Only Believe

The saga of the King Salman World Rapid & Blitz Chess Championships which will start on Tuesday, December 26 is assuming grotesque proportions. The Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) says that “236 players representing 70 countries“ will take part, but, still now, no one knows for sure who they are. The only sure thing is that you will have to believe to what they’ll do and how they’ll act. It is not enough to think that everything you’ll see there is also true. Aside from theocratic dilemmas, however, it would not be simply tolerable, neither from a moral nor from a jurisprudential standpoint, that a transnational non-profit making organisation – such as FIDE claims to be – were willing to sponsor and support – in exchange for the twenty percent of the total money prize – a world event in which a whole people, namely the Israeli players, had been denied the right to take part. Hopefully, time will tell, but don’t be too sure you’ll ever know.