Sept 26 (Reuters) - Kazakh businessman Timur Turlov was elected as the eighth president of world chess governing body FIDE on Saturday after a closely fought contest at the organisation's General Assembly in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, .
The election was widely seen as a defining vote for FIDE amid debates over governance, Russia's place in international chess and the sport's commercial future. Of FIDE's 204 member federations, 202 were eligible to vote with the Russian and Rwandan federations suspended.
The race was transformed this year when incumbent Arkady Dvorkovich, a former Russian deputy prime minister who had led FIDE since 2018, withdrew his bid for a third term after being included in a European Union sanctions package.
Turlov, who was originally part of Dvorkovich's presidential team before launching his own campaign, succeeds him after an eight-year tenure marked by concerted efforts to expand chess's global reach. Indian Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand will be Turlov's deputy.
(Reporting by Karan Prashant Saxena in Bengaluru, editing by Ed Osmond)
