Dear chess friends, The Olympiad in Tromso is about to start in less than two weeks but, unfortunately, the event which is supposed to be both a great chess festival and the most prestigious team competition is marred by controversial decisions and mutual accusations between FIDE and Norwegian organizers. We all know that it was not easy to raise the funds for such an event, and we all know about objective difficulties that Norwegian organizers had to overcome in order to secure the event, which was in doubt till very recently. The whole chess community supported the organizers efforts, and although the final confirmation of the event came fairly late, and actually there are still quite a bit of an organizing problems to be resolved - the chess world has shown patience and understanding. Now wed expect some sort of reciprocity from the Organizing Committee. Here Id like to unequivocally stress my position : banning any team from the participation in the Olympiad, based on the late registration goes against the spirit of Olympiad as a great festival. Banning reigning Olympic Champion is against the spirit of this great competition, and lets have the things clear, just unheard of. Being no lawyer, I cant judge about the letter of the law, but its spirit would be clearly violated, if the teams are banned from the participation. It is about common sense - if not for the common sense, Bobby Fischer would not have even started his title match in 1972, let alone become the World Champion, and thats only the most exceptional example. I sincerely hope that a common sense and Olympic principles will prevail and all the suspended teams will be welcomed in Tromso. Emil Sutovsky ACP President
Posted on: Fri, 18 Jul 2014 17:10:02 +0000
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