FIDE can’t be neutral when somebody (Russia) is invading a sovereign country: Nigel Short

This was literally the day before the invasion. The situation was volatile and I felt that if it did deteriorate then this could lead to a massive boycott of the Chess Olympiad. I thought we should at least discuss this possibility. I asked my colleagues to comment. In fairness to my colleagues not everybody did comment and one person said he would support (a review). Of the people who replied, and there were several, nobody supported me.

The situation changed quickly on the ground. What changed in the FIDE Council?

For me it (initial lack of support) was disappointing. The next day the situation changed and members of the Council realised it was untenable. Some of them (Council members) made the same proposal I had made the day before. And this time it was agreed unanimously in minutes. There was a general realisation that something needed to be done quickly.

Russia and chess have been interlinked for generations. How do you see the decisions of FIDE impacting the sport in Russia?

I don’t see this having a substantial long term impact. For the short term, most of the world is outraged with the invasion. We have the International Olympic Committee, which is giving a clear direction on how to deal with this. Though we are not an Olympic sport, we are recognised by the IOC and we basically follow their guidance. We don’t necessarily do things down to the last comma. The motto of FIDE is Gens una sumus (we are one family) and we would like to keep it that way. But this (Russian invasion) is a very clear violation of one country’s sovereignty. It also involves two of the most important chess nations, Russia and Ukraine. Clearly it will have adverse effects in the chess world. We are opposed to military conflicts as a means to resolving disputes.

Bravo to the many Russian chess players who signed the joint letter to Putin to stop the war in Ukraine. If I thought it would have the slightest effect, I would be even happier, but nevertheless it was a good thing to do.

— Nigel Short (@nigelshortchess) March 4, 2022

Some Russian players, including Grandmaster Alexander Grischuk, have spoken out against the war. As FIDE vice president did you expect players from Russia to voice their opinion?

I think most people are disgusted with this and humanity comes first. It does require courage to speak out in Russia on these matters. We know it is not a liberal democracy, so all credit to those who have spoken out against this invasion.

Playing against @SergeyKaryakin of #Ukraine, in Kyiv. #LestWeForget pic.twitter.com/35cQ5bCvHK

— Nigel Short (@nigelshortchess) March 5, 2022

What would you say to players like Russian Grandmaster Sergey Karjakin who have supported the invasion?

I think he has incurred the opprobrium of the chess community with his remarks. The matter has been sent to the FIDE disciplinary commission. It is an independent body and he will have a chance to state his own case.

The IOC has called on sports federations not to invite Russian players. What are your thoughts on shutting out Russian players from events?

These issues are under review. We have already decided that the Russian team will not participate in the World Team Championships and it is one of the reasons we have postponed the event until November. My view is that on Sunday, FIDE took a strong range of measures which surprised many people, even our biggest critics. The question is have we gone far enough? The position of the IOC points in a certain direction. One of the main issues is with teams. If you have a team then even if they don’t play under the national flag, they are in some sense a Russian team. To my mind that is a distinction to someone who plays as an individual. Personally I would not be in favour of banning individual Russian chess players. But the real question is whether you should ban teams. Anyway now they are not playing under the Russian flag, but it is a subtle distinction whether a group of Russians is part of a Russian team. Maybe the difference is not great enough.

FIFA and UEFA have suspended Russian teams, Formula One has cancelled the Russian GP contract, World Athletics has excluded Russians from Athletics Series events. Is a worldwide sporting blockade, like we are seeing now, a deterrent for countries that have a proven record of human rights abuse or wage unjustified wars going forward?

The problem is one person’s war of liberation is another person’s invasion. It is very difficult to draw absolute rules on these things. A lot of things come down to definition. When you have these questions, it is a lot about whataboutery. Like what about this action here or this missile strike there. It is very difficult to draw clear rules on something like this.

Playing against @SergeyKaryakin of #Ukraine, in Kyiv. #LestWeForget pic.twitter.com/35cQ5bCvHK

— Nigel Short (@nigelshortchess) March 5, 2022

However, the number of countries that oppose the United Nations resolution can be counted on one hand and two of them are the combatants, Russia and Belarus. It is not a pretty group. In general, I would prefer to keep politics out of sport. But I am not so naive as to think we live in a vacuum. In our charter it is written that we have to be neutral. It is not so easy to be neutral when somebody (Russia) is invading a country.

Western governments have blocked Russian banks out of the payment system, their central bank assets are frozen and there are trade bans. Do you think the West didn’t do enough to warn Russia earlier, given Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its support to the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in the country’s civil war?

This is not me speaking as a FIDE vice president. The thing about Crimea is one may judge it as an illegal annexation. At least in that case a majority of people in Crimea are Russians. I have been to that part. Is it illegal? Yes it is illegal. But it is not as clear cut as simply invading somebody else’s country. There are degrees of right and wrong and not everything is completely back or white. Nobody is claiming Kiev is Russian other than Putin and his view that Ukraine does not exist as an entity is very much a minority view and is a view of a dictator.

When FIDE moved against Russia, like you said, even critics of FIDE were surprised. FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich, a former deputy prime minister, is known to be close to the Kremlin. What kind of influence does Russia have on FIDE?

I can tell you that Arkady has brought FIDE from the brink of extinction. The previous administration had brought the organisation to its knees. We had a pitiful budget and we had no bank account because the previous president was on the United States’ treasury department sanctions list. That made chess something of a pariah. It made it very difficult to obtain sponsorship. A lot of work Arkady has done is building the reputation and image of FIDE. In 2016, 96 per cent of FIDE’s income was coming from federations, players, coaches, trainers. It was basically coming from the chess community. Now it has changed with our latest decision (on Russia). But just before the latest decision only 20 percent came from federation and players and 80 per cent was coming from sponsorship. It is like inverting the business model. Rather than extorting from players and federations we are now distributing a lot of sponsorship money and promoting chess literally around the world.

We have now said goodbye to Russian state sponsorship. The whole point is four years ago we would not be able to do this, because we wouldn’t be able to afford it. Of course we take a hit but it does not destroy the organisation. Our reputation as an organisation is far more important than any amount of extra cash.