To mark its 100^th anniversary, the World Chess Federation launched the FIDE 100 Awards to honour individuals, organisations and teams who have made outstanding contributions to chess in various fields. The awards were presented at a gala ceremony on Thursday evening as part of the 2024 Chess Olympiad in Budapest.

Magnus Carlsen was honoured as the 'best player', meaning 'best player of all time'. Judit Polgar received the award for the best female player.

The former world champion and long-time world number one expressed his thanks for the award, was surprised that he was receiving this honour as an active player, and also took the opportunity to make a political statement. Carlsen said that he could understand the honour, but felt that Garry Kasparov should have been chosen.

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Kasparov dominated the chess world from 1985 to 2000 like no other before and after him. After the end of his chess career, Kasparov became involved in Russian politics and was arrested and imprisoned during a demonstration in favour of free elections. He also witnessed opposition politicians and political associates in Russia being arrested or even murdered. Kasparov eventually left Russia because he feared for his own life. Kasparov had warned of the developments in Russia early on and remained a constant critic of Vladimir Putin. In the meantime, Kasparov has even been declared a 'foreign agent' in Russia.

After starting a war against Ukraine, the Russian sports associations were banned from international competitions. Peaceful sporting competition and a murderous war of aggression and annihilation do not go together. However, Russian athletes are allowed to compete in chess under a neutral flag.

Under the influence of Russian FIDE President Vladimir Dvorkovich, the Russian Chess Federation is currently trying to lift the suspension. The Kyrgyz Chess Federation - the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan is still highly economically dependent on Russia today - has been sent forward to apply for the reintegration of the Russian Chess Federation. This application will be put to the vote at the FIDE Congress at the end of the Chess Olympiad. The FIDE delegates, mainly from Asia, Africa and South America, have already shown little sensitivity and interest in the sporting consequences of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine during the re-election of Arkady Dvorkovich as FIDE President, and it is to be feared that this will also be the case with the Kyrgyz motion.

However, if the suspension of the Russian Chess Federation from international chess events were to be lifted, FIDE would largely isolate itself within the international sports federations.

Various representatives of chess federations and the European Chess Union have pointed this out in a statement:

At its meeting in Budapest on 18 September, the ECU Board issued the following statement in connection with the discussion on the IOC sanctions against Russia and Belarus and the violation of the sports jurisdiction of the Ukrainian Chess Federation.

“The ECU resolves to maintain the sanctions on Russia and Belarus, in accordance with IOC policy, to protect the integrity of FIDE. The ECU requests the FIDE GA to maintain the sanctions on Russia and Belarus imposed by the FIDE Council in 2022.

The ECU regrets the decision of the secondary FIDE disciplinary panel of FIDE that effectively allows the Russian Chess Federation to continue to operate within and adopt in its structure, territories that belong to Ukraine and are under the sports jurisdiction of the Ukraine Chess Federation. This violates the IOC Charter, the FIDE Statutes and the territorial integrity of a ECU federation member. Additionally, these activities of the RCF are considered by international organisations as facilitation of an illegal military occupation.

We ask the FIDE Council to demand the Russian Chess Federation to cease any operations in Ukrainian territory and in the case of non-compliance to suspend the Russian Chess Federation with immediate effect.”

In his acceptance speech, Magnus Carlsen not only referred to Kasparov, who was certainly not intentionally ignored by FIDE when the awards were presented - he could also have been honoured in the President's Special Awards. Carlsen also spoke out clearly against the lifting of the suspension of the Russian and Belarusian Chess Federations.

Carlsen also published the statement on his X account:

FIDE General Assembly 2024...

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