44th Chess Olympiad, Moscow

[NickFaulks]

I've checked the FIDE Charter and found

4.4 FIDE rejects any kind of discrimination against a country, private person or group
of people on account of race, skin colour, ethnic, national or social origin,
citizenship, birth, age, status, wealth, disability, language, religion, sex, gender
identity or expression, pregnancy, sexual orientation, political opinions, or any
other reason.

I tend to think this is all just pointless verbiage, but it is there and it seems to say quite clearly that they can't discriminate against chess players for being Russian, or even Karjakin for supporting Putin's territorial ambitions.

[Geoff Chandler]

Hi Nick,

Further down it states:

4.7 FIDE events may be hosted only by nations where free access is assured to
representatives of all FIDE members. Exceptions can be admissible only for
reasons of state of war or severe violence and conflicts between countries and
have to be decided on a three-quarter majority vote of presents, by the General
Assembly or the Council.

I suppose it all depends how 'Exceptions' are applied.

[NickFaulks]

Banning nations from hosting events is not in question. The measures being pushed today, for instance at ECU, are about preventing Russians from playing chess.

[Chris Goodall]

I've checked the FIDE Charter and found

4.4 FIDE rejects any kind of discrimination against a country, private person or group
of people on account of race, skin colour, ethnic, national or social origin,
citizenship, birth, age, status, wealth, disability, language, religion, sex, gender
identity or expression, pregnancy, sexual orientation, political opinions, or any
other reason.

I tend to think this is all just pointless verbiage, but it is there and it seems to say quite clearly that they can't discriminate against chess players for being Russian, or even Karjakin for supporting Putin's territorial ambitions.

It's not discrimination. I would prefer there to be some new national federation set up that dissenting Russians can join to make their dissent public and irrevocable, and thus restore their right to compete. But it's not discrimination, because every country in the world that's currently blowing a neighbour to bits with thermobaric weapons is being treated the same way.

[Geoff Chandler]

Hi Nick,

It will be a decision not taken lightly but rule 4.7 seems to give a clause to override rule 4.4.

'FIDE events' cover individual and teams events add that to ' Exceptions can be admissible...'

I'm sure FIDE will bend over backwards to uphold the motto '“Gens una Sumus”
but things have spiralled out of their control.

Personally I'd ban no player but there will be ill feelings and boycotts and sponsors pulling the plug.
(also under the current sanctions can a Russian be paid for winning a sporting event? If not what is the point of playing?)

[Jonathan Bryant]

I would prefer there to be some new national federation set up that dissenting Russians can join to make their dissent public and irrevocable ....

On the point of dissent

https://chess24.com/en/read/news/russia ... op-the-war


simply retweeting without comment a negative letter regarding Putin is well beyond the norms of what is acceptable in Russia.

It’s as unrealistic to expect a rival “Putin critique” chess federation to form as it would have been in Soviet times. If such a thing could exist Putin wouldn’t.

A letter Directly calling on Putin to stop the war - and thereby clearly laying the blame for it at his door - is a huge act in itself. Notably further than FIDE has allowed itself to go.

In usual times such outright opposition to Putin would be risky. Eg this woman - apparently a survivor of the Leningrad siege -being arrested for holding up a sign

https://youtu.be/Q3MoMrX1bog

[Jonathan Bryant]

There is an emergency meeting of the Board of the European Chess Union today ...
We wait to hear what the ECU have to say.

And they said ...

With immediate effect, ECU suspends the Russian and Belarusian Chess Federations.

https://www.europechess.org/ecu-suspend ... derations/



... so we can now add the ECU to the list of sporting governing bodies with whom FIDE are out of step.





In other news, the Ukrainian team has arrived at the Paralympics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVv3JnY7yf0

Further reason to be extremely sceptical, to say the least, of the FIDE claim that cancelling World Teams was for the benefit of Ukraine.

[JustinHorton]

It will be a decision not taken lightly but rule 4.7 seems to give a clause to override rule 4.4.

'FIDE events' cover individual and teams events add that to ' Exceptions can be admissible...'

I can't see any legitimate reading of 4.7 which doesn't realise that the "exceptions" apply to the "free access" being "assured", in other words it manifestly relates to the host nation.

[NickFaulks]

I can't see any legitimate reading of 4.7 which doesn't realise that the "exceptions" apply to the "free access" being "assured", in other words it manifestly relates to the host nation.

This discussion is off the point, because we know that official events are not going to be held in Russia until conditions are very different. FIDE didn't really have to make a big song and dance about Russia being banned, they just had to not accept any bids, which won't be forthcoming anyway.

The ECU statement looks very mild, nothing like what the firebrands were demanding. Suspending a federation is quite an easy thing for a continent to do - how many people even remember that Bulgaria has been suspended for the past five years, let alone why? "Russians" will continue to be allowed to play in official events, just under a different flag.

[Jonathan Bryant]

... so we can now add the ECU to the list of sporting governing bodies with whom FIDE are out of step.

And now the Nordic Chess Federation

"The Nordic countries have agreed to join forces together to ban players of the Russian Federation and Belarus to take any part in international chess tournaments within the Zonal 1.3 and The Faroe Islands. Players who are living in the Nordic countries or born 2005 and later are exempted from this ban."

https://twitter.com/Chess__News/status/ ... LvJTXifkGA


The original taken from facebook, according to chess journalist, Tarjei Svensen

[John Foley]

FIDE didn't really have to make a big song and dance about Russia being banned, they just had to not accept any bids, which won't be forthcoming anyway.

Nick, have you got a yacht?

[Geoff Chandler]

Re: The legitimate reading of rule 4.7.

Hi Justin,

I'm reading it as; rule 4.4 permits any member of FIDE to hold an event but they cannot bar any player
or country due to race, skin colour, ethnic, national or social origin, citizenship, birth, age....etc.

Rule 4.7 starts off by saying the same but adding 'Exceptions can be admissible only for
reasons of state of war or severe violence and conflicts between countries.'

Does it not appear that at the moment a country, for example England, could hold a FIDE event
and, if they wished, bar all Russians players from taking part because of the current situation in the Ukraine.

I am not a lawyer so will gladly accept being corrected, but that is how I see it.

I think it is an important matter because a player could sue FIDE if they sanction an event and a player
tries to sue them for not allowed to take part. A potential loss of earning case. Rule 4.7 seems to cover it.

[NickFaulks]

Does it not appear that at the moment a country, for example England, could hold a FIDE event and, if they wished, bar all Russians players from taking part because of the current situation in the Ukraine.

How are you defining a Russian player?

[JustinHorton]

The trouble is Geoff that a court might (and should) ask: if the statutes are meant to say that a host federation may bar members of another federation because of political or ethical disapproval, why not say so plainly? And we should ask the same question, I think.

[Chris Goodall]

It’s as unrealistic to expect a rival “Putin critique” chess federation to form as it would have been in Soviet times. If such a thing could exist Putin wouldn’t.

A letter Directly calling on Putin to stop the war - and thereby clearly laying the blame for it at his door - is a huge act in itself. Notably further than FIDE has allowed itself to go.

The chess federation that gets un-banned by FIDE will have to be a "Putin critique" federation one way or another, don't you think? Given that Putin is now wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court? I don't see how the chess world meekly reverts to the status quo if Putin's planned "resolution" of the war is a success