After having been in office for 23 years, since 1995, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov was finally ousted, clearing the path for a successor. The Greek Georgios Makropoulos, who had been General Secretary since 1990 and number two in the organization under Kirsan's presidency, was the first to announce his ticket. He was followed by the Englishman Nigel Short, a world title contender in the World Chess Championship 1993 against Garry Kasparov. The last to announce his candidacy was Arkady Dvorkovich, who had served as Russian deputy prime minister and was also a member of the Supervisory Board of the Russian Chess Federation. Dvorkovich was also one of the chief organizers of the 2018 FIFA World Cup. In the elections, held in Batumi (Georgia) in October 2018, Dvorkovich won by 103 votes to 78 against Makropoulos, thus becoming FIDE's 7th President in history.