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Iranian chess players have refused to play against Israelis during the junior World Cup

Oct 24, 2019
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The Junior Chess World Cup is currently being played in New Delhi, India (October 14 to October 26).

D. On October 17, during the fourth round of the tournament, 18-year-old Iranian Aryan Gholami – one of the gold favorites – was set to play against Israel’s Alexander Zlatin.

The Israeli player appeared and made the first move, but after 15 minutes had passed without Gholami in place, Zlatin was declared the winner and awarded a point.

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The Iranian chess player Aryan Gholami at the tournament in Sweden in January 2019. (Photo: Lars OA Hedlund , via Nordic Chess School)

Gholami should have withdrawn completely from the World Cup, writes the Swedish website schack.se. If, he had withdrawn, he would have scored only 1.5 points out of 4 possible after three draws.

It was the second time in ten months that Gholami did not show up for a match against an Israeli chess player.

The same thing happened in January during Sweden’s biggest chess tournament Rilton Cup in Stockholm. During the seventh round, Gholami was to meet Israeli Ariel Erenberg, but never came to the game table. Gholami later claimed that it would have serious consequences for him at home if he had chosen to play against an Israeli player.

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The Israeli chess player Ariel Erenberg. (Photo: Twitter)

It is undoubtedly the hateful racism of the Iranian regime against Israel that is the main reason why the young Iranian did not take part in a struggle, even though he has claimed that there were medical reasons for his failure. As you know, Iran does not recognize Israel and wants the Jewish state annihilated.

Gholami was hailed and given a heroic reception by the Iranian regime for not playing against Israeli players.

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Ayatollah Ali Khamene kisses Aryan Gholami (Photo: Iranian media)

Following the incident in Stockholm, the European Chess Federation and a group of British lawyers demanded action and reaction from the International Chess Federation, FIDE.

Incidentally, the Israeli Tamir Nabaty won the Rese Cup unanswered. See interview with him here.

D. On October 19, Iranian Amin Tabatabaei refused to play against Israeli player Or Bronstein in the sixth round. Tabatabaei has the title of Grand Champion and is ranked to the top during the World Cup.

After 15 minutes of waiting without the Iranian coming to the table, Bronstein was awarded the victory. In an interview with ChessBase India, he talked about the disappointment of not being able to play the match. See it here:

https://www.facebook.com/chessbaseindia/videos/448747719102338/?t=0

According to ChessBase India, the tournament management has in response removed his name from the draw in round seven. But after the Iranian leadership appealed the decision and presented a medical certificate, it was decided that he could continue to play in the junior World Cup. The conditions are that he shows up if he is pulled out to play against an Israeli player, and that a doctor appointed by the management must examine Amin the next time he withdraws for health reasons.

After Aryan Gholami’s stunt, chess experts and the leadership of the International Chess Federation reacted.

Chess expert Atle Grøn told NRK that there are many ways to punish the Iranian Chess Federation. They may be denied entry and subject to restrictions on the number of participants in the World Cup and in age-specific tournaments.

Former Grandmaster Nigel Short wrote on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/nigelshortchess/status/1184831829976768512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1184831829976768512ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.miff.no%2Fboikott-aksjoner-mot-israel%2F2019% 2F10% 2F20hittil-have-to-Iranian-sjakkspillere-been denied-a-mote-to-fight-mot-Israelis-under-the-pagaende junior-vm.htm

There have been several similar incidents with Iranian players – Infinitum News has previously written about one of them.

It is not yet known what FIDE will do after the latest episodes.

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