There is no joy in Moscow — the Russian chess team has struck out.

At a general assembly meeting of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) in Budapest last week, a vote was passed to maintain sanctions against both Russia and Belarus, banning them from international competitions.

Actually, they were both booted from the Federation in 2022, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This most recent action merely extends that ban. Those members who supported the extension say that chess in Russia is controlled by Vladimir Putin, and that some of his people — including the ubiquitous Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov — sit on the board of the Russian Chess Federation (CFR), which operates the game domestically. [Will Vernon, BBC News, September 22, 2024.]

In the overall scheme of things — an ongoing war costing tens of thousands of young Russian lives, economic problems, sanctions, drones hitting Russian territory — you would be forgiven for thinking that chess should be the least of Russia’s worries. But it isn’t — not for a country with its history of excellence . . . and winning. Just think of a few of the past masters — Boris Spassky, Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov . . .

Chess was especially a source of pride during Soviet times, when the USSR lagged behind the West in so many areas of achievement. And it was not only the realm of the intelligentsia. Those pictures you see of people playing chess at tables in parks throughout Russia are not fake. I even encountered a pair of elderly gentlemen at just such a location in Kyiv in 1993. (Yes, that is in Ukraine; but remember that until 1991 it was part of the Soviet Union.)

So it must be especially painful for them to lose the opportunity to beat the rest of the world at something . . . anything . . . when they have lost so much credibility already.

But that’s the price you pay for playing dirty.

Check. And mate.

Just sayin’ . . ..

Brendochka
9/24/24