“It's a sprint, a short-term 90-day project...” — Jan Henric Buettner on Running for FIDE Presidency

Jan Henric Buettner

Freestyle Chess CEO

“[Question: When did you decide to run for the FIDE president title?] It was in Monaco… The idea came up within a discussion with Javokhir Sindarov and Bibisara Assaubayeva. First of all, I was laughing it off a little bit. I said: ‘That was definitely not my plan…’ But after some consideration, I said: ‘Why not?’ And since then, I’m in the race.

I didn’t even see that coming. The thing is, I actually was on the way out of the chess world. Because I handed over the Freestyle Chess company to somebody else. I was basically done with the project. And the final moment was this visit to Monaco with Sindarov and Bibisara…

And then they said: ‘Please don’t leave the chess world! You did so many great things. You’re the best thing that ever happened to chess in terms of business. You raised all this money and you put all these great tournaments. Can’t you do something like that with FIDE? Why don’t you run for president?’

I was really laughing about it. I said: ‘That’s a really funny idea!’ But I’ve never been in any political situation where I actually looked for being elected by somebody. I always built up my own companies, my own stuff.

But this specific idea is OK, because I’m a businessman. And the way FIDE has been run so far, it’s not really a business. I thought, if I was able to raise $27.5 million just for Freestyle Chess, I will definitely be able to raise much more money for the general chess market, if this is run properly.

I thought it’s a great challenge and a great goal to have. It’s also a sprint. It’s a short-term project. It’s a 90-day project. So, I thought, why not give it a chance and put myself up into the race.

That’s a challenge that I would be happy to do, if they vote for me at the end of September.”