“Politics and sports are mixed”: Norway does not allow Karjakin to tournaments, and Switzerland denied a visa to Karpov

The situation in the world of chess with the participation of Russians in international events remains difficult.

Officially, they can act in a neutral status.

In addition, last week FIDE announced the end of the six-month suspension of Sergey Karyakin.

However, as expected, this does not guarantee admission to tournaments for him or other grandmasters, since the organizers of commercial competitions have the last word.

The Norwegian Chess Federation (NSF) took the first steps towards the complete removal of Russians, including in a neutral status.

In a statement published on the official website, it is said that they do not want to see the former contender for the world crown and other athletes supporting the CBO at tournaments in this country.

At the same time, NSF strongly recommends that all other organizers do the same.

The Russian Chess Federation immediately responded to the appeal of the Norwegians.

The head of the FSR Andrey Filatov called him aggressive.

According to the expert, this is contrary to both sports principles and democracy.

“We strongly oppose such statements.

We hope that FIDE and other organizers will adhere to the slogan Gens Una Sumus (“We are one family” -

) and the principle “Sport is out of politics,” the official website of the FSR quotes Filatov as saying.

However, Karjakin was ready for such a development of events.

At the same time, the grandmaster emphasized that Norway, in terms of prohibitions and restrictions, went further than other countries.

“Speaking globally, there is nothing new.

All the well-known Western competitions, the Grand Chess Tour and the Norway Chess Tour, immediately announced that if you are a Russian and want to play, condemn the special military operation.

Norway went even further and held the tournament without the Russians, there is no chance of getting there.

There is nothing new in their position for me.

It's a pity that they mix politics and sports.

They made their choice, unfortunately,” Karyakin said in an interview with RIA Novosti.

However, the bad news from the world of chess did not end there.

On Wednesday it became known that Anatoly Karpov was unable to attend the demonstration of the film "World Champion", which was held at the UN headquarters in Geneva.

As Gennady Gatilov, permanent representative of Russia at the branch of the organization, said, the grandmaster was not issued an entry visa to Switzerland.

“This came as a surprise, since the screening of the film is not a politicized event that should not raise any questions.

Karpov is the legendary world chess champion.

He is known to everyone, and raises questions on what basis he was refused, ”TASS quotes Gatilov.

The Russian, in addition, was a co-author of the film, and the demonstration of the picture took place as part of the Art Unites project.

The tape, we recall, tells about a chess duel for the title of world champion in 1978 in the Philippines between Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi.

“This tape is about him.

A look at time through the fate of a person, through his actions.

The film encourages thinking about the future,” said Elmira Shcherbakova, President of the Peace and Harmony Foundation for Social Initiatives.

Due to the impossibility of coming to Geneva, Karpov recorded a video message to the audience, which was shown before the film was shown. 

And the permanent representative of Russia Gatilov summed up: “Despite everything, we will continue to hold our events.

We have certain plans for this.

We hope that the UN will support us in this.

So, as they, in fact, provided support this time, for which we are grateful and grateful to them.

The Russian Foreign Ministry also reacted to the incident.

According to the official representative of the Ministry, Maria Zakharova, this incident demonstrates that even Switzerland today cannot remain aloof from the events in the world.

“Bern demonstrates an inability to pursue a policy of neutrality, which for many years he considered his achievement,” Zakharova wrote in her Telegram channel.

Karjakin, on the other hand, called the situation with Karpov “disgusting”.

According to him, now in Europe every person who takes a pro-Russian position is guilty of everything in the world.

“We need to ban you everywhere and not let you go anywhere.

Here we have to forget about fair competition, about the fact that in chess everything is decided at the chessboard.

A very good example of this is the match between Karpov and Korchnoi.

Because Korchnoi was from the USSR, but left the Soviet Union.

Many in the USSR did not like him, but all the same, everything was decided at the chessboard.

It was a most difficult match, and Karpov won in a stubborn struggle.

A great movie was made about it.

This is just another proof that sport should be out of politics,” said Karyakin.