14

FIDE recently issued a public statement condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and also announcing an investigation of GMs Karjakin and Shipov by the Ethics and Disciplinary commission.

Source

FIDE Council condemns any public statement from any member of the chess community which supports unjustified military action and brings the case of chess grandmasters Sergey Karjakin and Sergey Shipov to the Ethics and Disciplinary Commission.

If FIDE is doing this, Karjakin and Shipov must be (at least allegedly) in breach of some FIDE rule. Which rule is this? Phrased alternatively, is there a FIDE rule that prohibits players from supporting "unjustified military action"?

4
  • 4
    §11.1, "Gonna catch them all". Of course, good luck to get away with this before a regular court, but FIDE isn't a regular court, and in a political situation, expect political measurements. Mar 1, 2022 at 8:24
  • 1
    It's happened in various other arenas as well. e.g. Russia has been blocked from the World Cup, Eurovision, possibly the next Olympics, etc. Presumably Russian athletes and singers are no more responsible than their chess players for the actions of the government and the military, but by publicly embarrassing them on the world stage, maybe they can be convinced to change their aggressive behavior. Mar 1, 2022 at 20:04
  • 2
    @DarrelHoffman those are at country level however. Russia has hundreds of grandmasters, and Karjakin & Shipov are only being investigated because they support the invasion.
    – Allure
    Mar 1, 2022 at 23:52
  • 2
    @DarrelHoffman : Yet it didn't happen in other similar events involving other countries. The USA wasn't excluded from sporting events following the 2003 invasion of Iraq. And, to have an example more resembling the current crisis (a region wants to separate from the country, the country doesn't allow it, foreign powers invade the country to aid the separatists), neither were Nato countries excluded when they attacked Serbia in the Kosovo War.
    – vsz
    Mar 2, 2022 at 8:02

1 Answer 1

17

The first thing to note is that arguably the FIDE Laws of Chess do not apply.

The introduction spells out their limitations:

FIDE Laws of Chess cover over-the-board play. The Laws of Chess have two parts: 1. Basic Rules of Play and 2. Competition Rules.

Arguably they only cover behaviour while playing over the board. Hence article 11.1 does not apply.

11.1 The players shall take no action that will bring the game of chess into disrepute.

FIDE does have codes of ethics. There are two published documents, one covering the period up to April 2022 and one the period after.

The current code, Code of Ethics effective till 1 April 2022, was originally written in 1989 and amended in 1996 and mainly covers chess play and chess politics.

  1. Breach of Ethics

The Code of Ethics shall be breached by a person or organization who directly or indirectly

2.1 offers, or attempts to offer or accepts any consideration or bribe with a view of influencing the result in a game of chess or election into FIDE office.

2.2 in other respects acts contrary to this Code.

There follows a list of competition related items, but at the very end we have the "ethics" equivalent of 11.1:

2.2.10 In addition, disciplinary action in accordance with this Code of Ethics will be taken in cases of occurrences which cause the game of chess, FIDE or its federations to appear in an unjustifiable unfavorable light and in this way damage its reputation.

2.2.11 Any conduct likely to injure or discredit the reputation of FIDE, its events, organizers, participants, sponsors or that will enhance the goodwill which attaches to the same.

Regarding Karjakin and Shipov, The Official Statement of FIDE Council states:

  • In order to safeguard FIDE from reputational, financial, and any other possible risks, FIDE terminates all existing sponsorship agreements with any Belarusian and Russian sanctioned and/or state-controlled companies and will not enter into new sponsorship agreements with any such companies.

  • FIDE Council condemns any public statement from any member of the chess community which supports unjustified military action and brings the case of chess grandmasters Sergey Karjakin and Sergey Shipov to the Ethics and Disciplinary Commission

So, it would seem that the statements of support for Putin and the military action by Karjakin and Shipov are regarded by FIDE as possibly putting FIDE at risk of reputational damage and hence these break the FIDE code of ethics.

Edit 22/3/22: FIDE have now published their verdict on Karjakin and Shipov confirming this:

Sergey Karjakin is found guilty of breach of article 2.2.10 of the FIDE Code of Ethics, and is sanctioned to a worldwide ban of six months from participating as a player in any FIDE rated chess competition, taking effect from the date of this decision, 21 March 2022.

Sergei Shipov is found not guilty of breach of article 2.2.10 of the FIDE Code of Ethics.

2

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.