Hikaru Nakamura named his favorite for the 2026 FIDE Presidential elections. Nakamura says he wants Wadim Rosenstein to win the election, and notes Rosenstein’s position on the FIDE World Championship.

Hikaru Nakamura

Hikaru Nakamura

World's No. 3, streamer

“I would probably say that Wadim Rosenstein is the person that I want to win. It’s obviously very murky with FIDE elections. But I just feel that we’ve had enough of this stuff with Sutovsky, Dvorkovich, and all these changes that were recently introduced. So, I would say that if I’m going to support someone, it would be Wadim.

I asked Wadim about the cycle and qualification. He did say he believes that when it comes to the FIDE World Championship, the qualification should be Classical chess. And that is a very important thing to note because currently Emil Sutovsky’s brainchild was to basically change the FIDE World Cup from the current format of Classical chess to an open Swiss tournament 45+30 and then have it back with the other format.

I actually think it’s a very good stand that the intention is to have the qualification be from Classical chess if Wadim were to win. So even though these changes were announced, if the current ticket with Turlov does not win, I expect a lot of these changes to be reversed.”

The 2026 FIDE Presidential election will take place at the General Assembly in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, from September 26 to 27. Wadim Rosenstein is a German billionaire entrepreneur, founder of WR Chess, and a major chess patron. Rosenstein announced his candidacy for FIDE President at the end of June.

Credit: Lennart Ootes