By Alessandro Parodi
(Reuters) – The European Chess Union has acknowledged Russia’s move to join the Asian Chess Federation and will support Russian players who wish to individually switch back to Europe, ECU Vice President Dana Reizniece-Ozola said.
The chess world, like many other sports, has been in turmoil since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Russia has long been a powerhouse of the game.
The Russian Chess Federation joined the ACF on Tuesday after an almost unanimous vote by the Asian body, which will allow Russia’s players to keep competing at an international level despite the war in Ukraine and the sanctions it has prompted.
Of the 36 votes, 29 ACF delegates voted in favour of Russia’s inclusion and only one voted against, in a decision Russian chess federation president Andrey Filatov described as “historic”.
Reizniece-Ozola, however, said the move was unlikely to set a precedent for other sports federations.
She attributed Russia’s departure from the ECU to a “clash between two rules, based on democratic principles and based on those who neglect any rules of the game at all”.
“The legal, ethical, practical, moral standards of the Russian Chess Federation so much differs from that of the ECU that it would not be easy or possible at all to accommodate them in our chess community of Europe,” she said.
International chess body FIDE, headed by former Russian deputy prime minister Arkady Dvorkovich, decided last month to waive transfer fees for Russian players who choose to represent federations abroad, as Russian athletes and chess players look for ways to return to international competition.
“The main motivation is really to consider that the switch to Asia is really to find (a) way to get the Russian players back to the competitions,” Reizniece-Ozola said.
Among Russian chess players allowed to compete under a neutral flag is world championship contender Ian Nepomniachtchi.
He will face China’s Ding Liren in a world championship match from April 7 to May 1 in Astana, Kazakhstan, after current champion Magnus Carlsen decided not to defend his title.
Nepomniachtchi will play under the FIDE flag, and the Russian anthem will not be played at the event.
(Reporting by Alessandro Parodi; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
