FIDE, the World Chess Federation, was set to take over the system for choosing the world champion, following Alekhine's death. One proposal then was to either declare former champion Euwe the new champion, or to hold a match between Euwe and Reshevsky, with the winner becoming the new champion. But at this stage, the Soviet chess organization was not even a member of FIDE, so how could they influence its decisions!? The Soviets joined FIDE in 1947, and their proposal for the new world championship format (the one originally put forth by Botvinnik the year before in an informal fashion at Groningen) was accepted. Fine eventually declined to play, but otherwise, this wound up being the format used in 1948 to select the new champion, who turned out to be Botvinnik.