That’s why sport is not art

Ukrainian Grandmaster Ruslan Olegovich Ponomariov did not seek excuses for his first-round elimination from the Chess World Cup 2019, expressing regret at having played so poorly. He denounced, however, the “irritual” anti-doping testing protocol which was conducted on him after the first game ended, when he “spent literally 2 hours from 19,57 till 21,56 for the doping test with RUSADA hired by FIDE instead of resting and prepare for the 2nd game”, Ponomariov said. “Why so long? Why it was not WADA? Was I randomly selected?! I hope to play better soon”, he concluded. In the past, such kindnesses were given to others too, even to a World Champion, who was kept holding for more than four hours in a frozen room without water nor food until anti-doping controls ended. Indeed, Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) was recently reinstated by World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), following a years-long suspension due to charges of allegedly falsifying and/or manipulating the results of tests in exchange for money. On its part, FIDE vindicated the legitimacy of its anti-doping protocols as well as the correctness of its use in an official note, apologising for any unintentional inconvenience may have caused.