Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine began on 24 February 2022, and the war is still going on today.
Just a few days after the start of the war in Ukraine, the International Chess Federation (FIDE) initiated the process of a chess blockade of Russia and Belarus, which assisted Russia in the war.
A few months later, a decision was taken that Russian and Belarusian chess teams would not be allowed to participate in FIDE international tournaments, while individual chess players would not be allowed to play under the Russian or Belarusian flag.
Online chess platforms soon joined the campaign.
The blockade was eventually joined by the International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF).
FIDE also imposed a temporary ban on participating in international tournaments on international chess grandmaster Sergei Karyakin. As a result, Karyakin, one of the world’s strongest chess players, was excluded from the candidates’ tournament for world chess champion.
Karyakin was accused of publicly “justifying” Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine. It is indeed what Karyakin did, referring to the systematic crimes committed by Ukraine against people of Russian nationality.
Karyakin was of the opinion that, in the name of stopping the genocide in Ukraine, Russia was justified in going to war.
However, the civil war in Ukraine, which started in 2014, had killed around 20,000 civilians by 2022. But, by November 2023, the Russian invasion that began in 2022 had already killed hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers.
However, there have been several shortcomings in the sanctioning actions of international chess organisations concerning the war in Ukraine.
These organisations did not have rules for chess blocking of Russia and Belarus. The bans were imposed by introducing new rules on the fly, ad hoc. These rules were applied retrospectively. Also, these restrictions amount to collective punishment, which is prohibited by international law. The decisions in question also violated the accepted moral principles of sport and chess-sport. It was a politicisation of sport.
However, one of the main drawbacks was that the punishment of Russia and Belarus was discriminatory, selective.
For example, there have been no barriers to chess players from other countries that have started unjustified wars, occupied or annexed foreign territories, committed war crimes, etc.
For example, international chess organisations have not imposed any barriers on US chess players despite the US starting unjustified wars against Afghanistan and Iraq, occupying these countries for many years and committing war crimes there. At the time when the Russian and Belarus chess players were being punished, the US had just finally withdrawn its troops from Afghanistan, but some US military bases are still in Iraq today.
On 07 October this year, 2023, the Palestinian armed group Hamas, exiting the Gaza Strip, suddenly attacked Israel. Over a thousand Israeli soldiers and civilians were killed in the attack.
Israel then declared war on Hamas and started military operations in the Gaza Strip, an area separated by a wall and barbed wire, where more than two million people live on a few hundred square kilometres. It is one of the most densely populated areas on the planet and has essentially been turned into an open-air prison.
In the course of this military action, Israel imposed an absolute blockade on the Gaza Strip, with no water and no electricity. Food and medicine could not be sent there either. Finally, the blocking of internet access was added. People have not been allowed in and out, with a few exceptions.
In the walled area, Israel started destroying homes with powerful aircraft bombs and rockets, hitting and/or damaging hospitals and refugee shelters.
A month later today, 9,000 civilians have been killed in Gaza, more than half of them women and children. More than 10,000 people are still trapped under the rubble.
International organisations confirm that Israel has managed to kill more children in the Gaza Strip in one month in 2023 than were killed in all the war zones on the planet in the whole of 2022. In fact, significantly more children have been killed by Israeli bombs in one month than in two years of war in Ukraine. See also, e.g.:
“GAZA: 3,195 CHILDREN KILLED IN THREE WEEKS SURPASSES ANNUAL NUMBER OF CHILDREN KILLED IN CONFLICT ZONES SINCE 2019”
Save the Children, 29 October 2023
https://www.savethechildren.net/news/gaza-3195-children-killed-three-weeks-surpasses-annual-number-children-killed-conflict-zones#
The statistics on civilian casualties are similar.
The United Nations has raised suspicions that Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip are a war crime.
However, the Colombian President has explicitly called it genocide.
Returning now to the game of chess, international chess organisations such as FIDE and the ICCF, as well as the major chess platforms, have done nothing about Israel.
Therefore, I call on all chess organisations to either immediately lift the restrictions imposed on Russia and Belarus or to impose the same restrictions on Israel, whose disproportionate and indiscriminate military action is killing a catastrophic number of civilians in the Gaza Strip every day.
Suppose it is permissible to obstruct Russian sports persons to get Russia to stop its military aggression against Ukraine. In that case, it must also be permissible to obstruct Israeli sports persons to get Israel to stop its war crimes and to punish the perpetrators.
Since there is obviously no hope that the politically biased international chess organisations will impose such restrictions on Israel, I will make a proposal to all individual chess players - a proposal that I myself will follow:
- Refuse to play chess with anyone who plays under the Israeli flag.
- Refuse to play chess with anyone who is an Israeli citizen and who does not publicly, clearly and loudly condemn Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip.
- Refuse to play chess with anyone who publicly supports or justifies Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip.
These restrictions would remain in place until Israel has lifted the blockade of the Gaza Strip and stopped the bombing of its residents, and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and his henchmen have been convicted of war crimes in court.
Of course, local chess clubs, local chess tournament organisers, etc., can also impose similar restrictions.
As for Hamas, the European Union has already declared Hamas a terrorist organisation, so there is no need to impose such sporting sanctions on the group. After all, you are not going to meet a chess player playing under the Hamas flag anywhere, anyway.
As far as the Jews are concerned, collective punishment must not be applied to them. No one may be accused or discriminated against based on their nationality.
03 November 2023, Tallinn
Jüri Eintalu, chess player and philosopher
@eintaluj saidJMHO - Despite these honorable intentions; this will accomplish nothing. I would advise chess organizations to keep their chess endeavors and their politics in separate categories. I saw so much of this in the cold war era when I played ICCF chess. Russian and East German postal officials would simply throw our moves (on postcards) in the trash, while American officials would slow walk incoming moves to American players. Sending each move by registered mail (a pretty expensive alternative) was the only way to have a game of normal duration. Bans and boycotts of chess players and organizations only serve to deepen distrust and suspicion.
Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine began on 24 February 2022, and the war is still going on today.
Just a few days after the start of the war in Ukraine, the International Chess Federation (FIDE) initiated the process of a chess blockade of Russia and Belarus, which assisted Russia in the war.
A few months later, a decision was taken that Russian and Belarusian ches ...[text shortened]... nality.
03 November 2023, Tallinn
Jüri Eintalu, chess player and philosopher
I agree with McHill.
I would keep sports away from politics as much as possible.
Especially since many people in various countries hold political opinions not shared by their governments.
What I would consider is not playing in countries which blatantly neglect human rights (there’s many of them). But if I was to refuse to play anyone because of their political views, there would be very few people I could actually play with.
I do agree with the basic sentiment though. Some nations are absolutely deplorable.
@mchill saidThanks for your viewpoint.
JMHO - Despite these honorable intentions; this will accomplish nothing. I would advise chess organizations to keep their chess endeavors and their politics in separate categories. I saw so much of this in the cold war era when I played ICCF chess. Russian and East German postal officials would simply throw our moves (on postcards) in the trash, while American officials would ...[text shortened]... n. Bans and boycotts of chess players and organizations only serve to deepen distrust and suspicion.
"Bans and boycotts of chess players and organizations only serve to deepen distrust and suspicion."
Unfortunately, the international chess federations have already imposed such bans - on Russian and Belarus chess players. In other sports, the picture is the same.
Boycotting someone else who is guilty of even greater atrocities would at least enlarge the awareness that the present official boycotts are discriminative.
Anyway, in my open letter, I assume that if the international chess institutions would cancel their boycotts of Russia and Belarus, then it would make no sense to boycott Israel or someone else.
One could actually be inclined to imagine that serious chess players and top sporters (people who travel a lot, meet a lot of people from different walks of life) may actually be very opposed to their country’s actions towards humanity.
And how tragic is it if we disclude them, leaving them in further isolation?
@shavixmir saidThanks.
I agree with McHill.
I would keep sports away from politics as much as possible.
Especially since many people in various countries hold political opinions not shared by their governments.
What I would consider is not playing in countries which blatantly neglect human rights (there’s many of them). But if I was to refuse to play anyone because of their political view ...[text shortened]... ly play with.
I do agree with the basic sentiment though. Some nations are absolutely deplorable.
"I would keep sports away from politics as much as possible."
Generally, I agree. However, the exact wording of my proposal was:
"Therefore, I call on all chess organisations to either immediately lift the restrictions imposed on Russia and Belarus or to impose the same restrictions on Israel..."
The problem is that the sports organisations have not kept sports away from politics.
Therefore, either their sanctions should be annulled or the relevant sanctions should be imposed on other culprits as well.
@shavixmir said"And how tragic is it if we disclude them, leaving them in further isolation?"
One could actually be inclined to imagine that serious chess players and top sporters (people who travel a lot, meet a lot of people from different walks of life) may actually be very opposed to their country’s actions towards humanity.
And how tragic is it if we disclude them, leaving them in further isolation?
Okay, but I do not remember anyone in the West except Carlsen who defended Karyakin when he was banned.
Even worse. Right now, the chess genius Kasparov is trying to introduce a "European Passport to Russians". To get such a "visa to Europe", he thinks that the Russian has to publicly condemn the Ukraine war and declare that Putin is illegally in power. After that, of course, that person can never go back to Russia.
I still think that if Kasparov and other such activists cannot be neutralised and if the boycotts on Russia and Belarus cannot be annulled, then, to balance the situation, we should boycott Israel's sport persons because of the Gaza massacre.
Concerning the replies above, I really do not understand how you can ignore what I argued in my initial post.
Take an example.
Nepo was playing the World Championship match without the Russian flag because it was prohibited because Russia started a war of aggression.
Then, what's wrong if the Israeli chess player must play chess without Israel's flag because it is prohibited because Israel commits genocide?
Do you, chess players, have any logic whatsoever?
@eintaluj saidI don't understand why you seem upset with only one side of that dispute. Worrying about genocide taking place while ignoring the call for genocide from the other seems a bit prejudiced on your part.
Concerning the replies above, I really do not understand how you can ignore what I argued in my initial post.
Take an example.
Nepo was playing the World Championship match without the Russian flag because it was prohibited because Russia started a war of aggression.
Then, what's wrong if the Israeli chess player must play chess without Israel's flag because it is prohibited because Israel commits genocide?
Do you, chess players, have any logic whatsoever?
@shavixmir saidMoreover, athletes, artists of all sorts (musicians, dancers, etc.), and other personalities (well-known scientists and professors, for example), who publicly criticise their own autocratic governments while abroad often find themselves and/or their families subjected to repression back home.
One could actually be inclined to imagine that serious chess players and top sporters (people who travel a lot, meet a lot of people from different walks of life) may actually be very opposed to their country’s actions towards humanity.
And how tragic is it if we disclude them, leaving them in further isolation?
Boycotting So. African athletes for decades did not bring the apartheid government crashing to its knees. It only penalized the wrong people.
@moonbus said👍
Moreover, athletes, artists of all sorts (musicians, dancers, etc.), and other personalities (well-known scientists and professors, for example), who publicly criticise their own autocratic governments while abroad often find themselves and/or their families subjected to repression back home.
Boycotting So. African athletes for decades did not bring the apartheid government crashing to its knees. It only penalized the wrong people.
@eintaluj saidYou’re making “public appeal” to all Chess Organisations by starting a thread at RHP. In the debates forum.
Therefore, I call on all chess organisations to either immediately lift the restrictions imposed on Russia and Belarus or to impose the same restrictions on Israel, whose disproportionate and indiscriminate military action is killing a catastrophic number of civilians in the Gaza Strip every day.
🤭
@kellyjay saidI do not understand what you are talking about.
I don't understand why you seem upset with only one side of that dispute. Worrying about genocide taking place while ignoring the call for genocide from the other seems a bit prejudiced on your part.
What "upset"?
What "one side", and what "dispute"? There is no dispute as the information about what is happening in the Gaza Strip is largely blocked and censored.
Your answer very clearly ignores the content of my initial post. It ignores the numbers, too.
You have attributed to me such arguments that I have not presented. Quotation:
"ignoring the call for genocide from the other"
It is nonsense, if not slandering. The military group Hamas was declared to be a terrorist organisation by the European Union, in October 2023. There is, therefore, no need to ban chessplayers from Hamas, as the police are dealing with them anyway. I told it in my initial post.
@moonbus saidI suggested that the international chess institutions should impose on Israel the same sanctions as they imposed on Russia and Belarus.
Moreover, athletes, artists of all sorts (musicians, dancers, etc.), and other personalities (well-known scientists and professors, for example), who publicly criticise their own autocratic governments while abroad often find themselves and/or their families subjected to repression back home.
Boycotting So. African athletes for decades did not bring the apartheid government crashing to its knees. It only penalized the wrong people.
Demanding the person to publicly declare that one condemns the criminal activities of one's homeland, I suggested using only if the international chess institutions do not annul their sanctions on Russia and Belarus, and do not impose sanctions on Israel.
Some governments are using such rules concerning Russian citizens now.
However, now I admit that it is too harsh.
I did not know that the situation in Israel was so bad. Indeed, in Israel, it is dangerous now to publicly criticize Israel's military activities. Israel's police chief personally gave a warning.
Therefore, now, I suggest dropping this demand to publicly condemn Israel's war crimes in the Gaza Strip.
@divegeester saidYes and no. Here, I have already received some feedback.
You’re making “public appeal” to all Chess Organisations by starting a thread at RHP. In the debates forum.
🤭
This public letter, however, is elsewhere, too.
And, at first, it was already sent to some chess officials.