OREANDA-NEWS  The Russian Chess Federation (FSHR) will become the first domestic sports structure that, against the background of sanctions imposed in connection with a special military operation in Ukraine, will change its European "registration" to an Asian one. Her transition from the European Chess Union (ECU) to the Asian Chess Federation (ACF) is likely to be formalized in late February or early March. The FSHR is confident that Russian chess players will have more game practice in the new region, and the level of competition in Asia is even higher now than in Europe. Alexander Tkachev, Executive Director of the Russian Chess Federation, told Kommersant that in about a month the transition of the Russian Chess Federation from the European Chess Union to the Asian Chess Federation will probably be formalized. It must be approved by the ACF Congress. The meeting of this body will be held from February 26 to March 3. Mr. Tkachev added that "all the documents necessary for the transition" have already been sent to both the ACF and the International Chess Federation (FIDE).

The Executive Director of the FSHR recalled that in fact, the federation voted for the change of the "registration" in April last year, and since then the relevance of this idea has become "even more obvious".

The European structure is also well aware that the federation that is part of the ECU is going to leave it. It became clear from the statement published by her. In it, ECU, predicting such a step, refers to the statements of Russian chess functionaries, in particular, the president of the FSHR Andrey Filatov. In December, he warned of its intention to become the first Russian Federation to "break the blockade", which arose due to the introduction of sanctions against the Russian sports industry after the start of a military special operation in Ukraine.