Gens una fuimus

Russian Grandmaster Sergey Alexandrovich Karjakin does not regard the eventual exclusion of Russia from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as a tragedy at all, because by now the IOC is only — he argues — a politicised vestige of the doctrine of the Cold War. “Let them do what they please”, he says. “Let them exclude Russia, and good luck”. Karjakin also criticised the International Chess Federation (FIDE) for its aim of getting chess into the Olympics: “FIDE is prone to the IOC, but this rush toward the Olympics is a nonsense, in my opinion. Chess has its own history. In such a political situation, it makes no sense to join in the Olympic family. Because of FIDE’s claim to be an Olympic sport, players undergo doping tests which are as annoying as they are senseless, for, as everyone knows, chess can only suffer from the effects of computer-doping”, he told Матч ТВ (Match TV).