46th Chess Olympiad - Australian Player Boycotts Israel

From what I heard, FIDE "asked" the Netherlands if they're ok with rescheduling, and instead of cooperating, the Netherlands decided to take a comfortable 4-0 win, favoring their chances and tiebreakers.

FIDE doing FIDE things ...

That's not what actually happened @Cedur216

FIDE gave a written commitment to accomodating the Israeli team before the event, not some weak conditional promise.

The simple thing a chess player should do is play chess. Who enters the olympiad with a political mindset? Forums and rallies and organisations are there for protest against foreign governments and genocides whatever. I dont know anything about what israel has done/not done but i can say with assurance that a chess player should focus on the achievement of team and giving his best.

Simply refusing to play against some israel team (or any team) is stupid. The team has never done harm to you/your team/your country. The government has done it.

Think of that israeli woman whose opponent refused to play with her because of something their president did. It is just bullshit! There was 33.33% chance that had she played, she could have won. (W/D/L probability)

FIDE has banned the russian flag as if the players themselves have carried missiles on ukrane. It was not their fault and they are forced awat from their flag.

This is discrimination by country and should be charged.

During the 2008 Corus Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee, Ivan Cheparinov refused to shake Nigel Short’s hand, leading to an immediate forfeit and a major rule controversy.

What will they do about a player who refuses to play because his opponent is an israeli? i am not supporting israel or any politics, i am taking the perspective of one side

Will you do this if it was the world championship match, and your opponent was an israeli? Would you do this if losing this game would end your career? NO! you obviously would not do that.

It is all a matter of stakes and the OP basically has performed discrimination. And so did @thibault. and idgaf if this gets deleted or i get muted.

Fide should have one job and that is to improve chess craze and fame. Supprt talents and organize great tournaments. It is the governing body of chess, and not somebody who has the right to decide which flag will stay in their list and which will not.

It was fully in Netherlands and Bulgarian rights to decline Fide's INVITATION to change play time to accommodate Israel's wishes.

You're acting like they are ones to blame when in reality it's:

1. Fide's full fault for communicating to Israel they'd accepted their special request months before the start of the event, which means Fide could not even know which country would have to be asked;
2. Israel requesting special and unprecedented treatment during an olympiad like it was normal administration and without considering how unfair it would be for both the opponents and the rest of the teams.

@tpr said ^

"This thread is obviously only marginally chess-related."

• It is related to the ongoing chess Olympiad.

And that's about it. A lady refuses to play another lady based on her nationality. End of story.

From the official site:
'Yesterday, both of their opponents agreed to start the matches slightly earlier, with the games relocated to one of the official hotels. For today’s round, however, the Israeli teams requested either a later start in the evening or the possibility of playing the match tomorrow, the scheduled rest day.

FIDE contacted the opponents of both Israeli teams to discuss the possibility of adjusting the playing schedule.
However, neither opponent agreed to play at a different time from the official schedule, which they were fully entitled to do.

As a result, and in accordance with the competition regulations, both Israeli teams forfeited their matches.'

'unprecedented treatment'

• There are precedents: Reshevsky and also Fischer have requested not to play on Sabbath.

@Cedur216 said ^

instead of cooperating, the Netherlands decided to take a comfortable 4-0 win, favoring their chances and tiebreakers.

Somthing that should be done since its a chess tournament. Why should they care about a religion when chess is restricted by none? Events like player injury, accident, traffic etc are reasonable for a delay.

@pwg said ^

And that's about it. A lady refuses to play another lady based on her nationality. End of story.

Not even that; all she did is asked the coach to bench her for this 7th round. There was no forfeit but apparently she used this non-event as her personal BDS promotion opportunity.

@Cedur216 said ^

I oppose antisemitism. You don't mention the guilt of Hamas (of October 7th, and of increasing death tolls by using civilians as human shields) anywhere in the first place, maybe you don't even care about it.

Do you even know what "antisemtism" means? Where did that word come from?

Semite, Caucasian, and Altaic are all geographical terms. They don't own an exclusive race, religion, or sexual orientation. Yet, the term "antisemitism" has been used to denote exclusively Judaism.

Why do we need two flavors of hatred? The antisemtism label, as well as "islamophobia", are tools of the rich and in power. They can announce one kind of hatred in the media while ignoring the other. This is not me saying that it is only Israel supporters that are doing it. It is on both sides.

But I do want to note, what is on the flag of the country that is occupying a well recognized Palestine before World War 2?

Is there a cross for Christianity?
Is there a crescent moon for Islam?
Is there a Star of David for Judaism?

Where is the equal representation?

One man's Hitler is another man's Herzl, and Israeli supporters are "hurtzing" a lot of people. You mention Hamas, but you say nothing of the circumsized versions of the Haganah, Irgun, and Lehi.

You also have the PM's name "Nethanyahu" which was actually "Mileikowsky" before his grandfather changed it. Nathan Mileikowsky to "Nathan God", yahu short for Yahweh.

If you want to align yourself with a religion, a race, or a sexual orientation I have no problem with that. All I am saying is please don't take that support for domination over others.

This is what the dissenters are doing which is now being labeled the trendy "antisemitism" label. The real use of it would be to refer to a Christian group who were opposed to Judaism during Catherine the Great's time. But we forgot our history and replaced Christianity with Islam to support a Judeo-Christian only ideology. With technology today, we can compare notes and realize that the narrative our current Rothschild Trump leader is spewing is reminiscent of the Balfour Declaration.