An exemplary punishment.
This is what the Ethics Commission of the International Chess Federation has decided to take against the Russian player Sergey Karjakin, ranked eighteenth in the world.
FIDE suspended the Russian for six months because he said he supported Russia's invasion of Ukraine and in particular “the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine.
" On Twitter, he had expressed himself as early as February 25, the day after the attack, in a virulent manner: "The slogan No to war is now written by people who cynically did not notice for eight years the war against the Russians in the Donbass, mass murders in kyiv, Mariupol and other cities”.
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Faced with this sanction which will prevent the échéphile from participating in the main individual competition in June 2022 in Madrid, the reaction of the Russian was surprising: “I have no regrets, I am a patriot in the first place and then an athlete.
It is an expected but shameful decision”.
The Russian chess federation immediately announced that it would appeal the decision, citing discrimination against one of its athletes.
Another Russian chess player who came before the ethics commission, Sergei Shipov.
However, he was not sanctioned even though his position is similar.
But "less known, and with less audience", the international federation did not see fit to suspend him, unlike his compatriot who "damaged the reputation of the game of chess", expressed FIDE.