BarcelonaDespite the sanctions that Russian sport has received due to the attack on Ukraine, in the coming months the country’s chess players will be able to listen to its national anthem and play under its flag, as if nothing had happened. “It is a sport where they do what they want. It is a scandal that they try to flee to Asia to avoid the sanctions that the European Chess Union has imposed on them”, complained Malcolm Pein, delegate of the English federation and great teacher In chess, the Russians always play with White and win. For more than twenty-five years they have ruled FIDE, the International Chess Federation. It is a very popular sport in a land that saw Emperor Nicholas II create the title of “grandmaster” in 1914 by offering it to the five finalists of the tournament he had organized in St. Petersburg. Russia is the country of Karpov and Kasparov (although he was born in Baku), of Mikhail Botvinnik and Aleksandr Alekhin. During the Cold War, chess was also the scene of great duels between the Soviets and the Americans, such as the famous one in 1972 in Iceland between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spasski. Chess is so popular in Russia that after the fall of the USSR, Moscow worked hard to gain control of FIDE. Thus, in 1995 the Russian politician Kirsan Iliumzhinov was elected as president of the international federation. It was the beginning of Russian rule in the offices.
In chess, the Russians keep doing what they want
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