Letter from Chess Federation of Canada

The Chess Federation of Canada protests in the strongest terms the abusive treatment of the Canadian player Anton Kovalyev at the 2017 World Cup at Tbilisi.

The incident has been widely covered in the international press and does not need repetition here. The issue is not the dress code for players, which is regrettably unclear and inconsistently applied at this, and other FIDE events. This should be corrected in the appropriate forum.

The issue is the behaviour of chief organizer Zurab Azmaiparashvili in taking it upon himself to insult and threaten our young Canadian player just minutes before his scheduled third round game, resulting in the latter's withdrawal. Mr Azmaiparashvili's behaviour in this case clearly violated the rules and norms of FIDE. The perpetrator must be subject to appropriate discipline to ensure this sort of thing never happens again.

The CFC will be making a formal complaint to the Ethics Committee of FIDE and will be seeking to have Mr. Azmaiparashvili barred from the playing hall for future events.

Sincerely
Hal Bond
FIDE Zone 2.2 President and Delegate, Canada

Dear Hal,

Thank you for your letter of 13 September.

The incident with GM Anton Kovalyov in Tbilisi makes no one happy. However, we have to be accurate in evaluating the whole situation.

The rules concerning the appearance of players in top events are very clear in requiring all players to be dressed properly and in a dignified way, emphasizing the need to preserve the image of our sport to sponsors. Even the Code of Ethics, in article 2.2.8, has such a requirement for players.

A similar example is that the FIDE rules require the players to behave properly during a game. Can anyone imagine an arbiter allowing a player to behave badly during a game because the rules do not state explicitly what behavior is considered acceptable or not? The answer is obvious.

Concerning GM Zurab Azmaiparashvili, please note that Mr. Azmaiparashvili is head of a team that has brought over 14 million dollars to chess during the last 5 years. You can understand how better positioned our sport would have been, worldwide, if chess had more fundraisers like Mr. Azmaiparashvili on a global scale. You can also understand that under such psychological pressure to secure these funds, especially for the Chess Olympiad next year, it is not strange that an organiser expects the players to have a proper appearance and show respect to sponsors and the public. This does not mean that organisers cannot be held accountable for their actions:

FIDE has regulations and procedures in all top events allowing players to appeal against any action or decision of any FIDE official.

I hope the above will help you in evaluating again the whole incident and I am looking forward to our next meeting in Antalya.

Best regards,

Georgios Makropoulos
FIDE Deputy President