David Llada on Chessdom: "Exceptions are granted to reward submission"

David Llada to skip Chess Olympiad 2024

We have all seen his photos: after all, David Llada is one of the best-known chess photographers in the world. In fact, he has worked in all but one edition of the Chess Olympiad in the last 22 years. His book The Thinkers features some of his best work.

Despite his longstanding reputation, though, Llada's request to work as a photographer in Budapest next month was partially rejected by FIDE - he was only granted permission to take photos during the initial minutes of each round. Llada considered this not to be enough time to produce a worthy pictorial report, so he cancelled the job.

FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky replied to a post by Llada on X:

Sorry, but you are being unfair.

You were proposed 25 minutes EVERY DAY (like every media apart [from] official Olympiad photographers), and 1-2 days of access throughout the round. If you prefer to take a discussion to twitter, kindly bring facts as they are.

In an interview conducted by the Chessdom.com team, he talks about this incident and about the inner workings of FIDE. Find below a few excerpts.

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Chessdom: Can you tell us more about the situation and your decision to skip the 2024 Chess Olympiad?

David Llada: A few weeks ago, I received a proposal from a world's leading publication to do a pictorial report for them about the event. The first thing I did was to contact FIDE to ensure I would be allowed to take photos for the duration of the round. The answer was disappointing: they would allow me to take photos during the initial minutes. After that, I would have to leave the playing hall "like everybody else, except the official photographers". They were "generous" enough to offer me work without limitations for one of the rounds.

That’s just not enough to justify the expense of travelling there for one day of work. It would not be enough to deliver the quality pictures I am known for. I wanted to be honest with my employers and told them I preferred to call it off.

How do you feel about the situation?

To me, this is first and foremost a professional affair. I fully understand there must be restrictions. When I worked with FIDE, I helped develop media policies, and you could say I was myself relatively "protective".

A first priority is to avoid having an excess of photographers or cameramen without enough experience in chess, who could distract the players. A second priority is to ensure fair play. And the third goal is to ensure the official team can do their work without disturbance, without having to get into an "elbows fight" to get the shot they need.

This is the baseline; but then, exceptions are granted. [...] Top FIDE officials also granted exceptions, with dubious justification, not based on merit, the media you represent, or your audience. I had to witness how photographers for a news agency were asked to leave while, for example, an arbiter would issue a special accreditation for her daughter to have full access…

[...] During my time at FIDE, I learned how deeply rooted the Russian/Soviet culture was in everything. In most regimes, there are strict rules for everything. Then, exceptions are granted systematically to reward submission. If you fell into disgrace, you would just be left out of the exceptions. You couldn’t claim to be punished. "It is just the rules".

Read the full interview on Chessdom...

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Links

• Chess Olympiad: USA, India and China the rating favourites
• Sagar Shah: Master class with David Llada