Russia Denounces Turkish Arbiter Ban

The Russian Chess Federation has denounced the decision by the Turkish Chess Federation President Ali Nihat Yazici’s to ban arbiters from England, Georgia, Germany, France, Switzerland, Ukraine and the United States of America from officiating at the upcoming Olympiad in Istanbul.

See the previous news report here for details of the original Turkish Federation statement and response from the English Chess federation.

The reason given for the ban was that "Some federations launched or supported court cases against FIDE and thus created financial problems for FIDE and a loss of distributable income for worldwide chess development. We believe that the damage that they thus inflicted on chess development around the world should be repaired by them reimbursing the lost funds, so that those funds can, as originally budgeted, be spent on chess development. We further believe that until that has been done, those federations should not be given any arbiter or Appeals Committee position by FIDE".

The Russian Chess Federation statement in response is scathing:

Russian Chess Federation resolutely refuses to accept the position of the Turkish Chess Federation demonstrated in its President’s, Mr. Ali Nihat Yazici’s, latest statement.

The refusal to accept referees from 7 unnamed federations for the forthcoming Olympic Games in Istanbul as a sort of punishment for FIDE’s financial problems caused by the lawsuit in the name of Anatoly Karpov and these federations is by all means a very alarming precedent.

Defending a principal position in court is the right of any person as well as of any chess federation – member of FIDE. It is the basis of democracy and a guarantee of development of any organization. Moreover, the right to submit lawsuits is stipulated in FIDE’s Charter. Consequently, Anatoly Karpov and the federations which have appealed to court followed the civil norms and rights of any civilized society.

However, the statement and the intentions of Ali Nihat Yazici cannot be considered as such. His announcement sounds as if political differences are to intrude into the Game, not to mention the fact that the referees would lose their only source of income which is unfair play.

Taking into account the above mentioned, the Russian Chess Federation is appealing to Mr. Ilumzhinov for clarification. We would be interested to know if this statement is an official position of FIDE or Mr. Yazici’s personal initiative.

Anyway, the Russian Chess Federation strongly believes that the only acceptable course of action for FIDE would be to disavow the above statement, offer the job to the excluded referees and summon up the courage to apologize for the notorious statement to the chess federations and all chess fans across the world.