Vice-President of the Chess Federation of Russia Sergey Smagin commented the explosive speech of the 16-th world champion Magnus Carlsen, who opposed the return of Russian and Belarusian to international tournaments in full status. Smagin said, “Carlsen is the strongest chess player in the world at the moment, without a doubt. But in addition to Carlsen, today there are thousands of high-level chess players who have a different point of view on the return of Russians to the world stage. Carlsen is a member of the Norwegian federation, which always stands sharply against Russia. Plus Carlsen says exactly what he benefits from himself. And without the Russians, the competition in the world is falling.”
Smagin continued, “I would remind Carlsen that the start of his professional career occurred in Russia. He came to our country as a boy, played in various tournaments and earned a lot of money here. Before saying anything negative about Russia, it would be nice for Carlsen to return the money and all these prizes.”
The story so far
Aug 21 Kyrgyzstan Chess Federation submits resolution to restore the full membership rights of RCF
Aug 22 David Llada talks about systematically to reward submission
Sept 1 Alexander Kamyshin is the new President of Ukrainian Chess Federation
Sept 7 Babur Tolbaev is among the candidates for FIDE Ethics Commission chairman
Sept 9 Russia most probably has the votes to pass the Kyrgyz resolution
Sept 9 Kamyshin: I will personally attend the FIDE General Assembly
Sept 12 Garry Kasparov supports Alexander Kamyshin
Sept 12 Malcolm Pein for BBC, “Russia’s control of FIDE is absolute”
Sept 16 Vasyl Ivanchuk and the Olympic teams of Ukraine protest against Kyrgyz motion
Sept 17 FIDE Congress – national federations at risk of losing government funding
Sept 19 Magnus Carlsen: I would have voted against the Russian/Kyrgyz proposal to lift sanctions on Russia
Sept 19 Kasparov: I would say the same on the Russian/Kyrgyz proposal
Sept 20 First reaction by Chess Federation of Russia
The Chess Federation of Russia published an official statement on the eve of the FIDE Congress. The statement is from Andrei Filatov, who failed to receive a visa for the Chess Olympiad 2024, just like multiple players and other officials.
Throwback: Vladimir Putin grants Sergey Karjakin medal “For Merit to the Fatherland”
Statement by Filatov
“Ukrainian chess officials most particularly represented by the Ukrainian Chess Federation at all levels of authority do not give up attempts to “punish” Russia in the sports chess arena. And not only in chess. It is clear that at all times, to one degree or another, there have been military conflicts where each warring nation considered it possible to defend its interests and sovereignty on the battlefield. However, no country participating in a military conflict in one way or another has been subject to any discriminatory measures by FIDE before, especially to exclusion from the FIDE family. It is fair since, according to the Olympic Charter, athletes are no subject to discrimination based on any differences: racial, gender or political grounds.
Recently FIDE represented by the Ethics and Disciplinary Commission predictably cancelled its decision to deprive Russia of membership in FIDE, which it had previously hastily adopted precisely for political reasons. At the same time, we also expect the full restoration of Russia’s rights in FIDE at the upcoming General Assembly that will be held on 21-22 September 2024. There will be a vote to decide on the issue of restoring full membership of Russia in FIDE.
However, the Ukrainian Chess Federation realizing its futility in influencing the GA Agenda, which includes these items, has apparently been showing unsportsmanlike behavior on the eve of the elections. The Ukrainian Chess Federation begins to put pressure on the FIDE GA Delegates by sending out appeals through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine asking them not to support the restoration of rights in FIDE for Russian athletes, which also contain ultimatums to the FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich, who is known to be a citizen of Russia.
We consider such behavior of Ukrainian officials to be unworthy since it directly affects the FIDE General Assembly Delegates’ objective and transparent expression of will, and may become the basis for privileges or restrictions of a discriminatory nature in the election process. In this regard Russia declares a strong protest.
We would also like to draw attention to the fact that such discriminatory decisions of FIDE in relation to a country that is in a state of military conflict mean that any of the countries that are currently (and may be in the future) at war may also lose their full membership in FIDE in accordance with the precedent that has already been set”.
End of statement
