 A very warm welcome, Mr. Dvokovic to Gibraltar. Thank you, it's very good to be here. First time for me, but already watched some nice games, so very good people, great hospitality. That's very nice to hear now, Mr. Dvokovic, you've always come across as a people's president in Fide. You're travelling, you're playing with players, you're watching the games here. Before politics, you seem to be a lover of chess. Yeah, I really love chess and without this love I would never go for elections, never go for this position. I love spending time with chess players and with the chess family, with organisers, with arbiters, discuss all kinds of subjects and to think about the future, of course. And this gives me motivation to go forward. So you're saying that it was your love for the game that actually made you fight the Fide elections? Sure, it was a family tradition, it's love for the game and the understanding that they can contribute to the future of chess in a good way. Well, all right, now with your experience, your vast experience in the government, in politics, with economics, hosting big world-class events. What do you feel it is that a tournament like Gibraltar Masters, what does it contribute to the landscape of the city in general? Gibraltar Festival, chess festival, is a great traditional radio. I think it's 18th tournament, so it's a long one. And the way how it goes and how it improves every year with great chess players, both in the top 10 or top 20, but also players who can compete with the top 10 players and have fun and actually challenge the best ones. It's a great tradition and also many ladies participating as well, so that also gives them an opportunity to compete against the best. Also, we have not so many big open tournaments this time. And besides side of mind, Gibraltar is probably another one that is in the top three. We should have more, but now it is the one that everyone loves to come. That is Ruan, you mentioned about women's support in Gibraltar. It is the home of women chess for many, many years now. And women chess is also something that's a priority for Fide? Correct. I think we did a lot of good things already. Some first steps that already brought attention from the chess community, from the best players. We changed the way how the World Championship Cycle is organized, brought it more or less in line with how we do this for men. So we just had the World Championship match in Shanghai in Vladivostok. Great competition, big fight between the current world champion and contender, Aleksandr Garechkin. Just finished and lots of people who never thought they would watch games online started doing that because of this match. We have more women in Fide management, official positions as well, arbiters, appeal committee members. So I think we are on the right track, but still lots things to do. You have been, this is the second year for Fide for you and like you were saying, so many changes have happened, so many positive things. For you personally, what has been a big highlight? I think the way how we treat players and how we move forward is the most important thing. We pay attention to what people say, we pay attention to criticism that we are getting about all kinds of details and national circumstances and particular tournaments about the way how arbiters are appointed and many, many other things. So it's about just moving forward each day, taking feedback from players, from chess community, from professionals, from companies also, from sponsors since we are not yet at the point where we can say that we are financially successful. But I think we showed that in all kinds of things, big tournament, World Championship cycle, development program seminars, we improved a lot and it's not just one thing, it's a combination of things. Right, and Mr. Dvokovic, when you walked in for this interview, the first thing you wanted to find out was what's happening in the games and you wanted to check and that obviously comes from, like you said, how much you enjoy playing yourself. And in all probability, we might have three Russians in the tiebreak. It's very likely, but still to see. But it's clear that the Russian chess school is one of the most successful, but the competition around the world is really strong. So it could be three Indians easily. I'm not joking. And the competition now between Russia, India, China, United States, Iran, three, four other countries is really strong and that's why people started watching chess more and more and enjoy both watching and playing. So we are looking forward to the candidates tournament in Yekaterinburg next month and also for some very good top-level women tournaments including Constant Louis, but also Grand Prix in Lausanne and Sardinia. Talking about the candidates in Yekaterinburg, Alexenko, who's playing here, was announced as the wildcard before Russia had a player and now there are three players. Just your thoughts on this situation? I think any Russian player among top ten can be at the top of tournaments like that. Alexenko is probably hiding something from us. He is preparing for the candidates tournament and he is, I think, in all his rights not to show his preparation at this particular point, but Van Hal is competing now for the first place and he is also playing in Yekaterinburg. So we have some strongest players here who will try to challenge the world champion this year and I think it's really nice to see more and more young players from all countries coming to the top-level competition and getting first prizes and that shows that we have the next generation that will actually fight against the big ones, big guys who are on top right now. Talking about the young generations, it opens like the Gibraltar Masters that also give them a stage to play against the world's best? Yes, that's the thing that's happening here in Gibraltar and I saw today some really young players including some Indian guys who are playing the first boards and that's an important thing for them. They have to check whether they are already at the level they can compete and they still need to train a bit more to be in line with requirements of top-level chess. Talking about top level of chess, a very big event coming up for the chess world will be the world championship. Can you tell us or reveal what, when, where, anything about it in detail? Certainly it's going to be towards the end of the year. We are hopeful that we will conclude the contract with Dubai Expo very soon and that location we are looking forward to have the world championship match since it will gather hundreds of thousands of people from around the world that will go around Universal Expo but will have a chance to visit the world championship match as well. So we are trying to do it as a top-class event that will be visible, not just to the chess audience but to all people around the world and of course we will have promotional events before that where we will have both the world champion and a contender to join us. So I think after the Olympics that we will have in August, in Moscow, in the first Paralympics in Hantymansiysk, we will have a very good time expecting a great world championship match. Right, and there is this very common notion, Mr. Dvokovych, that a lot of tournaments are taking place in Russia. How is Fedey planning to diversify the geography of chess? Well, you could see that in Grand Prix cycles we were able to diversify a bit. We had one event both in Open and Women Grand Prix cycle but other three events are in other countries so it's already a good step forward I think but of course we need to do much more. That's about finding partners and sponsors. It's my personal daily routine to find new sponsors and partners who will support chess and diversify locations of top class events. I'm sure that already next year we will see more locations for those kinds of tournaments. That's really good to hear and of course I have to come back to Gibraltar because for an Open event Gibraltar has become a sort of a capital trademark event for the chess world. Now for 18 years there's been so much contribution of this tournament to the chess world. What is it that can be done to boost the local chess scene in Gibraltar? What sort of a cooperation that Gibraltar can look forward to with Fedey for this initiative? We are discussing now a few things besides standard programs like chess and schools. We are also talking about having Gibraltar chess as a part of Fedey family also formally. Given legal formalities we cannot at this point discuss full membership but some kind of associated membership that will allow Gibraltar chess to develop like most of the other countries and get support from Fedey, host official Fedey tournaments. I think that is possible and we will continue discussions during the next few hours and then hopefully we can take decision at the General Assembly already in Abu Dhabi in February. That's a lot for Gibraltar to look forward to and finally tell us what can the chess world look forward to from Fedey in 2020? The most important thing for us this year is to follow up on the positive developments that we had last year. We started supporting multiple programs all around the world to improve the capacity of national chess federation to train the new generation of chess players to organize tournaments, to have professional arbiters and organizers. But of course the chess Olympian World Championship match is the most important event this year and we should make sure that they will be the top quality and we will attract many people, millions of people and improve our capacity to attract new partners and sponsors. Thank you very much for your time and once again welcome to Gibraltar. We hope it will be memorable for you. Thank you.