“In relation to yesterday’s decision of the secondary FIDE disciplinary committee. No illegal military occupation is justified or legitimatized or penalized by sports (national or international) federations through ridiculous monetary fines. The right to life, your place, your home, your family has no face value.,” says Theodoros Tsorbatzoglou.

Parallel to the ongoing FIDE Ethics case against Russia, there is an ongoing flag battle, known as the Kyrgyzstan resolution. A reaction came from the English Chess Federation via a page 4 article in The Telegraph, in an article written by the renowned journalist Leon Watson.

Mr. Watson starts the article with, “Russia has been accused of opening up an unlikely new front of its war against Ukraine – the world elite international chess”

While the case that Mr. Tsorbatzoglou comments about and the issue pointed out by Mr. Watson seem unrelated at first glance, there is a hot link in the making. Babur Tolbaev, President of the Kyrgyzstan Chess Federation and initiator of the resolution to restore the full membership rights of Russia, is among the candidates for FIDE Ethics commission chairman.

While the growing number of participants creates organizational load, the experience gained with each Olympiad is more also. Chennai was better than Batumi, Batumi was better than Baku, etc. But something in Budapest seems broken, the situation with a large number of delegations is serious.

In the past week Chessdom reported on multiple federations having accommodation trouble in the Chess Olympiad 2024. Read more: Monaco, Scotland and Germany break the news / Turkey reports problems / England on accommodation issues / Anish Giri critical of the situation / Croatia with accommodation problems and asked for 50 eur/meal / Bulgaria with accommodation trouble All these federations are from Europe, with substantial experience in event participation, with no lack of resources, and yet they had to go through major trouble to secure their stay at Budapest.

While those European federations were reporting accommodation issues, multiple other sources alerted us for even bigger trouble brewing. A source, which required anonymity due to their position in FIDE, summed up the situation for Chessdom, “Up to 60 countries are experiencing visa issues for the Chess Olympiad at the moment.” They added, “In every Olympiad there are visa problem, this time they are substantially more.”

The countries with visa issues are mainly, but not limited to, Africa and the Caribbean basin. The list ranges from Central African Republic to Saint Vincent and Grenadines, and from Fiji to Kenya.

The only light at the end of the tunnel is the managing director of FIDE Dana Reizniece-Ozola. In the past days she has been actively working to reduce the number of federations with problems.

Update September 7, 9:00 CET : Good news is coming from Budapest. In the last working day of the week the number of federations with visa problems is significantly reduced. After effective work by the organizers together with the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the number of federations experiencing visa issues is now less than 10. From the initial large number of visa denials, the majority of appeals was successful. The situation remains difficult for the Central African Republic, Gambia, and a number of other federations.

Update September 7, 18:15 CET : Fiji have received their passports. Syria have been rejected visas

Update September 8, 19:30 CET A decisive day comes tomorrow for several federations. These are Eswatini, Lesotho, Gambia, CAR, Syria among others

Update September 9, 17:00 CET Yemen is also among the countries with denied visas. All players cannot yet go to Hungary, including one arbiter of the Olympiad. The case of Syria is strange – while the players are denied visas, the arbiters from Syria are already in Budapest.

Update September 9, 19:00 CET As Monday goes by, these are still the countries awaiting visas for players of their teams – Algeria, Eswatini, Lesotho, Gambia, CAR, Syria, Yemen, Tunisia, Lebanon, and Egypt.

Update September 9, 21:15 CET The list of countries with visa problems actually grows! At least 11 countries are having trouble – Algeria, Eswatini, Lesotho, Gambia, CAR, Tunisia, and Egypt from Africa and Afghanistan, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, and Iraq from Asia. See the story of category medalists from 2018 Afghanistan told by GM Amirreza Pourramezanali and Sepehr Sakhawaty.

Update September 10, 23:10 CET The visa problems at the Chess Olympiad seem to be more than the reported yesterday. A total of 20 teams in the open section and other 20 teams in the women section remain unpaired (see the details here), all of them missing 2+ members of the team, and the majority missing the full team. From a record breaking Olympiad, this shapes up to be a disaster that we saw coming and hoped to avoid.

More updates to follow

Photo: official letter of visa refusal of CAR

Read more: Monaco, Scotland and Germany break the news / Turkey reports problems / England on accommodation issues / Anish Giri critical of the situation

GM Alojzije Jankovic added Croatia to the list of countries with issues. In a statement for Chessdom, Alojzije Jankovic says, “We were unpleasantly surprised when we got the info from the Olympiad organizers that due to single rooms upgrading we will be forced to separate some of our team members to another hotel, not so close to the one we have got.” However, GM Jankovic adds another level to this problem, “The hotel price which was offered for those additional single rooms, sounded really strange, compared to usual prizes of those hotels around the year. And what’s even more strange, a usual Full board was not included, so the offer for each meal was 50€(!).“

GM Jankovic, who was a brilliant commentator in the live studio of the recently concluded EIYCC , noted, “It’s not a big deal to check with previous Olympiad organizers how many countries have those additional rooms requests, it’s not something new. I’m only mentioning countries with players and captains, but how about trainers, journalists etc. There is no point in dividing the teams… It’s quite clear that someone was quite unsuccessful in negotiating the Olympiad hotels. We can understand that Hungarian ministry might be inexperienced in organizing such a big chess event, however, what hurts me the most is that our highest chess association, FIDE, is obviously lacking some organizational know-how. Frankly speaking in this case, I really don’t know on which level, but hopefully that will be improved in future!“

World Rapid & Blitz 2024 to be a financial burden for the player

The first one to raise concern about the financial costs of accommodation around December 31 in New York was ex-FIDE chief marketing and communication officer David Llada. The famous photographer ironically pointed out that “Visiting FIDE World Rapid & Blitz in New York may require getting a loan“

The CEO of WorldChess was also surprised, “Really? Getting hotel on these days in NY is close to impossible, getting construction and team in place — the same, the media is all about the New Year, not chess or anything else, and finishing on the 31st means that you have to spend the New Year in NYC or travel on NYE.”

Tarjei Svensen points out the solution, “To cover hotel expenses, you’ll need to finish at least 26th-35th in both events, which secures a cash prize of $1500 each. (Fun fact: Nepomniachtchi finished 34th in Rapid last year, Nihal 36th & Aronian 37th).” But Josephine Heinemann adds to those costs the travel expenses, “Don’t forget about the flights, which are also quite expensive from most parts of the world at this time of the year.”

Johan-Sebastian Christiansen, board 2 for Norway and teammate of Carlsen for the upcoming Chess Olympiad 2024 (see participants list here) was unpleasantly surprised, “Don’t understand the reasoning behind a free day for such a short event. This is going to be ridiculously pricey for us players”

Read more: David Llada to skip Chess Olympiad 2024 after clash with FIDE

The wrong timing

GothamChess coach Arturs Neiksans commented the timing of the World Rapid & Blitz 2024, “IMHO organizing World Rapid and Blitz during Christmas is not a great idea. I know many players (including myself) who always spend this time with the family. Another thing – the high travel / hotel costs during holidays. Why not do it in the beginning of December?”

The freelance writer Laura Vegh added, “It’s ridiculous. Not to mention it will likely impact live views. With the timezone difference, New Year’s celebrations will literally be happening at the time of the tournament on half of the globe”

MrDodgy pointed the European point of view, “okay if we go off last years schedule, playing the last round at midnight CET is just an incredibly funny bit, well done Emil”

The journalists in trouble

Peter Doggers from Chess.com pointed out an important issue. The coverage of the event is often directly proportional to its success. Having the travel and accommodation difficulties at the festive part of the year, multiple journalists will skip entirely the event.

FIDE communication style continues

When FIDE makes something good for chess (and they do make multiple good advances!) communication is easy. Questions are answered, journalists are paid attention to, and news is easily spread. When FIDE makes a mistake or is not happy about journalists asking for transparency, the communication stops.

In this case, Emil Sutovsky was asked by Chessdom, “There has been criticism that prices for accommodation and expenses around New Year Eve are very high. Has this been considered by FIDE when taking the final decision?” To which Sutovsky answered, “We cover costs for dozens of the top players. We offer discounted prices for others. Also players don’t have to stay in official hotels. Yes, NYC is expensive – in particular at this time of the year. But it is the World Championships. And chess benefits having it there and then.”

The follow up question, “The venue and place is a good choice, kudos. But the timing is bad. High costs… flights delays… audience drops… Was the rest day needed? And why was there no public discussion on this FIDE decision?” remains unanswered, despite Emil Sutovsky being active on Twitter/X and selectively answering other topics.

Criticism into humor

FIDE’s decision to extend the tournament is bad on so many levels, that multiple Twitter/X users started joking with the situation. BlunderMaster said, “FIDE hates Christmas and New Year – Confirmed!” Mig Greengard, living in New York joked, “I should rent out my kids’ rooms for $500/night. We’re in Brooklyn, dog and cats included free!”

Today, the German Chess Federation, in an official press release, strongly objected such development.

Statement by the German Schachbund

The general assembly of the world chess association FIDE will take place from September 21st to 22nd in Budapest. Some proposals are highly politically explosive. Point 4.3.1 “Federation proposals regarding Russia and Belarus restrictions” is about enabling the return of Russian and Belarusian players to international boards without restrictions. This is met with strict rejection by the German Chess Federation.

If two chess associations, the Kyrgyz Chess Union (KCU) and the Russian Chess Federation (CFR) have their way, according to their applications, Russian and Belarusian players should again be admitted to international tournaments “fully and equally”.

This would overturn a decision of the FIDE Council, in extraordinary meetings on February 27, 2022 and March 14, 2022, according to which Russian and Belarusian chess players were suspended due to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. The national teams of Russia and Belarus were banned from participating in official FIDE tournaments by decision of the FIDE Council. Since then, players from these countries have only been allowed to take part in individual tournaments of the FIDE World Championship cycle under the FIDE flag. Russian and Belarusian state symbols, the flag and the anthem, have been banned from all FIDE-rated international chess events.

“I feared that something like this would happen to us,” says Ingrid Lauterbach, President of the German Chess Federation, about the application. “But our position here is clear: From our point of view, these applications do not correspond to the stance of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and also our stance on this war.” We are in line with the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) and of the IOC, said Lauterbach: “Athletes from a country that is waging a bloody war of aggression are not allowed to take part in international competitions with the anthem and flag, those athletes who support the war are to be completely excluded, as the IOC is also doing for the Summer Games Paris has handled.” Ingrid Lauterbach further emphasizes: “We are deeply in solidarity with Ukraine. We have to clearly draw the line here – and even though I highly doubt it, I hope that the majority of associations see it the same way.”

The motion is available in three possible voting variants:

1. To lift all restrictions imposed by the FIDE Council on Russian and Belarusian chess players,
2. To ease the restrictions (in an unspecified form) and
3. To not lift the FIDE Council resolution and thus the suspension.

Ingrid Lauterbach: “For us, only the third variant is an option. The exclusion of Russian and Belarusian players must remain.”

Ingrid Lauterbach and the German Chess Federation are so consistent in their stance that as president she is currently trying to avoid any direct contact with the Russian FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich. The FIDE Ethics Commission reprimanded Dvorkovich in June of this year. The background to this is Dvorkovich’s closeness to the Russian Chess Federation RCF, which the Ethics Council provisionally suspended from FIDE membership for two years because the Board of Trustees and the Supervisory Board include several members who have been subject to international sanctions as a result of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.

Chat GPT-4 for Chess

I can offer some suggestions for potential changes and improvements to FIDE (Fédération Internationale des Échecs) based on general principles and feedback from the chess community. Here are a few ideas:

1. Enhanced transparency and governance: FIDE could improve its transparency by regularly publishing detailed financial reports, activity summaries, and decision-making processes. This would help increase the credibility of the organization and ensure that it is accountable to its members and the global chess community.

2. Grassroots development: FIDE could invest more in promoting chess at the grassroots level, particularly in countries where chess is not yet popular. This could include sponsoring chess clubs, organizing training sessions, and providing educational materials to schools and community centers.

3. Women’s chess development: Encourage and invest in initiatives that aim to increase female participation in chess. FIDE could establish mentorship programs, scholarships, and targeted training programs for women, as well as offering equal prize money and opportunities in tournaments.

4. Improve the World Championship cycle: The current World Championship cycle could be restructured to make it more transparent, fair, and accessible to a wider range of players. For instance, FIDE could introduce a more consistent and simplified qualification system for the Candidates Tournament.

5.Enhanced use of technology: FIDE could embrace technology by promoting online chess, using digital tools to improve the quality of live broadcasts, and working on partnerships with popular chess streaming platforms. This would help popularize the game and make it more accessible to a global audience.

6. Anti-cheating measures: Strengthen and improve anti-cheating measures to maintain the integrity of the game. This may include implementing better detection methods, imposing harsher penalties, and educating players on the importance of fair play.

7. Collaboration with other organizations: FIDE could work closely with other chess organizations, such as national federations, clubs, and online platforms, to create a unified global chess community. This could lead to better-coordinated events, increased sponsorship opportunities, and shared resources.

8. Social responsibility: FIDE could take a more active role in addressing social issues, such as promoting chess as a tool for education and social development, and supporting charitable initiatives that use chess to improve people’s lives.

9. Improved communication: FIDE could invest in its communication strategy to better engage with the chess community and the public. This may include regularly updating the FIDE website, increasing social media presence, and providing more frequent news updates and announcements.

10. Continuous improvement: FIDE should be open to change and innovation, regularly evaluating its policies and practices to ensure it is meeting the needs of the global chess community. This could include seeking feedback from players, organizers, and fans, and incorporating their suggestions into future initiatives.

Top grandmasters and chess journalists asked FIDE to react on the case. Hikaru Nakamura and Daniel Naroditsky concluded on the stream that it’s very tricky that online chess platforms for playing don’t have any agreements with FIDE, and that there should be clear communication between the main online servers and FIDE on the matter of cheating. English chess master Leonard Barden, The Guardian’s chess columnist, asked FIDE to step in, while GM Nigel Davies stated that the FIDE Ethics Commission should act if Carlsen does not give a public statement on the case. FIDE Director General Emil Sutovsky said that FIDE is concerned about recent developments of Carlsen – Niemann case and confirmed that FIDE will publish the official statement on the case.

After publishing the official statement, the FIDE Fair Play commission updated the public on the case. In the statement published today, FIDE Fair Play Commission informs that the FPL unanimously adopted the 30-page report on the Carlsen/Niemann incident and forwarded it to the FIDE Ethics and Disciplinary Commission for further consideration. The content of the report will stay confidential to protect the procedure itself and all interested parties.

The full statement by the FIDE Fair Play Commission:

On February 17, the Fair Play Commission (FPL) unanimously adopted the report on the Carslen/Niemann incident drafted by the Panel tasked with investigating the case, composed of Klaus Deventer (chair), Vincent Geeraets and Salomeja Zaksaite.

On February 20, the 30-page report was forwarded to the Ethics and Disciplinary Commission (EC) for further consideration. 

EDC’s nominated panel will assess the FPL’s findings and reach a decision on the case within six weeks.

Pursuant to Art. 5 of the EDC Procedural Rules, until a decision is made, the contents of the Report shall be kept confidential to protect the procedure itself and all interested parties. Until then, no further comment on the matter shall be released by any FPL, EDC member, or any other FIDE official.

In order to avoid any ambiguity in the World Chess Championship Cycle qualifications, the ECU notes that all the players who have transferred to the FIDE flag and registered on time in accordance with the official invitation to play in the European Individual Chess Championships, that will take place in Serbia and Montenegro in March 2023, are eligible to do so. The events in Serbia and Montenegro conclude the current cycle at the European level which started in 2020. As for the next qualification cycle, the Russian players who do not transfer to ECU federations will belong to the Asian Continent and would not qualify from Europe if the transfer of the RCF takes place.

The FIDE Council reviewed yesterday, February 21, the report prepared by the Constitutional Commission on the request made by the Chess Federation of Russia (CFR) to join the Asian Chess Federation (ACF).

The Asian Chess Federation is expected to decide on this request at its General Assembly, which will take place in Abu Dhabi on February 28. Its acceptance would automatically imply that the Chess Federation of Russia withdraws its membership to the European Chess Union, since a federation cannot belong to two continents at the same time.

In view of this, and after examining all legal considerations presented to them by the Constitutional Commission, the FIDE Council has made two main decisions:

1) To rename Zone 1.6 (Russia) as Zone 3.8, as part of Asia, effective May 1, 2023, given that the Asian Chess Federation confirms it accepts the Chess Federation of Russia as a member in their General Assembly.

2) To adopt a series of additional measures to protect those players who decide to leave the Russian Chess Federation at this point and join any European chess federation. Players previously belonging to the CFR will be allowed to represent their new federation with immediate effect, from the next day of submitting their application, without any restrictions. All transfer fees, to FIDE or CFR, are waived.

You can read below the full resolution:

FIDE Council Resolution

Whereas:

1) Chess Federation of Russia (CFR)  has informed FIDE about their request to be accepted as a member of the Asian Chess Federation (ACF);

2) FIDE Constitutional Commission (CC) has reviewed the matter from the legal perspective and recommends the FIDE Council revise FIDE zones before such transfer of RCF to ACF;

3) CC has highlighted the need to provide the minimum remedy and fairness to players who have chosen to remain in European Chess Union (ECU),

FIDE Council decides:

1. To approve that Zone 1.6. (Russia) from May 1, 2023, is considered to belong to the Asian zone, and will be renamed as Zone 3.8.

2. To approve that:

2.1. All the transfer fees to FIDE and compensation fees to the CFR are waived for any player who has previously been registered with the RCF and who, from March 1, 2022, until August 31, 2023, has applied or will apply for the membership of any of the ECU’s federation.

2.2. All these players (further – Players) have the right to represent the new federation in all official individual events of FIDE from the next day of submitting their application without any restrictions, provided that all other conditions for the transfer have been met besides paying the fees. Such applications should be checked and confirmed or rejected (only if the application contradicts art. 2.6. of the current Transfer rules) by FIDE 15 days after their submission.

2.3. The conditions mentioned in Articles 2.1 and 2.2 of this resolution also apply to Russian players who have transferred to the special FIDE status.

2.4 In the event that the Players decide to leave the national federation to which they transferred under the above procedure, such a federation is not entitled to receive any compensation fee. Also, these Players can transfer to CFR later with no fees to be paid to their previous national federation or FIDE.

2.5. The right of such Players to participate in European team competitions is determined by the decision of the ECU, without any additional restrictions from FIDE. The decision about the rights of such Players to represent the new federation in FIDE team competitions should be approved by the FIDE Council no later than by May 1, 2023. 

2.6. To avoid any doubt, official FIDE competitions are FIDE world championships and events providing direct qualification spots to FIDE world championships, FIDE Candidates tournaments and the FIDE World Cups.

3. Both above-mentioned decisions come into force, given the Asian Chess Federation (ACF) accepts the Chess Federation of Russia (CFR) as a member of the ACF as of May 1, 2023.

4. If the date of ACF accepting CFR as its member differs, the above decisions apply from the same date, respectively.

5. To create a FIDE working group for further revision of the structure of FIDE zones according to the opinion of the Constitutional Commission.

SIGA is an independent not-for-profit that was founded with one goal: To ensure the sports industry is governed under the highest integrity standards, free from any form of unethical, illicit, and criminal activity, safeguarding sports values and ensuring its positive impact and benefits to all citizens.

“Joining such a prestigious sports organization as a member is an excellent opportunity to improve even further FIDE’s governance. This opportunity is also a challenge: while much progress has been made in recent years, we can make FIDE a more robust organization under SIGA’s guidance and scrutiny, as they have the highest standards in the industry of sports”, said the FIDE President, Arkady Dvorkovich. “We are grateful that our membership has been unanimously approved at their General Assembly, and we will do our utmost to comply with their requirements”, he added.

Founded in 2017 by 20 major sports organizations (sports bodies, governments, anti-corruption NGOs, inter-governmental organizations, and commercial partners), today, SIGA is the largest independent and neutral multi-stakeholder coalition in sports governance and integrity. With over 100 members, committed supporters and partners from the world of sport, government, international organizations, business, and civil society, SIGA pursues a critical mission: to advance the adoption, implementation, monitoring and independent assessment of Universal Standards on Sports Integrity in four key areas:

1. Good Governance in Sport;
2. Financial Integrity and Transparency in Sport;
3. Sports Betting Integrity; and
4. Youth Development and Protection.

SIGA delivers independent global rating and certification for world Sport to ensure it is governed and operates under the highest integrity standards.

Besides that, the establishment of SIGA’s Independent Rating and Verification System (SIRVS), operated by an independent third party, oversees the implementation of key reforms is the game changer that will give those that invest in sport certainty that the sports properties they support in are governed to the highest integrity standards.