How Come This Player Has Joined English Fed?

[Mick Norris]

I’ve been in hospital with my Father so even this place takes a back seat.

Sorry to hear that Carl

[Roger Lancaster]

I’ve been in hospital with my Father so even this place takes a back seat.

Sorry to hear that Carl

Likewise.

[Stephen Westmoreland]

Sorry to hear and thoughts are with you.

[Paul Cooksey]

Sorry to hear that Carl.

We will all cope if you or Jack just want to lock any threads that are causing you trouble.

[Simon Rogers]

I’ve been in hospital with my Father so even this place takes a back seat.

Sorry to hear Carl.
My thoughts are with you at this difficult time.

[Carl Hibbard]

Add Howitt to your foe list to ignore the numpty

[Ian Thompson]

Sorry to hear that Carl.

We will all cope if you or Jack just want to lock any threads that are causing you trouble.

There's also the option of placing troublesome users in a group that have to have their posts approved by a moderator before they appear. That would need more moderators appointing though.

[John Upham]

I’ve been in hospital with my Father so even this place takes a back seat.

Sorry to hear this Carl.

I don't think any of us wish to be a burden.

[Kevin Thurlow]

@ Carl - sympathy from me too.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Indeed, sympathy from me too. Please say if specific help can be provided, or help in any other way.

[Carl Hibbard]

For now please just report posts and me or Jack will deal with them it also saves reading every post.

[Chris Goodall]

For now please just report posts and me or Jack will deal with them it also saves reading every post.

Can I vote we just nuke the Ramirez thread entirely, Carl? Assuming that's less work than weeding out the problematic parts? To keep it locked but visible would prevent people editing certain posts that imply guilt, if and when names emerge. (Although Sabrina's contributions are obviously valuable, they veer into advising women against coming forward, which is a narrative that possibly fits better on her personal site than this one.)

[Matt Mackenzie]

Let's not have censorship unless we absolutely can't avoid it, eh.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

If I can bring this thread back on topic, there are some interesting points and quotes in the coverage of this by chess.com from Norwegian chess journalist Tarjei J. Svensen:

https://www.chess.com/news/view/vitiugo ... number-one

Vitiugov Transfers From Russia To Become England's New Number One

People here might be interested in the quotes from Karjakin towards the end of the article, and the professed attitude of the Russian chess authorities to how serious these defections/transfers are.

Karjakin is quoted by chess.com as saying the following in an interview with RIA:

"A lot of guys have left. We need to pay attention to this problem, because at some point we will not have members of the national team left and we will have to compete as a second team. This reduces our overall chess potential in the country. The loss of Nikita Vitiugov is very serious."

The list put together by chess.com is as follows (I have added in Vitiugov for completeness):

GM Nikita Vitiugov - switched to England on August 30
GM Sanan Sjugirov - switched to Hungary on August 23
GM Maksim Chigaev - switched to Spain on August 17
GM Anton Demchenko - switched to Slovenia on July 28
GM Vladimir Fedoseev - switched to Slovenia on July 27
GM Kiril Alekseenko - switched to Austria on July 7
GM Alexander Motylev - switched to Romania on June 14
GM Alexey Sarana - switched to Serbia on April 21
GM Alexandr Predke - switched to Serbia on March 3
GM Alexandra Kosteniuk - switched to Switzerland on March 3

Chess.com also report Karjakin saying that Esipenko has a clause in his contract saying he cannot change federations (hmm):

Esipenko, along with GM Dmitry Andreikin and Svidler are now the top Russians to play under the FIDE flag. Their three highest-rated players, such as former world championship challenger Nepomniachtchi, GM Alexander Grischuk, and GM Daniil Dubov, in addition to Karjakin, remain with the Russian flag on FIDE's website.

Oh, and also apparently these transfers will be more difficult now as the FIDE rules about this were only in force until 31 August. Is the process longer and more expensive now (i.e. the normal rules come back into force)?

[Kevin Thurlow]

So Karjakin (ex-Ukraine) thinks it is wrong to change federation?