Kremlin says chess federation should avoid politics, reinstate grandmaster

Russian officials said on Tuesday that the International Chess Federation (FIDE) should stay out of political matters and reinstate Russian chess grandmaster Sergey Karjakin, who was suspended by the federation after publicly supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

In a statement, Dmitry Peskov, the chairman of the Russian Chess Federation board of trustees, told a Russian news agency that the sport of chess “must be beyond politics,” according to a chess-related media outlet.

“We regret this. We call on FIDE to reconsider this decision and still remain out of politics, thereby confirming the international prestige of this chess organization. Naturally, we disagree with this decision,” Peskov, who is also Russian President Vladimir Putin’s press secretary, added. 

Peskov’s remarks come as FIDE announced on Monday that it will impose a six-month suspension on Karjakin for his support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, saying that the 32-year-old was found guilty of violating the federations’ Code of Ethics. 

Through social media posts, Karjakin expressed his support for Putin and shared a false claim that Ukraine was pushing a genocidal neo-Nazi regime. 

“The statements by Sergey Karjakin on the ongoing military conflict in Ukraine has led to a considerable number of reactions on social media and elsewhere, to a large extent negative towards the opinions expressed by Sergey Karjakin,” FIDE said in its statement. 

In a statement through his Telegram account, Karjakin shared his displeasure with FIDE’s decision to suspend him. 

“All sports selections have been trampled, the basic principle that sport is out of politics has been trampled,” Karjakin said. “Most importantly, first of all I am a patriot of my country and only second of all I am an athlete. If I thought back to the situation when I supported the president of Russia, the people and the army I would have done the same thing! I don’t regret anything.”