The new administration made immediate strides and only a month later, a local educational establishment hosted a large tournament called Uralfest, which brought together players from around the country. Soon after, a new website was launched, which was recognized as the best regional website in the country and the Board of Trustees was established with the 12th world champion Anatoly Karpov at its head.

A further impulse to the development of chess came with the creation of the Grandmaster Centre in January 2018, which was led by grandmaster Andrey Shariyazdanov and which opened its doors to talented juniors. Success came within six months of opening. Artem Pingin became the Russian youth rapid and blitz champion and split 1st-2nd places in classical chess. Leya Garifullina won the Russian championship once again, before winning the world U14 blitz championship, alongside the world championship among girls under 16 years old in 2018 and 2019.

The international festival Eurasia Open in 2019 brought together almost 1500 competitors from 13 countries and 40 Russian regions.
During that tournament, the website of the Sverdlovsk regional chess federation, ural-chess.com attracted more than 7500 views per day, while fans from 112 countries tuned in to watch the match between Karjakin and Harikrishna.