GM Bachar Kouatly

Bachar Kouatly is a French grandmaster, chess organizer, journalist and a candidate for the FIDE presidency in 2022. 

Kouatly was born in Syria and raised in Lebanon. In 1975, he shared third with IM Manuel Aaron at the zonal tournament in Tehran and became the youngest international master of his time. 
Soon Kouatly moved to France and won the French championship in 1979.  He became the first French and Arab grandmaster in 1989. 

Kouatly was among the organizers of World Chess Championship 1990 contested by Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov in New York and Lyon. As a chess organizer, he also played a key role in the success of Lyon Oyonnax chess club, the European Club Cup winner in 1993 and 1994.

He made his first run for the FIDE presidency in 1994, but he was defeated by Florencio Campomanes. In 1995 he became a deputy FIDE president as a member of Krisan Iljumzhinov's team and was reelected several times, last in 2018 for the same position under Arkady Dvorkovich.

In 1997, he acquired Europe Échecs, a monthly French chess magazine.

In 2016, he became the president of the French Chess Federation.