Salesforce becomes the Title Sponsor and Technological partner of FIDE.

Partnership brings the Agentforce 360 portfolio, including Slack, to the world's largest chess events and forums, powering real-time player rankings and AI-driven fan experiences for over 800 million global fans.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM), the #1 AI CRM, today announced a landmark multiyear partnership with the International Chess Federation (FIDE), becoming the Title Sponsor of the FIDE World Championship Matches 2026–28 and the official AI partner of the FIDE World Chess Championship and FIDE Rankings. The collaboration will utilize the full power of Agentforce 360 — the complete portfolio of Salesforce AI solutions that power the Agentic Enterprise — to unify every layer of its operations, player rankings, and fan connections onto a single platform. This includes leveraging Slack to further connect FIDE’s global teams and streamline workflows.

A partnership built for the championship

The partnership between FIDE and Salesforce covers the 2026 and 2028 World Championship Matches, the 2027 Women's Match, and the world rankings. The official world championship matches and rankings will be presented as the Salesforce FIDE World Chess Championships and Salesforce FIDE Rankings.

A new standard for chess: Intelligence meets innovation

FIDE has been the governing body of chess since 1924, today overseeing 204 national member federations, 1.5 million rated players, and tens of thousands of rated events per year across 195 countries. With Agentforce 360, FIDE will run its entire operation on a single, intelligent platform, unlocking new ways to connect with players, federations, and fans around the world.

Fans will experience this transformation firsthand through the Chess Concierge Agent, powered by Agentforce 360, that answers questions on ratings, rules, and live tournament status for 1.2 million monthly visitors in any language. Internally, Agentforce 360 will help FIDE more efficiently run its operations. This includes powering Move of the Day: a workflow that analyzes moves from elite competition and surfaces them to the FIDE expert panel via Slack for final selection. Slack will also connect FIDE's federations and commissions worldwide, giving officers behind-the-scenes visibility into ratings and operations.

Core to FIDE’s authority is its rating system, the universally recognized measure of every chess player's skill that is used to track standings, history, and predictive analysis. FIDE's ELO Player Rating Agent will offer a conversational lookup of any FIDE player, including historical trends, current standings, insights into results, and predictions. It also automates the rating data pipelines across 204 federations, replacing manual batch processes with near-real-time ratings. Underpinning this is Data 360, which will unify FIDE's player database of active online chess players and 60,000+ annual event streams to offer consolidated real-time fan and player profiles.

Emil Sutovsky, CEO of FIDE, said: "This is truly a landmark agreement. This partnership equips FIDE with enterprise-grade CRM and fan engagement tools from the world’s leading company to transform how we manage relationships with federations, players and audiences. Title sponsorship of the 2026 and 2028 Matches, along with the Women’s Match in 2027, demonstrate the partnership and commitment between FIDE and Salesforce."

Viswanathan Anand, FIDE Interim President, said: "This agreement places chess at the heart of technological innovation. Salesforce’s title sponsorship of the open and women’s cycles plus our ranking system shows genuine commitment. This will inspire a new generation and give our premier events the stage they deserve."

"Chess is one of the world’s most beloved games, cherished by hundreds of millions of people across every culture and corner of the globe," said Patrick Stokes, President, Applications and Marketing, Salesforce. "We’re truly honored to partner with FIDE and bring the power of the Agentic Enterprise to a sport with such rich history and passionate fans. From the Salesforce FIDE World Chess Championships to the Salesforce FIDE Rankings, we want to help FIDE connect with its players and audiences in ways that feel personal, seamless, and worthy of the game they love."

About Salesforce

Salesforce helps organizations of any size become Agentic Enterprises — integrating humans, agents, apps, and data on a trusted, unified platform to unlock unprecedented growth and innovation. Visit www.salesforce.com for more information.

About FIDE

The International Chess Federation (FIDE) is the governing body of the sport of chess, and it regulates all international chess competitions. Constituted as a non-governmental institution, it was recognized by the International Olympic Committee as a Global Sporting Organization in 1999.

FIDE currently has its headquarters in Lausanne, but it was initially founded in 1924 in Paris under the motto "Gens una Sumus" (Latin for "We are one Family"). It was one of the very first International Sports Federations, alongside the governing bodies of the sports of Football, Cricket, Swimming, and Auto Racing. It is now one of the largest, encompassing 204 countries as affiliate members, in the form of National Chess Federations. Chess is nowadays a truly global sport, with dozens of millions of players in all the continents, and more than 60 million games on average played every day.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260909864680/en/

Media Contacts:

Salesforce: pr@salesforce.com

FIDE: press@fide.com