BY Robert Spencer, JIHAD WATCH
FIDE players and the FIDE flag
Four years ago, I posted here about a controversy over the Turks not playing the Israeli national anthem for Marsel Efroimski, an Israeli girl who won the Girls’ Under-14 World Chess Championship at the World Youth Chess Championships, which were played in Turkey that year.
Once again this year, the World Youth Chess Championships are being held in a Muslim nation: the United Arab Emirates, and predictably, once again the Muslim hosts are demonstrating their anti-Semitism. This fresh controversy has been noted in a news report at ChessBase, a highly respected chess news site, as well as in a comment on the blog of Ben Finegold, the coach of the US delegation.
Here is the report at ChessBase:
One very unfortunate development concerns the Israeli players and delegation. The official site, which lists all the players and nationalities, took down the Israeli flag and has even gone so far as to rename them from the country “FIDE”, attributing them the FIDE flag as well. It is a very unfortunate precedent for the World Youth, and unheard of until now.
After Chess City, there is now the new country FIDE
FIDE is the acronym of the World Chess Federation — the global governing body for chess tournaments. Then there’s this comment at Finegold Chess, which has more details:
Ben, maybe you can answer this question because I can’t find anyone else on the scene who might know!
When the World Youth Championships started in Al Ain, all the countries were listed on the “Players” page (http://worldyouth2013.com/playerlist/country) — and included on that list was “Israel,” which, when clicked, showed the individual player listings for the 8 or so competitors from Israel.
But sometime in the last 3 days or so, the word “Israel” was inexplicably DELETED from the list of participating nations, and a NEW “entry” appeared on the list of participating nations: “FIDE.”
When one clicks on the “FIDE” nation-entry, now all the formerly Israeli players are listed there (http://worldyouth2013.com/playerlist/country/245).
What apparently happened (as far as I can tell) is that the organizers (or another nation) complained about or refused to allow “Israel” to participate in the championships, so the Israeli national association was expelled from the tournament — and yet the players were allowed to continue playing directly under the aegis of FIDE, just so long as they did not identify as being from Israel.
Even stranger, some of the individual Israeli/FIDE players have ZERO results posted, which seems to indicate that they are not actually playing in the tournament, despite being listed as participants. Either that, or they ARE participating, but their games are not being reported on for some reason.
If I had to guess, I suspect that some of the Israeli players withdrew from the tournament in protest after their national identity was stripped from them.
This is especially tragic in the Girls Under 18 division where the #3 seed (Marsel Efroimski), who had a very good performance at the recent Olympiad and was thus one of the favorites to win the division, is not participating (as far as I can tell) in the 2013 World Youth Championships either because she withdrew or was expelled.
All of this is speculation, however, so I ask you Ben: What is the real story? Could you please ask the ISRAEL/FIDE coach what is going on, and then report back here? I (and the world) would be very interested to know.
Chess should be free of politics, and it is disturbing to see stuff like this going on, if that indeed what is happening. Help! You are our only source of information!
December 22, 2013 at 2:44 PM
Note that the same Jewish girl chess champion whom the Islamic supremacists targeted in 2009, Marsel Efroimski, either withdrew or was expelled this time.
At the World Youth Chess Championships 2013 website, the story checks out: the Israeli players are now listed as belonging to the nation of “FIDE,” complete with the FIDE flag.
CuriousAmerican Said:
Why would they stand up for “a sh*tty little country?” What’s in it for them? The West already sold Israel down the river on Iran.
Actually, Western Nations should walk out over this.
Seriously! They blacklisted South Africa over this.
Absolutely NO international events should be hosted in muslim countries. These countries should be treated as pariah states. While there is controversy regarding Russia’s attitude toward homosexuals since that country is hosting the winter Olympics, the world repeatedly tolerates this vile treatment of the Jewish state during international tournaments.
Let me clarify –
I expect Arabs to hate Jews and to wipe the good name of Israel off the face of the earth. That is their true nature.
What is I’m disappointed is in unthinking Jews who continue to lend legitimacy and approval to the most vile Arab anti-Semitism by participating in international events in Arab countries.
For centuries, Jews in the Arab Muslim World had to put up with the most degrading and inhuman treatment imaginable from the Arabs and they could do nothing about it. Today, they can do something about it and they have NO excuse to let the Arabs treat them like subhuman filth!
I despise Jews who don’t stand proud!
As Shy Guy would say Stupid Jews!
No – make that Stupid Dhimmi Jews.
Apparently, Jews still have not learned to shun those who hate them and their state.
Like the Jew-hating Arabs of the UAE.