Tuesday, 26 December 2017

Not really shocked

In what is a hardly surprising turn of events, Israeli registered players have failed to receive visa's to participate in the World Rapid and Blitz events in Suadi Arabia. Even FIDE themselves have thrown in the towel on this issue, producing a press release touting their success in getting Iranian and Qatari players visa's, but omitting any mention of Israel at all.
In a better world someone from FIDE might have taken responsibility for the exclusion of players from this event, but in this one FIDE is patting itself on the back, as shown by the quote from the press release "As everybody clearly understands from the above, FIDE and the Saudi organisers are always ready to welcome any participant."