The two organisations signed a two-year cooperation agreement which will include Zenit and the Chess Federation of St. Petersburg holding joint events aimed at cross promoting both football and chess, including information, advertising and marketing support as well as developing educational projects and programmes at the Gazprom Academy. 

Zenit and the Chess Federation of St. Petersburg have had a long-standing friendship, the Gazprom Arena hosted the school of grandmasters in 2019 with international grandmasters Petr Svidler, Nikita Vitiugov, Maxim Matlakov and Kirill Alekseenko all taking part in the project.