Last week, the General Assembly of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) was held in Budapest, where the issue of returning Russian and Belarusian athletes the opportunity to compete under the flags of their countries was considered.
Despite another complaint from Ukraine and the anti-Russian stance of the 16th world champion Magnus CarlsenThere was an optimistic mood among the leaders of the Russian Federation (FSR).
“I think we have a good chance of making a positive decision, that’s it.” The flag and the anthem will be returned to us at the congress. “We are in a good position, as many understand the futility of sanctions. We were suspended for political reasons and sport should not be influenced by politics.” — said the vice president of the Russian Federation Sergey Smagin.
The vote was held in an open format, to avoid conflicts of interest, the action took place in place of the head of FIDE. Arkady Dvorkovich headed by the vice president of the federation Viswanathan Anandwho offered voters three options:
— maintain all sanctions;
— complete lifting of sanctions;
— partial lifting of sanctions (admission of Paralympic athletes and children under 12 years of age to team tournaments after consultation with the IOC and IPC) — the FIDE Council advocated this.
Final schedule: 66 votes in favour of partial withdrawal, 41 to maintain all sanctions21 for complete withdrawal.
“This vote was unprecedented in terms of the pressure exerted on the delegates who were to vote.. There was a statement from the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry that if delegates from other countries support lifting sanctions on Russian athletes, Ukrainian sanctions will follow.
There was a statement from the US State Department on this issue. There was also active influence from the Ukrainian diplomatic corps personally on each specific delegate, supposedly subjecting everyone to sanctions if they supported Russia’s position.
The key question was therefore: how the vote would take place – open or closed. The FIDE President intervened in the process and, citing the FIDE Statutes, did not raise the question of how we would vote. As a result, an open vote was held, which gave surprising results,” the FCR head stressed. Andrei Filatov in an interview with Partido TV.
The most important result was that 60 delegates simply left the room, which, of course, influenced the outcome of the vote. It is clear how these delegates would vote if they feared sanctions. This was the key moment.
“After this, another part of the delegates decided to adopt a compromise position, which consisted of lifting the sanctions on our Paralympic athletes, veterans and children under 12 years of age, choosing an unexpectedly surprising wording: consultations were held with the International Olympic Committee. For example, the IOC authorized international organizations to grant access to competitions to transgender people, and suddenly FIDE and its leaders decided to ask the IOC if they would allow our Paralympic athletes… It seems extremely surprising.
In general, the issue should have been resolved two years ago. They took their time. And only now they decided to vote on this matter by contacting the IOC. From my point of view, this is another trick of the FIDE President to gain time and not resolve this matter quickly. Anyone who wants to resolve a problem does so quickly. And there is no need to listen to the IOC, which has so discredited itself.” – says Filatov.
Summarizing the results of the anti-Russian chess assembly, Sport24 assumes that the flags of Russian and Belarusian chess players will not be returned soon, and children and Paralympic athletes may not be allowed to participate in team tournaments for the time being – this will be decided by the International Olympic and Paralympic Committees.
And with the IOC and IPC still not asking winter federations to open international competitions for Russian and Belarusian athletes, which threatens to cost us the 2026 Olympics, there is a feeling that nothing will change in the current reality.
And now some comments on a particular topic from famous athletes, officials and public figures.
12th world chess champion Anatoly Karpov:
“It is clear that politics intervened. I was hoping that this disaster would be abandoned. The IOC was involved from the beginning, it is not news that [глава организации] Thomas Bach He took the initiative. But what does he care about chess?
Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Russian Chess Federation Dmitry Peskov:
“Our chess federation will continue to work to have all sanctions lifted in the end. We hope that this work will bear fruit over time and that the balance of power in FIDE in a particular case will change. Now both the West and Ukraine are exerting quite open and obvious pressure on other countries working within the framework of FIDE. This is no secret and everyone knows it well. Unfortunately, FIDE is also not free from the politicization of sports and the politicization of the chess world. This is also a fact that, unfortunately, has to be acknowledged…”
Olympic champion, State Duma deputy Svetlana Zhurova:
“This is an astonishing decision. I think that the opinion of the FIDE president was not even perceived by some members of the general assembly there. These are inhuman decisions that cannot in any way support the development of sport.”
And now, in fact, some unofficial words. Russian chess officials were counting on a gentlemanly solution to the problem and were already preparing for a festive banquet to mark the occasion.
But the Ukrainian lawbreakers took a different path. They stupidly grabbed the delegates by the lapels, promising to punch them in the face and deprive them of bureaucratic treats for life. Therefore, sixty intimidated envoys from their countries chose to leave the hall before the voting procedure.
I am afraid that this practice, with the support of you know who, will now be carried out in other forums where the degree of punishment and the number of sanctions for Russians are prescribed.
This is where the 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games (February-March) begin, which will be held in northern Italy, in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo.
And people want to know in what condition the current AIN and NPA, our neutral Olympians and Paralympians, will attend the Games, given that most of the winter qualifying tournaments are traditionally held in Scandinavia, where fierce anti-Russian sentiment reigns.
Now we would like to outline priorities, convey to people the readiness and designation of objectives, so that later we do not change the strategic strategy and depth of depth 147 times, as in the case of fifteen referees who fled to Paris under cover of darkness. And returned home with a silver medal, not for the country, but for myself.
Or as in the case of the Friendship Games, the organizing committee of which did not know that the Olympic participants, after such important outings, were taking a break and would not be able to reach Moscow and Yekaterinburg before September 15. Hence the postponement of the much-hyped tournament, without any official notification.
That’s chess. We’ve been playing for nine years with grey pieces, without a flag, anthem, coat of arms, rook, officer, knight and five pawns.
