Iranian chess on the brink of suspension; FIDE vice president tells VOA: Iran is clearly violating international laws

While Iranian athletes have not shown up to Israeli athletes in recent years, through various tricks, now, after the Judo Federation, the Iranian Chess Federation is on the verge of suspension.

Nigel Short, vice president of the International Chess Federation (FIDE), told the Persian service of the Voice of America about the details of the news of the possible suspension of the Iranian Chess Federation: “We are an international organization and we have our own rules. Iran is clearly and consistently violating them. This issue has been brought to our attention in recent years. Because FIDE had an informal and unwritten policy for decades about ‘forbidden matches’ and deliberately did not match certain countries with Israel. We tried to change that.”

Noting that the issue has received more attention in recent years, he said: “We believe that this is sport and sport should be free from discrimination, like justice, and you should play with people no matter where they come from or what their background is. We have a firm policy on non-discrimination. When we changed our policy, we found that Iran had consistently and consistently violated the rules.”

Mr. Short continued by stating that if the Iranian Chess Federation does not change its position, it will be suspended, adding that it will remain suspended until Iran guarantees that such an incident will not happen again.

He pointed to the lack of clear responses from Iranian sports officials to questions about athletes' dreams of competing with Israeli athletes, saying: "They say: We are subordinate to FIDE, but it is clear that this is not the case."

He added: “We know the consequences of the few times Iranians have played against Israeli [athletes]. A few players participated in a tournament in Spain… Parham Maghsoudlou and another young chess grandmaster played against Israel in Spain, and when they returned, the IRGC was waiting for them. We are aware of these unpleasant consequences.”

Previously, a number of prominent Iranian national chess players, including Ghazal Hakimifar and Alireza Firouzja, preferred to compete under the FIDE flag due to pressure to avoid facing Israeli athletes. Iranian international chess arbiter Shohreh Bayat and Mitra Hejazipour also did not return to Iran due to removing their hijab during international competitions.

Nigel Short referred to the story of Iranian chess grandmaster Alireza Firouzja, who was forced to forfeit his game in 2019 and only then asked to play under the FIDE flag. He added: “We made it very clear that if he wants to play under the FIDE flag, he must abide by the FIDE rules.”

The World Chess Federation official, emphasizing that the world federation does not like to bring politics into sports, added: "If other Iranian players also want to abide by FIDE rules and play against any player from anywhere, we welcome them and accept them."

Earlier, Arkady Dvorkovich, the president of the World Chess Federation, had warned the Iranian Federation that avoiding competition with Israeli athletes was a clear example of discrimination in sports and that if such behavior continued, he would not be able to prevent the suspension of the Iranian Chess Federation. However, the head of the Iranian Chess Federation claimed that "the federation and Iranian sports officials have no involvement in this matter."

Now, the vice president of the World Chess Federation has said that sometimes “political games become very dirty.” Referring to the case of Arian Gholami, an Iranian chess player, he said that after he failed to face an Israeli player in the Railton tournament in Sweden, he was welcomed like a hero at the airport when he returned to his country, and all the media and officials were present.

Mr. Nigel Short also stressed that Gholami's remarks against Israel were "a massive political propaganda and a very ugly statement. This is deeply unacceptable."

Pressure on Iranian sports has been exerted for political purposes for many years by the authorities of the Islamic Republic, both openly and covertly. Among them was Khamenei, who, in a meeting with Iranian medal-winning athletes, emphasized that the Islamic Republic of Iran would not participate in sports competitions with Israeli representatives, describing athletes who do not compete against Israeli athletes, while still being champions, as "humble, religious, revolutionary, progressive, and family-friendly."

The vice president of the World Chess Federation once again emphasized the neutrality of this sports federation, stating that if athletes from any country that is in a dispute with another country do not appear before athletes from another country, chaos will arise.

But over the years, Iranian sports have used various tricks, such as sudden injuries and even intentional losses to their opponents, to avoid drinking the poison of exclusion due to not appearing against their rivals. However, it seems that these days the international sports community is keeping an eye on the performance of Iranian sports more than ever before.

Source: Voice of America