Viswanathan Anand, the five-time world champion, has thrown his weight behind the re-election bid of FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich, a former deputy prime minister of Russia. Though Anand and Dvorkovich didn't give details of Anand's role in FIDE if Dvorkovich and his team are reelected, the Indian Grandmaster's support for the Russian will be seen as significant with campaigning to start in the first week of May.

The FIDE Congress and the General Assembly will be held in Chennai from July 28 after the All India Chess Federation was awarded rights of the 44th Chess Olympiad. "I am committed to run for the next term for FIDE presidency. It is not the start of the campaign yet, the campaign will start only in May. I am happy now that our team will be strengthened by the participation of Viswanathan Anand. Anand will be a huge part of our team if we win," Dvorkovich said at an event where the official handover of the hosting rights was done.

When asked about the role he would play in FIDE Anand said a 'general agreement' had been reached but the details were still being worked out.

"For the moment we haven't decided yet what shape this will take but I know the great work president Dvokorvich and his team have accomplished and I was willing to work beside them. When we find a specific role we will let you know. But for the moment it is just a general agreement. So basically Dvorkovich offered that we can work together as part of his team in FIDE and I would be happy to do so. I have seen the good work and I am happy to contribute. We didn't yet nail down what role and so on," Anand said.

Dvorkovich was elected as FIDE president in 2018 and is known to be close to the Kremlin. He was also the head of the local organising committee of the FIFA World Cup hosted by Russia four years ago. The previous president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov was also Russian but towards the end of his two-decade reign, he was hit by US sanctions for his alleged dealings with the Bashar al-Assad government in Syria.

Dvorkovich had got the better of Georgios Makropoulos of Greece, the then FIDE deputy president.

Recently Dvorkovich has been in a tricky situation when the FIDE council decided to withdraw Moscow's hosting rights of the Chess Olympiad after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Russian and Belarusian teams have also been suspended from events, while players from these two countries can't play under their national flag.

FIDE also banned one of the biggest names in Russian chess Grandmaster Sergey Karjakin for his pro-war comments.

Karjakin's suspension was followed by a statement from Dmitry Peskov, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Russian Chess Federation. Peskov, as reported by Chess24, told the Russian news agency TASS: "We regret this. We call on FIDE to reconsider this decision and still remain out of politics, thereby confirming the international prestige of this chess organization. Naturally, we disagree with this decision."

When asked about the recent decisions of FIDE, Dvorkovich said, " (Our aim) Is to protect the interest of players, and unite players around the world and do whatever is needed to achieve this goal. We had to take some steps, difficult for me also personally but it was in the interest of the chess community and in the interest of FIDE and players. I will keep the stance like that, so I am looking forward to the Olympiad as it will be an opportunity to reunite the chess family."

(With inputs from agencies)