English Chess Forum

An article by Anthony Harwood for the Israeli Haaretz online gives a summary of why Saudi Arabia lost the World Rapid & Blitz and any future FIDE tournaments it appears under the new regime. He hasn't got all his facts right, when describing last years event where a number of players were denied visas:

"However, the outcry led to many of the world’s top chess grandmasters – including Sutovsky, who later took over the leadership of FIDE..."

I find that mistake quite understandable, the title of FIDE Director General, would lead many people to believe Sutovsky is now in charge. It appears that the Israeli Chess Federation with some help were threatening to take legal action against FIDE for discrimination. Indeed the article alleges that FIDE paid the Israeli chess players off or at least tried to:

"“FIDE violated their own rules by discriminating against players based on their national origin. But even if they didn’t outline it in their rules, it would still be wrong,” said Lawfare Project Executive Director Brooke Goldstein.

“Nobody who wants to engage in sport should be targeted because of their race, ethnicity, skin colour, national origin, gender or sexual orientation,” she said. “You don’t take your politics and then mirror it onto a local person. These are chess players – they’re not government officials.”

Goldstein added that after last year’s event, FIDE added insult to injury by compensating the Israeli players 500 euros (nearly $570) for missing out on the championships.

“If there was an African person, an African-American, a black person or a Chinese person or a Muslim that was excluded from a worldwide sports tournament, would they take this long to admit that what they did was wrong?” she asked.

“But to turn around and pay that person off? The Israeli players felt insulted by FIDE for excluding them, they felt insulted by the attempt to pay them off and they came to us,” Goldstein said.

Well, according to posts on the previous page, all who want to participate in the relocated event can go - though it remains to be seen how much they'd be going for.

[Edit - to relocate a missing 'a'.]

John McKenna wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 05, 2018 1:30 am

Well, according to posts on the previous page, all who want to participate in the relocted event can go - though it remains to be seen how much they'd be going for.

The new FIDE President was able to arrange trouble free visas for football fans attending the World Cup. Presumably the same connections to the Russian establishment will assist entrants to the World Rapid and Blitz.

Those policing borders can find it more than their job is worth to let chess players through. It may be a few years back, but Aronian was denied permission to visit London and Malcolm had to pull strings to get Kramnik in.

The refusal of Iranian players and others to play against Israeli players is also ticking away as a potential bomb. Organisers have the back door method available of bending the pairings which usually avoids trouble. That works for a Swiss but not for an all play all. At present, apart from Gelfand, there aren't any ISR players likely to be invitees to top all play alls.

The article from Haaretz really upset Sutovsky who responded on FB:

"Poor journalism by Haaretz - FIDE moved the event from Saudi Arabia to Russia not due to the threat of a lawsuit, but because new FIDE leadership has set a different set of principles. We have stated new FIDE policy very clearly - no official event shall be held in a country that denies an entry and fair treatment to eligible participants based on their nationality, ethnicity, race or gender. And, please, do not ever refer to me as a former Grandmaster."

The alleged lawsuit also surprised Nigel Short who commented on FB:

"I wasn't even aware of any legal threats, when the Presidential Board made the decision not to hold the event in Saudi Arabia, in the case that they would not guarantee visas for all participants. Following our own statutes was just so self-evidently the right thing to do, that we didn't pay the slightest attention to outside pressure."

All well and good you would think until you see the latest FIDE press statement today.

Chris Rice wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 06, 2018 9:41 am

All well and good you would think until you see the latest FIDE press statement today.

Adding quotes to make it clearer:

"Saudi Arabia CF to partner Russian CF in hosting the World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship 2018 "

"Given the strong relationship between the Kingdom Saudi Arabia and Russia, the Saudi Chess Federation accepted FIDE’s request to shift the second edition of the King Salman World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship from Riyadh, and to partner the Russian Chess Federation in hosting it in St. Petersburg, Russia, keeping the same championship title."

Presumably that was why Putin high-fived MBS at the G20 summit...

It's always about the oil: "Russia and Saudi Arabia have close relations over their joint deal to regulate oil supplies."

While I don't want this thread to decline into a discussion of Middle East power politics, Russia and Saudi aren't, ah, entirely aligned.

Chris Rice wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 06, 2018 9:41 am

All well and good you would think until you see the latest FIDE press statement today.

This is essentially the same as happened with the Candidates Tournament 2013. That would have been in Azerbaijan, but Aronian (who is Armenian) indicated that he would not have been able to play. The tournament was moved to London, but with the same Azeri spomsors and an Azeri wildcard, Radjabov.

I benefitted personally from this. The absence of a player from the actual host nation, England, made it possible for FIDE to appoint me as the Deputy Chief Arbiter.

More postive developments. Judit Polgar:

"I was appointed as Honorary FIDE Vice-President!
I will focus my efforts on chess development all over the world, including promoting chess in schools, popularization of the game and improving the level of tournament organization."

Sutovsky on FB making long overdue changes (my italics):

"The info about hotels for the World Rapid and Blitz to be published soon (hopefully today). It took some time to finalize the details - as we are going to offer special reduced prices for the official hotels - 5* and 4* respectively. At the same time, FIDE is not obliging players to stay in the official hotels - and the choice is yours. We really are looking forward to have an exceptional event - with over 300 participants - among them nearly all the top players, and also a lot of side chess-related activities. Welcome!"

The FIDE website now has a load of stuff from the numerous meetings in Batumi.

http://www.fide.com/component/content/a ... nexes.html

Chris Rice wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 13, 2018 9:47 am

Sutovsky on FB making long overdue changes

This is indeed all excellent news. My only minor gripe is that Sutovsky's FB page is not where it should be made public.

Roger de Coverly wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 13, 2018 10:56 am

The FIDE website now has a load of stuff from the numerous meetings in Batumi.

No light is shed on the Verification Commission mystery.

"4.9 Election of the Verification Commission members.
The Verification Commission shall consist of three members, with financial experience
and expertise if possible."

Five members were duly elected.

The 2019 Budget is interesting, if inevitably very broad brush. Several items are noted to require GA approval, so perhaps we can expect another one quite soon - that in itself could put a dent in the Budget!

There was speculation during the election about why Kasparov was silent about the continued prospect of a Kremlin influenced FIDE.

In the January 2019 edition of Chess, Malcolm suggests this was in support of a desire to get the World Championship to St Louis. Kasparov has form for this, it's suggested that the reason he supported the re-election of Campomanes in 1994 was because he hoped for Campo's support in a deal to re-unify the world championship. That got overtaken by FIDE's financial near collapse and the takeover by Kirsan who wanted knock out tournaments rather than traditional matches.

Roger de Coverly wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 20, 2018 2:56 pm

There was speculation during the election about why Kasparov was silent about the continued prospect of a Kremlin influenced FIDE.

In the January 2019 edition of Chess, Malcolm suggests this was in support of a desire to get the World Championship to St Louis.

Oh that's interesting, but is there any more to that than total speculation?