FIDE's Russian & Belarusian Flag Restorations, Karjakin's Return & Removal, Hikaru Games Validity

@lizani said ^

Not going to happen because a federation would have to propose the ban. Who would come forward, the Iranian chess federation? I suspect they have bigger problems to worry about. Even if there was a proposal, it would need to be approved and I suspect the western countries would oppose it. They're still demanding that FIDE overturn the passed vote to allow Russia to return.

That's not guaranteed. If you look at breakdown of FIDE federations according to AI (since I was too lazy to manually count them!) it's as follows:

Approximate FIDE Federations by Continent

Europe (European Chess Union): ~50-55 member federations (includes large countries like Russia and Turkey).
Asia (Asian Chess Federation): ~50-55 member federations (including Oceania members in some contexts, but sometimes counted separately).
Americas (Confederation of Chess for Americas): ~30-40 member federations (covering North, Central, and South America).
Africa (African Chess Confederation): ~40-45 member federations.
Oceania: ~5-10 member federations (often aligned with the Asian Chess Federation for competition purposes).

There are slightly over 200 Federations from what I can gather so Africa + Asia can actually more or less get a majority between them. Generally Europe and USA has been allied although Trump has been doing his best to burn bridges so it's unclear if USA would get a lot of support. I'm pretty sure this distribution of votes is why the above motions passed and it's a similar story with FIFA recently awarding World Cups to Russia, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

One thing I'd note for those citing equivalency is that bans were made for the duration of the war. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has lasted over 4 years. Trump is claiming attacks on Iran will be over within 5 weeks although Putin did also claim his war was a 3 day special military operation. So assuming it takes 3 weeks to get a ban made it's quite possible it could be lifted 2 weeks later when fighting ceases and as they wouldn't be holding illegally annexed territory in Iran that's also not a basis for it.

Being pragmatic and disregarding questions of morality, I doubt Iran would have much support as Iran's decision to target the UAE, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and other countries in the Gulf will mean they're short on allies. Although if Iran wants to raise a motion I think they can do so and then result will be adopted. To be honest most messed up part is Iran qualified for World Cup in football and it's hosted in a country at war with them.

@KMcGeoch said ^

That's not guaranteed. If you look at breakdown of FIDE federations according to AI (since I was too lazy to manually count them!) it's as follows:

Approximate FIDE Federations by Continent

Europe (European Chess Union): ~50-55 member federations (includes large countries like Russia and Turkey).
Asia (Asian Chess Federation): ~50-55 member federations (including Oceania members in some contexts, but sometimes counted separately).
Americas (Confederation of Chess for Americas): ~30-40 member federations (covering North, Central, and South America).
Africa (African Chess Confederation): ~40-45 member federations.
Oceania: ~5-10 member federations (often aligned with the Asian Chess Federation for competition purposes).

There are slightly over 200 Federations from what I can gather so Africa + Asia can actually more or less get a majority between them. Generally Europe and USA has been allied although Trump has been doing his best to burn bridges so it's unclear if USA would get a lot of support. I'm pretty sure this distribution of votes is why the above motions passed and it's a similar story with FIFA recently awarding World Cups to Russia, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

Quick maths looking at the FIDE page: (https://directory.fide.com/list/member_federations/main)

Africa: 6*8+3=51
America: 6*7=42
Asia:6*9+3=57
Europe:6*9=54

Total: 204 feds, majority in Asia or Africa

i think people here are somewhat misinformed how the ban of the russian and belarusian flags came to pass initially. this was an initiative by the ioc, because they broke the olympic truce for the 2022 winter olympics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_sporting_sanctions_during_the_Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine
the ioc then pressured all the federations they recognize, which includes fide for chess.
i highly doubt fide would have done anything if not for that. but with the ioc exerting pressure, they probably had little choice, since being recognized as a sport by the ioc is quite important for a lot of potential funding. my point is, people are overestimating how much influence fide had on this initially.

now, since the war in iran also violates an olympic truce for the 2026 winter olympics, it will be interesting to see if anything will happen. my money is on "no".

"Iran's decision to target the UAE, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and other countries in the Gulf will mean they're short on allies"

• That is a stupid move by Iran. I can understand retaliations against military bases and embassies, but attacks on oil infrastructure seem plain stupid. I guess this would not have happened if Ayatollah Khamenei were still alive.

I lost respect for FIDE once they started banning russians from showing their home flag just because of where they came from.

I hope Lichess doesn't follow suit.

In fide rated broadcasts the flag ban applies. On your profile you can be from Horsey or anywhere else.

BTW, the official FIDE's motto is "Gens una sumus" ( "We are one family"!)

But "double standards" are everywhere!