Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Saudi Arabia loses right to host international chess tournament after banning Israeli players

Event to be held in Russia after lawyers representing Israelis threatened legal action 

Rick Gladstone
Wednesday 05 December 2018 12:06 GMT
Comments
Russia will now host the World Blitz and Rapid Championship
Russia will now host the World Blitz and Rapid Championship (REUTERS/Paul Childs)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Saudi Arabia has been stripped of the right to host an international chess tournament after Israeli players threatened legal action over being barred from the event.

With just weeks to go before the start of the World Blitz and Rapid Championship in the country's Riyadh, organisers confirmed that they were switching the venue to Russia instead.

The Fédération lnternationale des Échecs' (FIDE) announcement on Twitter did not explain the reason for the sudden change.

But the Lawfare Project, a nonprofit legal advocacy group that represents Israeli chess players, said that the decision came after it had pressured the association to act.

The advocacy group said in a statement the FIDE had failed to enforce policies that reject “discriminatory treatment for national, political, racial, social or religious reasons or on account of gender”.

They added that a host country in chess competition must grant access “to representatives of all federations”, according to association rules quoted by the Lawfare Project.

“We couldn’t just sit and wait for FIDE to do the right thing,” said Brooke Goldstein, executive director of the Lawfare Project. “We are proud to have supported this action, which ensures that no chess player will be banned from a tournament because of their nationality.”

There was no immediate comment from Saudi Arabia about the decision.

Saudi Arabia portrayed its hosting of the 2017 tournament as an example of how Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has sought to modernise the country and make it more inclusive.

The Saudis emphasised at the time that they would allow women to participate without the full-body covering required of women in public spaces in the kingdom.

But Saudi Arabia is one of a number of Arab countries that usually ban Israelis. Its 2017 decision to deny visas to the Israeli chess players was broadly denounced, and many potential contestants boycotted the tournament.

Emil Sutovsky, an Israeli chess grandmaster who became director general of FIDE this year, could not be reached for comment.

Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events

But Israeli news organisations quoted him as saying in an email that “the Championships were moved from Saudi Arabia to Russia due to the policy adopted by Saudi organisers”.

While Mr Sutovsky’s email did not specify the Saudi policy he was referring to, it said the chess association’s leadership had made clear that it would “no longer stage its official events in the countries that deny entry visa and fair treatment to all the eligible players”.

The New York Times

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in