• Anna and Mariya Muzychuk, chess champions, are threatened with suspension by the federation of Lviv, a city in western Ukraine, because they allegedly refused to sign a letter calling for the exclusion of Russian players.

  • The sisters denounce a "half-truth".

    They did not bring their signature because they wanted to modify certain requests.

  • On February 27, three days after the start of the war, Anna Muzychuk had urged Russian and Belarusian players to condemn the war

A “half-truth”.

Two Ukrainian chess champions denounced on Friday a message announcing that they had refused to sign an open letter asking the International Chess Federation (FIDE) to exclude Russian and Belarusian players from competitions organized by this federation.

Mariya and Anna Muzychuk are threatened with expulsion by the Chess Federation of Lviv, Ukraine, for not being associated with this letter.

The news has spread in the chess community and even on social networks, where Internet users explain that Mariya and Anna Muzychuk "will be suspended and excluded from competition by the Chess Federation of [Lviv] for refusing to sign a open letter calling on the International Chess Federation to ban Russian athletes”.

Both sisters are renowned players: Mariya became world champion in 2015 and twice won the Ukrainian championship, while Anna won three world championships, blitz and rapid format.

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What happened ?

On April 7, the Lviv Chess Federation publishes an open letter on Facebook.

Denouncing "war crimes" and "crimes against humanity", the president of the Lviv federation asks that of the Ukrainian Federation to send a number of requests to FIDE about Russian and Belarusian players.

The president of the local federation thus demands the exclusion of the Russian and Belarusian federations from FIDE, as well as a ban on players, coaches and referees of these two nationalities from participating in FIDE tournaments.

Finally, he demands the resignation of the president of FIDE, whom he accuses of "complicity" with Vladimir Putin.

The letter concludes by indicating that Mariya and Anna Muzychuk “did not sign or support this letter” and the local federation indicates that an exclusion procedure will be initiated.

The next day, April 8, the two champions respond via Anna's Facebook account.

They explain that they proposed modifications to these letters, but that these were not taken into account.

They consider that these letters are not effective and should have been modified.

Regarding the exclusion of Russian and Belarusian players, Anna Muzychuk recalls that some of these players signed an open letter condemning the war.

The young women propose to exclude players who have not given their support to Ukraine, or to suspend all players of these two nationalities only during the time of the war.

The sisters also point out that they “initiated the suspension of Russian and Belarusian chess players and chess players from team competitions”.

“We believe that the states of Russia and Belarus do not have the moral right to be represented at international competitions,” they add.

On February 27, three days after the start of the war, Anna Muzychuk urged Russian and Belarusian gamers on her Facebook account to condemn the war.

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