Fide is affiliated to the International Olympic Committee and Malcolm Pein wants the IOC to exert pressure on the federation to maintain sanctions against Russia.

The motion to lift all sanctions against Russia has been tabled by the Chess Federation of Kyrgyzstan, a key Russian ally in Central Asia.

However, other countries are expected to support Moscow at the Fide congress too.

German Chess Federation head Ingrid Lauterbach says every federation has one vote and that many states in Africa and Asia are “easy to be influenced to vote in [Russia’s] favour”.

“You can see [pro-Russians] are trying to take over. It’s really worrying.”

In a separate move, a Fide commission applied sanctions to the Russian Chess Federation (CFR) last June, excluding it for two years for “bringing chess into disrepute” and violating the international organisation’s principles.

It found that the Russian federation had organised tournaments in areas of Ukraine illegally occupied by Russian forces and reprimanded Fide’s Russian president for his membership of the CFR board.

Ex-defence minister Sergei Shoigu and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who are both under international sanctions, are also board members.

Arkady Dvorkovich said at the time that many of his colleagues on the Fide council disagreed with the ban on the federation and it would be appealed. “Of course, the assembly cannot fail to consider such a significant issue for the entire world chess movement,” he told Match TV.

But next week’s crucial vote at the Fide General Assembly concerns separate sanctions applied in 2022 – namely, the exclusion of the Russian national chess team, flag, anthem and officials from all international chess events.