Tradewise Gibraltar Masters 2017

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Alex Holowczak
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Re: Tradewise Gibraltar Masters 2017

Post by Alex Holowczak » Tue Feb 21, 2017 10:49 am

Geoff Chandler wrote:I'm wondering if, to save what looks like a promising chess career, the organisers could get in touch with the
Iranian powers that be and explain it was their fault. Tell it like they did with Yifan it 'came out of a machine.'
From Twitter:
Stuart Conquest ‏@stuthefox 23 hours ago wrote:I have written to the Iranian Chess Federation concerning the situation over one of their players at @GibraltarChess @TarjeiJS #gibchess

NickFaulks
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Re: Tradewise Gibraltar Masters 2017

Post by NickFaulks » Tue Feb 21, 2017 12:49 pm

Geoff Chandler wrote: I'm wondering if, to save what looks like a promising chess career
Can we be sure that he wants to go back to Iran? Some Iranians don't!
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Geoff Chandler
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Re: Tradewise Gibraltar Masters 2017

Post by Geoff Chandler » Tue Feb 21, 2017 12:56 pm

Hi Alex,

Good to hear that, when posting my last I thought someone from the organisers side was probably
in the process of doing something like that or perhaps discussing what they could do to help.

Chris Rice
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Re: Tradewise Gibraltar Masters 2017

Post by Chris Rice » Tue Feb 28, 2017 6:36 pm

Mike Klein from Chess.com has interviewed Dorsa Derakhshani about the punishment dished out to her for not wearing a headscarf and her brother, Borno for playing an Israeli in the first round. I've attached a link but would just highlight the following passage from the article:

MK: Your brother was also removed from the national chess federation for playing an Israeli. When he was paired with him, did your brother say anything to the organizers or become worried in any way that playing the Israeli would become an issue?

DD: Firstly my brother is just a kid! Secondly he was playing three tournaments in Gibraltar (both Challengers and Masters tournaments). We were staying in Bristol Hotel which was 40 minutes away from tournament hall and my brother usually would come to Caleta [the host hotel -- M.K.] in the morning and play his morning game in Challengers and have his lunch there and check pairings on wall for his Masters tournament.

Round one was same too. He played his second round in Challenger and checked the pairings on wall and he was happy to have white with a 2550, and he went to the game. There was no flag or country name on pairings which were on the wall. Only after the six hour game he realized his opponent was from Israel and he went to arbiters and asked them to not let any other Iranian be paired against Israeli players. The arbiters were also told that their intention was to not let any pairing between Iranians and Israelis take part here but for the first round it slipped.I was actually supposed to be paired against IM Ori Kobo [from Israel -- M.K.] in round nine but the arbiters avoided it. [In the final round, at least one more pairing involving an Israeli player was altered -- M.K.] After the president of Iran Chess Federation talked to media about it, my father gave him a letter of what happened there and both Stuart Conquest and Laurent Freyd emailed him days ago but have not received any reply as of yet.

[Chess.com confirmed with Conquest that this interaction with Borna took place. Conquest said that Chief Arbiter Laurent Freyd felt bad about accidentally not changing the round one pairing in time, and that Borna had been the one to approach them after the round.]

MK: Officially, what are you instructed to do by the Iranian Chess Federation when you are paired with an Israeli? Is there a policy you are supposed to follow?

DD: We’ve never been instructed by the federation directly! I remember every year playing in world youth some of the Iranians were stressed about this but it actually never happened. As far as I know, it is expected from athletes to forfeit that match.

[The chess world generally tries to avoid these pairings, otherwise nations hostile to Israel will usually demand their players not show up as Dorsa explained. This has happened numerous times with teams slated to play Israeli in the Olympiad, for example -- M.K.]

https://www.chess.com/news/view/ousted- ... 3#comments

Roger de Coverly
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Re: Tradewise Gibraltar Masters 2017

Post by Roger de Coverly » Wed Mar 08, 2017 12:28 am

Chris Rice wrote: [The chess world generally tries to avoid these pairings, otherwise nations hostile to Israel will usually demand their players not show up as Dorsa explained
chessbase have now noted that the Iranian chess president being coerced into these bans is the same guy who came up with the patzer suggestion that all games be played to mate. He's a reasonably sized cheese in FIDE as well according to the article.

If you want to resign and the competition rules don't permit it, you just let your time run out.

http://en.chessbase.com/post/iran-ban-o ... -revisited

Chris Rice
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Re: Tradewise Gibraltar Masters 2017

Post by Chris Rice » Thu Mar 09, 2017 8:07 am

An article highlighting the "Equality Rights Group" who wish to ban Iran from the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival.

http://www.gibraltarolivepress.com/2017 ... hts-group/

A really poor and ill thought out idea. Once you start banning players for coming from countries that have different cultural values where does it end? Should the Gibraltar organisers have to play politics when deciding whose entry to accept? How can an Equality Rights Group think its correct to ban individuals simply for being Iranian? Don't think Dorsa would agree with this as a solution.

Roger de Coverly
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Re: Tradewise Gibraltar Masters 2017

Post by Roger de Coverly » Thu Mar 09, 2017 8:30 am

Chris Rice wrote:Should the Gibraltar organisers have to play politics when deciding whose entry to accept?
Rather than have to do back door tinkering with the data used for pairings, they and other organisers could make it a condition of entry that there are no off limits pairings. FIDE could do the same with its team competitions.

There is a precedent which other organisers have not wished to emulate.

https://www.chess.com/news/view/2011-co ... sters-9468

Roger de Coverly
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Re: Tradewise Gibraltar Masters 2017

Post by Roger de Coverly » Sat Mar 25, 2017 11:06 pm

The FIDE arbiters magazine has a feature where someone has done a blow by blow account of the pairings at Gibraltar

http://arbiters.fide.com/images/stories ... y_2017.pdf

Stewart Reuben
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Re: Tradewise Gibraltar Masters 2017

Post by Stewart Reuben » Sun Mar 26, 2017 2:28 am

There has been an unwritten rule for many years that players from Arabic federations are NOT paired with Israelis. That caught me off-guard in 2004 in the Isle of Man. I paired an Iranian with an Israeli in round 1 and had to change it.
There is a FIDE Rule that federations which are in a state of war with another are NOT paired against each other. The problem ine this case is that Israel dos not think it is in a state of war with these countries, but they do.
One year, before Gibraltar round one pairings were done,I consulted Arabs. Dubai said they could not play, Qatar said there was no problem. Most chess arbiting problems arise because of lack of advanced planning.

NickFaulks
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Re: Tradewise Gibraltar Masters 2017

Post by NickFaulks » Sun Mar 26, 2017 5:03 pm

Stewart Reuben wrote:There has been an unwritten rule for many years that players from Arabic federations are NOT paired with Israelis.
I have never had much time for unwritten rules, or for people who do.
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Stewart Reuben
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Re: Tradewise Gibraltar Masters 2017

Post by Stewart Reuben » Sun Mar 26, 2017 5:35 pm

Nick - You must have problems with the secretary of the Qualification Commission!

NickFaulks
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Re: Tradewise Gibraltar Masters 2017

Post by NickFaulks » Sun Mar 26, 2017 6:32 pm

Stewart Reuben wrote:Nick - You must have problems with the secretary of the Qualification Commission!
Stewart - Thanks for the routine slur upon my integrity, noted as always. QC does not have unwritten rules.
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Stewart Reuben
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Re: Tradewise Gibraltar Masters 2017

Post by Stewart Reuben » Sun Mar 26, 2017 6:40 pm

No slur indicated or intended.
The QC knows very well about this rule that assumes Arabic States and Iran are at war with Israel and therefore it is OK to avoid such pairings. Of course th best was in Dresden in 2008 where Israel was paired with The Yemen and the latter dafaulted 0-4. This helped Israel in their qualification for the bronze medal.

NickFaulks
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Re: Tradewise Gibraltar Masters 2017

Post by NickFaulks » Sun Mar 26, 2017 6:59 pm

In Dresden 2008 the "unwritten rule" was not invoked, it was ignored - that was the source of the trouble. I did not see then what this had to do with QC, and nor do I now.
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Chris Rice
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Re: Tradewise Gibraltar Masters 2017

Post by Chris Rice » Mon Sep 11, 2017 2:59 pm

Dorsa Derakshani has now moved federation from Iran to the US which Mike Klein from Chess.com confirms. Remarkable speed since it was only in January that this all blew up.

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