Georgia’s women team boycotts World Chess Championship in Russia
28.08.2008, 10.46
TBILISI, August 28 (Itar-Tass) – Georgian women’s chess team has boycotted the World Chess Championship in Russia “to protest against the Russian authorities’ actions in relation to Georgia,” team members total journalists on Thursday.
Maya Chiburdanidze, Nino Khurtsidze, Maya Lomineishvili, Sofiko Gvetadze, Lela Dzhavakhishvili and Sofiko Khukhishvili confirmed the decision they had taken two weeks ago.
This decision was supported by the executive committee of the Georgian Chess Federation, including five-time world chess champion Nonna Gaprindashvili and two-time world chess champion Nana Alexandria.
In mid-August members of the Georgian women’s chess team announced “they will not take part in the world championship if it is held in Russia.” Meanwhile, they confirmed that “the team will participate in the world competition, if the FIDE World Chess Federation takes it over to any other country.”
Earlier, FIDE spokespersons said they tried to persuade the Georgian team to participate in the World Chess Championship due in Nalchik on August 28.
Source: http://www.itar-tass.com
Can the Georgian women sue FIDE?
Why?
It is obvious that their decision is not a matter of personal safety, but a matter of political statement.
The show will go on without them and they should be disqualified from the next cycle (as the regulations say)
What else would anyone expect from ITAR TASS, the Russian news agency? Geez! This is what the Russian people are being spoon-fed on a daily basis – hatred for the Georgians. Anyone with half a brain knows that the Georgian women did not invoke politics in making their decision to avoid playing in Nalchik, no matter what ITAR TASS says about the subject. Talk about twisted reporting. Too bad the Russian people aren’t exposed to alternate views so they can determine the truth of the matter for themselves.
Jan Newton
Goddesschess
‘jan’ is absolutely right – the reporting is not entirely factual.
My impression was that the Georgian players were not satisfied about their personal safety.
Kalmykia even managed to trash some players in transit to wherever the chess event was. Who know what ‘accidents’ might befall the Georgian representatives.
Nalchik is as safe as it was before the conflict in South Ossetia.
If they felt that it was unsafe in Nalchik BACK THEN (like some say), then why did they sign the players undertakings? They could have declined to participate like some players did.
All 64 participants signed the players undertakings in first half of July.
It’s obvious that the boycot is politicaly motivated – Gerogians just don’t want anything to do with Russians (which under circumstances is perfectly normal) but it is not – I repeat – IT IS NOT a matter of personal safety!
They willingly excluded themselves from the competition, and the show will just move on without them.
If the pairings are left as is, then four players [Nguyen, Thi Thanh An (VIE); Amura, Claudia (ARG); Korbut, Ekaterina (RUS); and Matveeva, Svetlana (RUS)] will get defaults and the winner of Koneru, Humpy (IND) and Alaa El Din, Yorsa (EGY) (guess who?) will also win by default in the second round as the two other Georgian women [Lomineishvili, Maia (GEO) and Khukhashvili, Sopiko (GEO)] were paired against each other in the first round.
Of course, this is all presuming that the pairing aren’t changed.
It’s a shame that Georgian chess-players were not able to pronounce the word “boycott” aloud and it had to be translated by FIDE and Russian news agencies to American chess bloggers. This reminds me of safety concerns employed by Moscow to justify the boycott of 1984 Olympics in LA.
The fact that the ladies lied in public defeats the significance of the whole action.
FIDE has lost it’s heart. The world championship should of course have been played in another country, USA for example. No Georgian player can concentrate on chess after the russian war attack and dead of friends. Look at the war pictures and feel the pain.
Doesn’t anybody read the regulations (which were writen a year ago)???
3. 3. 4. Any player that withdraws after the pairings are announced shall not be replaced.
3. 3. 5. Players that fail to provide a satisfactory reason for withdrawal, after they have signed the player’s undertaking, may be excluded from the next World Championship cycle.
The world championship should of course have been played in another country, USA for example.
Unfortunately Georgian president didn’t consult FIDE before assaulting breakaway province. On 3-week notice FIDE didn’t really have much time to move the championship to the US ground.
And than again, what will they do if they move the event to the US and America strikes Iran? Oh, you right, we never do it facing the elections…
“And than again, what will they do if they move the event to the US and America strikes Iran? Oh, you right, we never do it facing the elections…”
Switzerland seems like a safe choice.
I also seem to remember a major chess event being played in Iceland once. Bobby Somebody and Boris Something-or-Other. Caused quite a stir at the time.