Daily Times

Recently, the Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE) or World Chess Federation had allowed Saudi Arabia to host the 2017 King Salman World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia with a record prize fund of US$ 2,000,000 being offered for the events.

Sadly, the Israeli players were denied visas, just a day before the start of the tournament, so that FIDE would have found it difficult to cancel the tournament. The Israelis were hopeful to get the visas as Saudi Arabia had given visas to players from Iran and Qatar, with whom the Kingdom has poor relations.

The spokesperson of the Kingdom, Fatimah S Baeshen, tweeted a feeble message about the rejection of visas to Israeli players:

“Related to the purported politicisation of the International Chess Tournament hosted by Riyadh: the Kingdom has allowed the participation of all citizens. The exception is whereby KSA has historically not had diplomatic ties with a specific country-thus has maintained its policy. Fatimah S Baeshen, December 25, 2017”

As it is too late to cancel the tournament, FIDE should immediately rescind its decision to allow Saudi Arabia to hold the championships in the next two years

The FIDE statute clearly states that FIDE events may be hosted only by Federations where free access is generally assured to representatives of all Federations. Saudi Arabia’s decision to deny visas to Israel is a clear violation of their statue.

Even, when the announcement was made that FIDE would give the rights to conduct the world championships to Saudi Arabia for three years, there were questions about whether FIDE should have allowed Saudi Arabia to hold speed chess championships in the first place, because of its dismal human rights record. Moreover, the clerics in the Kingdom had called chess ‘haram,’ by equating it with gambling.

Israelis were also unprepared with this development as Saudi Arabia had come closer to Israel to counterbalance Iran’s influence in West Asia and the Middle East. It is for this reason that the Kingdom’s refusal to issue visas is baffling.

One has to lay the blame squarely on FIDE. It should have cancelled the championships instead of allowing it to continue. This would probably, have forced Saudi Arabia to have to rethink about the matter. There are many instances where countries have issued visas on a separate paper to facilitate visits in spite of no having diplomatic ties.

It is in this context, the decision taken by Hikaru Nakamura, a top speed chess International player and Anna Muzychuk, the women’s rapid and blitz title holder, who had refused to participate in the championship citing poor human rights record of the Kingdom, is laudable.

This brings us to the larger question of not allowing sporting ties with countries which one does not have good relations. It must be noted that sports builds bridges between countries. By denying visas to sports persons, it could make the country regress.

As it is too late to cancel the tournament, FIDE should immediately rescind its decision to allow Saudi Arabia to hold the championships for another two years. We are living in an era where such discriminatory practices have become passé.

India and Pakistan should learn from this sordid incident. We are also culpable of discontinuing sporting ties with our neighbours. Our leadership should keep politics out of sports, and resume hockey and cricket events with Pakistan. Sport is a great leveller when it comes to improving ties.

We saw how our players were received and treated when they toured Pakistan for the test matches and one-day games. Similarly, how can one forget the 1999 test match in Chennai, where the crowd gave a standing ovation to the Pakistani players on winning a close match with India in Chennai.

The author is an independent columnist and political commentator

Published in Daily Times, January 2^nd 2018.