The Devil’s Advocate

Russian Grandmaster Sergey Alexandrovich Karjakin, who was born in Crimea and represented Ukraine until 2009, has been banned by FIDE Ethics & Disciplinary Commission from competing in official tournaments for six months because of his pro-Russia political views with regard to the Russo–Ukrainian war. The ruling, which takes effect from today, if not reversed by appeal, will exclude Karjakin from the 2022 Candidates Tournament scheduled to begin on June 16. In the same hearing, Russian Grandmaster and journalist Sergei Yuryevich Shipov, accused of the same charges as Karjakin, was instead acquitted on the grounds that his statements were of a “slightly different and less provocative character than the ones made by Karjakin”. Andrey Vasilievich Filatov, President of Russian Chess Federation, is quoted as saying that an appeal will be made soon, in conjunction with an unequivocal request for FIDE President Arkady Vladimirovich Dvorkovich “to take the situation under control”.