[cepth]

FIDE, the world chess governing body, seems to have signed a long term contract for the World Rapid and Blitz championships. (https://www.chess.com/news/view/3-year-contract-fide-saudi-a...).

As long as it’s one country, one vote, you’re likely to get outcomes like this one, where a wealthy federation can buy off a large number of smaller federations. This is a perpetual problem in professional chess, hence the existence of proposals like this one: https://en.chessbase.com/post/one-vote-per-rated-game

Edit: Also worth noting, Saudi Arabia was the ONLY bidder for this year’s championships.