Walking through the World Rapid Championship held in Samarkand (Uzbekistan) allows you to meet movie characters among the 319 players (202 men and 117 women) from 46 countries. Like the Argentine child prodigy (resident in Spain) Faustino Oro, 10 years old. Or the Uzbek-American Teimur Garéyev, holder of the world record for simultaneous blind games (48 in 19 hours) and sanctioned in the US for sexual harassment. Or the former Iranian Sara Khadem, a refugee in Spain because she played without a veil in the previous edition of the tournament, in Kazakhstan. But the most controversial is the Russian Denis Jismatullin, a fervent supporter of aggression against Ukraine and who has never been sanctioned without being able to play, as has happened to other compatriots.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) published a statement on the 8th whose third point (regarding who will be able to participate in the Paris 2024 Games) reinforces the policy of that organization since Russia invaded Ukraine, on February 24, 2022: “Athletes who actively support the war will not be eligible to be entered or compete.”
In line with this guideline, the International Chess Federation (FIDE), which brings together 200 countries or autonomous territories, sanctioned the world runner-up Sergei Kariakin, born in Ukraine (1990) and naturalized Russian (2009) without playing for six months in March 2022 for their enthusiastic support for President Vladimir Putin’s decision.
Among other demonstrations and events, Kariakin recorded a video in which he called for a collection to finance military material: “The occupiers really need all-terrain vehicles, helicopters, thermal imaging cameras and bulletproof vests,” he said. When he achieved his goal, he traveled several times to the war front in the company of Jismatullin (Khismatullin on the world list) and both were photographed with soldiers. Kariakin’s FIDE sanction expired in September 2022, but he did not want to play outside of Russia afterwards because he would have to do so without the Russian flag.
Jismatullin (hired by Kariakin as a coach) plays under the FIDE flag, like all Russians who compete internationally, but on the official world list he appears under the Russian banner. There are compatriots of his who do the same, but with an essential difference that the double runner-up in the world, Ian Niepómniashi, explained to EL PAÍS during his duel for the world title against the Chinese Liren Ding in Astana (Kazakhstan): “I signed that manifesto [contra la invasión] with the heart.
That war is horrible, a tragic catastrophe. I understand to a certain extent the sanctions against Russian athletes, although I have serious doubts that they will contribute to improving the situation. If I am forced to play under the FIDE flag, as was the case when Russia was punished for the massive doping scandal, I do it. But I do not identify the Russian flag with the war, which horrifies me, but with my country, which I love.” Niepómniashi continues to live in Russia, despite the fact that, according to current law, these demonstrations are enough to be sentenced to immediate prison.
This newspaper has asked FIDE why Jismatullin, whose statements of support for aggression are also unequivocal, has not been sanctioned like Kariakin. His chief legal advisor, the Russian Aleksandr Martynov, responds: “FIDE does not have a procedure to verify the statements of players. In this area we follow the decisions of our Ethics Commission (which sanctioned Kariakin in 2022 for violating its code). It seems to us that the judicial procedure is the best mechanism for these matters. If any interested person appeals to that commission and it disqualifies Grandmaster Jismatullin, that decision will be strictly respected.”
Jismatullin faced, and lost, this Tuesday in the second round of the World Rapid Championship at number one,the Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, who shook his hand normally at the beginning and end of the game (the Polish Duda refused to do so in the first). In 2022, Carlsen expressed his categorical rejection of Kariakin’s attitude, but expressed doubts about whether sanctioning him was best, for two reasons. One, a precedent is set that can produce delicate situations; and two, the sanction helps Kariakin present himself as a martyr before Russia.
“No comment,” was the brief response from Carlsen’s father and representative, Henrik, when this newspaper asked him for an update on Magnus’s opinion. Other planned questions were whether he thinks the same about Jismatullin today or whether the invasion of Gaza by Israel (after a savage terrorist attack by Hamas), or that of Nagorno-Karabakh by Azerbaijan, are the type of delicate situations to which his son in 2022. This unusual silence from Henrik comes two weeks after Magnus expressed his relief because the FIDE Ethics Commission sanctioned him with only 10,000 euros (he earns several million every year) for withdrawing from a tournament (the Sinquefield Cup of Saint Louis, USA, 2022) without just cause after accusing the American Hans Niemann of cheating without evidence in a very controversial case.
Putin has said publicly at least twice that regaining the world chess title is one of the big priorities for Russian sport. The Russian Chess Federation, chaired by billionaire Andrei Filátov (close to Putin), has left the European Federation to join the Asian one. And he has created a financial aid fund for his young talents, with the condition that if they change flag they must repay the money received. This is an attempt to stop the diaspora of Russian stars who now live in other countries (several in Spain) or have already adopted another nationality. Among the beneficiaries there are some, like Andrei Yesipenko, who signed the anti-war manifesto and play under the FIDE flag, but continue to reside in Russia. Or the prodigious Roman Shogdzhiev, 8 years old, who, like the aforementioned Argentine Faustino Oro, these days amazes those who walk through the Samarkand gaming room, for his courage to beat some established grandmasters.
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