Friday, January 12, 2024

A Passage North

In answering a question from Timur Airatovich Ganeev of Sport-Express about the fact that so far none of the three Russian chess Candidates, namely: Ian Alexandrovich Nepomniachtchi, Aleksandra Yuryevna Goryachkina, and Ekaterina Aleksandrovna Lagno, has yet got a visa for Canada, the Executive Director of Chess Federation of Russia, Alexander Vasilyevich Tkachev, took care to reassure the interviewer that in the end everything’s gonna be alright. “We are in the closest possible contact with FIDE on this issue. On the other hand, it’s a fact that it has never been easy for Russians to get a visa to Canada”, he said. “But visas will arrive, and all our participants and their companions will go to Toronto”. Tkachev then detailed that the Chess Federation of Russia covers all costs for the training of Goryachkina and Lagno, “whose all wishes are being fulfilled”, while Nepomniachtchi is directly sponsored by Norilsk Nickel “and does not need our help”.

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