“They will want to suspend”: they want to remove Karjakin from chess

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The International Chess Federation (FIDE) has suspended Russian grandmaster Sergey Karyakin for six months due to his public speech in support of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the special military operation of Russian forces in Ukraine.

But the top officials of the main regulatory body in the chess world will not stop there. At least, Emil Sutovsky, the general director of the organization, will go even further.

This was said by Karyakin, who shed light on the story about the Israeli official in a commentary by Match TV.

“I received information from FIDE Director General Sutovsky that he would like me to be fired further, six months is not enough for them. How did you find? My close friend playfully called him on behalf of the Minister of Sports of Ukraine.”

– Sutovsky said that if they do not remove me, he will ask me to remove him, then he himself will leave. This is typical officer style – starting small. Of course, this is unpleasant for me, after all, I am an active athlete.

FIDE launched an investigation against the Russian in March and suspended him for six months for “insulting chess reputation”.

The most painful thing about this decision is that Karjakin now has to miss the Candidates’ Tournament, which will be held in Madrid from 16 June to 7 July.

The Russian entered this competition as a FIDE Grand Prix finalist. He had to face nine other grandmasters in a double-round tournament in the Spanish capital to qualify for the world chess crown match against Norway’s Magnus Carlsen.

Karjakin had already qualified for the championship game in 2016 and then nearly ousted the already world champion Carlsen from the throne, but towards the end of the conflict he took the lead, allowing his opponent to quickly let his opponent down. regained the advantage and then lost in a tie-break where Norway was particularly strong.

At the next Candidates Tournament, the Russian failed in the first round, performed well in the second round, but fell slightly behind the victory, and Fabiano Caruana went to a duel with Carlsen.

Karjakin, who lost sharply in the results in the Candidates’ Tournament 2020, failed to do so and therefore awaited a new chance in his game with special motivation after a significant renaissance.

Immediately after the decision on his dismissal was made, Sergey said that, together with the lawyers, he was exploring all possibilities for appealing to the FIDE commission or directly to the Lausanne Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS), but he himself was not sure of a positive result.

The Russian grandmaster also voiced potential plans to create a new international chess federation as an alternative to FIDE should the court fail to win.

It is interesting that Carlsen himself, who continues to successfully hold the world crown, conditionally speaks to support Karjakin. The Norwegian grandmaster, who strongly disagreed with his support for Putin and special operations, expressed his distrust of his decision to remove his former opponent in the championship game.

“Many Russians who used to openly support Putin, or at least remain silent, have now changed their minds and say that Putin has gone too far. Karjakin went the other way – he increased his support for Putin. This is unacceptable”, quotes VG Carlsen.

– As for the disqualification issue, it’s hard to say anything here as the situation is new. There are not many such examples. Of course, I do not agree with Karjakin’s position, but is it right to dismiss a person whose opinion we do not agree with? I am not sure. It can bear fruit in difficult times, but it can also set a precedent that can be repeated in the future.

And what’s the use of giving him exactly what he wants? He wanted to be the victim of the “West’s sanctions tyranny”. He can now talk about it at home – and that works well. We ourselves helped him with this. We gave him what he wanted. I don’t know if this is good or bad, I’m not sure. Will Karjakin be able to return to international tournaments? I doubt”.

“I was surprised that I just expressed my opinion and they started banning me. Carlsen is a great athlete, for him he is a familiar position where everything should be decided on the board, but for the authorities it is different, ”Karjakin replied to the champion’s statement.

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