Official statement from World Cup Organizer GM Azmaiparashvili:
From 2012, when I became the Deputy Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs of Georgia, till nowadays, I have brought around 20 million USD for chess: We have organized top events like Grand Prix, Women Grand Prix (twice), Women and Individual European championships, European Youth and World Cadets Championship, FIDE World Cup and next year we are going to organize the Olympiad…
When a country and private sponsors invest such a big amount in chess, it is expected that it will be respected from all chess community and especially from the professional chess players who are the beneficiaries of the prize fund. Especially at the FIDE World Cup, for which we did anything possible (even took the loan from the Bank) to secure the chess players’ prize fund 4 months in advance.
When we are asking for sponsorship and big prize funds then the professional chess players and their unions should also bear the responsibility to protect these investments.
It is not appropriate for a chess player to declare a day before that he intentionally came with only one shorts and that he is ready to leave, because he has other more important obligations. Indeed, he left the tournament as he stated that he wished to do so only one day before! (http://chess-news.ru/node/2368 1)
This is a top level tournament with 1,6 million prize fund and it is part of the WC cycle.
It is not a private or local tournament! It is not a youth event!
Such attitude is harming the organization through media and is preventing any future sponsor to invest in chess. This is a big damage to chess and its funding.
I have to dispel the confusion and say that nobody had told the player that he should be forfeited or that he could not play the game. Mr. Kovalyov was instructed by the Сhief Arbiter as well as by the organizers, that according to the regulations he should have been dressed appropriately. But he was being ignorant. If he had just simply asked for our help, we would have sent a car to bring him some more clothes at our expense or even drive Mr. Kovalyov after the game to choose it by himself. What would be the problem in showing some respect to the organizers?
If I said some words, during a minute of an emotional conversation which followed, that insulted Mr. Kovalyov, I am ready to apologize and I would do it here as well as, in front of him if he were here in his position, playing his games, as he was supposed to do. I have always been ready in my life to correct any mistake and I have no problem to do it in this case as well.
But the truth is that nobody told that he should be forfeited, nobody told him that he could not play and nobody told him to leave the tournament. This was only his intention which he revealed one day earlier.
And so, he left an empty board, a chess player without an opponent, damaging again the FIDE World Cup and its sponsors.
In social media, this fact has caused, in my opinion, incomprehensible reactions. Even a conspiracy theory was created – that all this was the reason Mr. Kovalyov left the tournament. It is absurd and even commenting on this subject is unnecessary. We respect each and every participant and naturally, we expect and demand from them the same respect and attitude towards the organizers and their colleagues. In spite of the fact, that Mr. Kovalyov’s attitude towards such a prestigious tournament was frivolous to begin with (changing the flight dates in a force majeure situation), nobody had even reprimanded him.
I am waiting for Mr. Kovalyov to also apologize for this disrespect towards the organizers and towards his colleagues for withdrawing from the tournament and affecting its results.
So, I want to ask any interested party, in your opinion is it worth for sponsors to put such amounts of money for prize funds, promoting their image, when chess players have such behaviors and attitude?
And I also want to say that if Mr. Kovalyov denied receiving his share of the prize fund this makes no difference for us. We have already paid 1.776 million to FIDE and we need to present to our sponsors what is the service that they paid for.
And finally, I would like to say – I’ll do my best to improve the image of our sport and the way chess top events look through mass media, including TV.
If we wish the sponsors to fund our tournaments and the media to promote them, we are all responsible to have an appropriate dress code for at least the official Chess World Championship Cycle competitions.
Source: http://tbilisi2017.fide.com/2017/09/11/zurab-azmaiparashvilis-statement
What looks bad for the image of chess is that an organizer verbally attacked / insulted a player just before a game and used racial slurs. He was worried about the image of chess because of a pair of shorts? Perhaps the organizer shouldn’t be photographed in grubby faded jeans and a cheap Polo shirt. There are better ways this could have been handled and this organizer has shown that he is incapable of running a world class event. GM Kovalyov reacted well by just walking away. Yet another embarrassing episode of FIDE officials acting unprofessionally.
It s a stupid assumption that you get money from investors for a chess event because participants dress well. You get their money because the event raises positive publicity for them and they probably love chess. Thanks to the arbiter there is a lot of negative publicity at the cost of GM Kovalev. Only the worst kind of arbiter would intervene in such an idiotic way for such an unimportant ‘offence’.
It’s stupid to think it’s an assumption. It is a fact. At all sports, including chess, it has been proven that carefully picked dress codes guarantee both more spectators and larger sponsorships. So indeed, dress code is something that must be taken into account much more seriously. Let’s hope that this fuss will actually lead to it.
There are times to do things, and times not to. If a player is dressed inappropriately, it seems to me that a quiet discussion after his game is over is the appropriate response. If that same player was dressed similarly for several previous days without any mention of the fact from the tournament organizers, then surely raising the issue in the time before his game begins is terribly inappropriate.
After all, the sponsors are providing funds in order to allow the invited players to create beauty at the chessboard. How can this happen when a player is worrying about how he is dressed? And this applies to his opponent as well, what beauty is there in capitalizing on a blunder by a distracted opponent?
If you wish to have a dress code, the time for bringing this to the attention of the players is before they pack their bags for travel. And this incident deprived the world of one of 16 matches that were played in that round, how can this possibly be of more importance to the organizers and sponsors than it is to the players?
This reminds me of sports referees who have to develop all kinds of “signature” antics in order to bring the attention of the fans to them instead of the players. You, Mr. Azmaiparashvili, serve your role best as an arbiter and organizer when you are completely invisible to anyone other than the sponsors, staff, and participants in the tournament. In that respect, you have failed utterly.
Está es una importante aclaración !!
Sé por experiencia que los organizadores de un torneo jamás pedirían a un jugador que lo abandone porque esto afectaría los emparejamientos programados y demás organización!
Nadie le impidió jugar!
Es un irrespeto decir “que sólo tenía un shorts” y peor aún, cuando le ofrecieron traerle o comprarle ropa, tener el boleto y la reservación lista para irse ese día. .. Creo que Kovalyov sólo buscaba publicidad de manera irresponsable …
There is a photograph of GM Azmaiparashvili on a Russian website dated September 7th of 2017 at the tournament dressed in what appear to be less fashionable shorts or very short long pants: https://www.sport-express.ru/chess/reviews/istoriya-kovaleva-kak-proigrat-turnir-zhizni-iz-za-otsutstviya-shtanov-1307659/ If you are going to try to enforce a dress code then it needs to be clear and apply to all involved and not just one of the players. I am not a fashion maven but Anton’s shorts seem more fashionable.
That is very important aclaration !!
I say than Kovalyov looking publicity from irresponsable way.
The organizers never request to a competitor to depart of the championship because of this would affect the pairing
of others!
No one prevented play to Kovalyov !!
He had her reserved flying !!