Idman.biz
Former World Chess Champion under the International Chess Federation (FIDE), Ruslan Ponomariov, will participate in the traditional "Baku Open 2026" chess festival.
Idman.Biz was informed about this by the Azerbaijan Chess Federation.
The famous Ukrainian chess player has already agreed to participate in the festival in Baku and has been included in the list of participants of the upcoming competition.
It should be noted that Ruslan Ponomariov was the youngest and second-to-last world champion under the FIDE version. He won this title in 2002 at the World Championship held using the knockout system. In the final match, Ponomariov defeated his compatriot Vasili Ivanchuk.
In total, there have been six world champions under the FIDE version in chess history. In addition to Ponomariov, these are Anatoly Karpov, Alexander Khalifman (both from Russia), Viswanathan Anand (India), Rustam Kasimdzhanov (Uzbekistan), and Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria).
The FIDE version of the World Championship began to be held in 1993 after the split in the chess world caused by the conflict between the 13th world champion Garry Kasparov and FIDE. The unification match for the world championship took place in 2006. In that match, Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) defeated Topalov.
Returning to the "Baku Open" festival, it should be noted that the competitions will be held from April 27 to May 6 at the "Baku Crystal Hall". The traditional chess festival is part of the "Chess Tour Azerbaijan" project, a series of tournaments organized by the national federation in various cities of the country.
A number of other strong foreign grandmasters, as well as many famous Azerbaijani chess players, will also participate in the upcoming tournament.
