“Iran is one of the most influential countries in world chess and I do not think we will be suspended,\u201d Nikoukhesal was quoted as saying in a November 10 article<\/a>\u00a0published by state-approved news site Tasnim. \u201cWe must act according to our own cultural principles and conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n Short said that, until recent years, Tehran had taken advantage of what he called an unwritten, unofficial FIDE policy of “deliberately avoiding\u201d any tournament pairings of Israelis with players from Iran or other countries hostile toward the Jewish state.<\/p>\n ‘Blind’ pairings’<\/strong><\/p>\n But since 2018, a FIDE committee led by Arkady Dvorkovich, the body\u2019s president and former Russian deputy prime minister, has insisted that all pairings be \u201cblind,\u201d<\/a> according to chess24.com, a website offering coverage of global chess tournaments and news.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe think sports should be blind, like justice,\u201d Short told VOA. \u201cYou should play your games regardless of your opponents\u2019 backgrounds. We have a strict policy of nondiscrimination.\u201d<\/p>\n In an article published November 8, chess24.com said FIDE\u2019s increased emphasis on nondiscriminant pairings in recent years has put Iranian players in awkward situations.<\/p>\n It said Iranian players Parham Maghsoodloo and Amin Tabatabaei were paired with and competed against Israelis at a Spanish tournament in December 2019 and faced reprimands from Iranian authorities after returning home.<\/p>\n Another Iranian, Aryan Gholami, refused to play an Israeli in Sweden in January 2019 and forfeited his place in the tournament, telling Swedish website schack.se that he feared \u201csevere consequences\u201d<\/a> for competing against the Israeli.<\/p>\n A month later, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei met Gholami and praised his action<\/a> by kissing him on the forehead.<\/p>\n Iranian teenage chess prodigy Alireza Firouzja also forfeited a game<\/a> against an Israeli in Germany in April 2019.<\/p>\n ‘Ugly statements’<\/strong><\/p>\n Short accused Iran of making \u201cugly statements\u201d and generating \u201cpolitical capital\u201d by having players boycott Israelis.<\/p>\n FIDE’s Dvorkovich sent a letter to the Iran Chess Federation\u2019s Nikoukhesal in June calling on him to \u201cconfirm in writing\u201d Iran\u2019s position on allowing Iranian players to compete against Israelis in accordance with FIDE rules.<\/p>\n In July, FIDE published Dvorkovich\u2019s letter and Nikoukhesal\u2019s reply<\/a>.\u00a0Nikoukhesal asserted that Iranian players make their own decisions about whom to compete against, without his organization rendering \u201cany advisory opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIran does not answer our questions directly,\u201d Short said. \u201cThe Iranians just say, \u2018We follow FIDE statutes,\u2019 but clearly they do not.\u201d<\/p>\n Chess24.com said Iranian government pressure on players to boycott Israel has led several of them to defect, with Firouzja, who currently resides with his father in France, being the most prominent.<\/p>\n Moscow competition<\/strong><\/p>\n After forfeiting his game with the Israeli player in April 2019, Firouzja entered the 2019 World Rapid & Blitz Chess Championship in Moscow, where he won a silver medal competing under the FIDE flag<\/a>.<\/p>\n Short cited Firouzja\u2019s success as evidence that FIDE is not punishing Iranian players by increasing pressure on the Iran Chess Federation to change its practices.<\/p>\n \u201cWe made it very clear, if Firouzja wants to play for FIDE, then he has to abide by the FIDE rules,\u201d Short said. \u201cIf other Iranian players also are prepared to say they will follow FIDE statutes and compete against players from wherever, then we will be glad to facilitate and welcome them as well.\u201d<\/p>\n This article originated in VOA\u2019s Persian Service<\/a>. Click here<\/a>\u00a0for the original Persian version of the story.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" VOA \u2014 Iran risks being suspended from international chess tournaments beginning next month unless it publicly approves of Iranian players facing competitors from Tehran\u2019s regional foe, Israel, according to a senior member of the game\u2019s global governing body. In a Tuesday interview with VOA Persian from his home in Athens, Greece, Nigel Short, International Chess […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":90422,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latests"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"en","enabled_languages":["fa","en"],"languages":{"fa":{"title":true,"content":false,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90421"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90424,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90421\/revisions\/90424"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Iranian](\"https:\/\/im-media.voltron.voanews.com\/Drupal\/01live-166\/styles\/sourced_737px_wide\/s3\/2020-11\/000_863U7.jpg?itok=e0wxMVO9\")
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VOA \u2014 Iran risks being suspended from international chess tournaments beginning next month unless it publicly approves of Iranian players facing competitors from Tehran\u2019s regional foe, Israel, according to a senior member of the game\u2019s global governing body.<\/p>\n