White Silence

Thus, since September 22, 2022, Russian Grandmaster Sergey Alexandrovich Karjakin is back in the great chess family, after serving a six-month ban for his pro-Russia stance with regard to the Russo–Ukrainian war. “So my six-month disqualification is over! True, but there’s little joy in it, because the concrete opportunity to take part in international competitions is still very remote...”, he wrote on his Telegram account. “My participation is possible only if FIDE tournaments are held in friendly countries and if I can play under the Russian flag, without being obliged to change it with FIDE or CFR flags. Furthermore, it is also possible that FIDE, under pressure from the Western chess community, may change its mind”. Yet, even beyond the bombastic rhetoric of the “good” and the “bad”, this latter hypothesis is quite unrealistic as the rule of law of the free world is concerned, because, juridically speaking, nemo bis punitur pro eodem delicto. What will most likely happen is that Karjakin won’t be invited anywhere in the West anymore.