team Championship will be held in November 2025 in Linares. Earlier, this Spanish city hosted the men's super tournament for many years, which was won by Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov (recognized as a foreign agent in the Russian Federation and included in the register of terrorists and extremists), Vichy Anand, Vasily Ivanchuk, Veselin Topalov.

The last time our women's national team participated in the World Team Championship was in 2021, winning gold. Alexandra Goryachkina, Ekaterina Lagno, Polina Shuvalova, Alexandra Kostenyuk and Anna Kashlinskaya played for Russia at that time. Kosteniuk currently represents Switzerland, Kashlinska represents Poland.

But our titled and experienced chess players are still in the ranks.: Valentina Gunina, Olga Girya, Daria Charochkina, as well as young talents.

— On the one hand, there were talks about admission last year, on the other, I couldn't believe that I would have the opportunity to play for the national team in a team tournament, - said Valentina Gunina, who won the World Team Championship in 2017. — Deep down, I hoped for it, but I thought the chances were slim. That's why, of course, I'm very happy. Yes, there is no flag yet, but everyone understands which country we represent. It is not the first year that we have been competing in neutral status at individual tournaments. As for the medal prospects, we have two losses compared to 2021. But at the same time, we still have two top-10 players (Alexandra Goryachkina and Ekaterina Lagno), Polina Shuvalova is very close. There are experienced veterans and very young talented girls. The same Anna Shukhman has been performing very well in recent years, she showed herself vividly at her debut World Cup. There are still strong young girls. So we will have a very competitive team. We will definitely fight for medals.

But it's hard to talk about our men's national team's medal prospects.

— Our men's team has much more losses than the women's team, — continued Valentina Gunina. — A lot of our guys decided to play for other national teams in their prime (first of all, Vladimir Fedoseev, Alexey Saran and Nikita Vitiugov should be highlighted; Sergey Karjakin stopped participating in tournaments in a neutral status. — Izvestia). Therefore, it will be very difficult for men to compete for high places. We can only hope that our very young talents will increase by leaps and bounds and take their places in the national team in the coming years.

Let's remind you that our men's team last played at the World Team Championships in 2019 and also won gold. At that time, our team consisted of Yan Nepomnyashchy, Sergey Karyakin, Alexander Grischuk, Dmitry Andreikin and Vladislav Artemyev. At the last World Chess Olympiad in 2018, the Russians finished third (Nepomnyashchy, Karjakin, Vladimir Kramnik, Nikita Vitiugov, Dmitry Yakovenko), passing the teams of the USA and China.