Open Letter to FIDE from the Chess Federation of Canada regarding Anton Kovalyov at World Cup

Actually there is an entirely different and sinister element to this, a bigoted and possibly racist one on the part of the FIDE arbiter. 

I wanted to wait a little till I calm down, but I'm tired of seeing lies everywhere. So here's what happened:

The issue were not the shorts but how I was treated. I came to the game and was approached by the arbiter asking me to change (first time). I told him that I don't have pants with me, and then I noticed that I was playing black instead of white, which came as a surprise for me and asked him to check that. He and the other arbiters checked and confirmed to me that I'm playing with black, we talked a little and everything was fine. Then came Zurab, he was very agressive, yelling at me and using the racial slur "gypsy" to insult me, apart from mentioning several times that I will be punished by FIDE. I told him that I had asked before at the previous world cup if what I was wearing was OK and I was told by somebody from the organization that yes. Zurab, in a prepotent way, said he doesn't care, he's the organizer now. At this point I was really angry but tried not to do anything stupid, and asked him why he was so rude to me, and he said because I'm a gypsy.

So imagine this, the round is about to start, I'm being bullied by the organizer of the tournament, being assured that I will be punished by FIDE, yelled at and racially insulted. What would you do in my situation? I think many people would have punched this person in the face or at least insulted him. I decided to leave.

Worth pointing out, I didn't take any pants with me because I gained some weight and they were to tight. If the organization of the tournament would have warned me sooner I would have taken a cab to the mall and bought pants, without any problems whatsoever, but instead I was treated like garbage. I was too stressed out by the way I was treated and the threats of being punished by FIDE no matter what I do, so I choose to leave before I do anything stupid.

Another point worth pointing out, Zurab never asked me to go and change, the conversation consisted of threats, insults, and agressive behavior from Zurab. He was clearly provoking me.

I will not appeal anything. I am disgusted by this type of people. I don't want the money. I'm coming back home.

Anton Kovalyov

Shorts or pants, that is not the point. The point is insulting a player. In no sport I know a referee or anyone is allowed to do that.

Agreed its very poor arbitration.  

*slowclap* Awesome job contradicting yourself. This is just pathetic, disagreeing just because. I'm out.

um that doesn't make any sense at least not in English but you will be forgiven for perhaps English is not your first language.  Either way there are two issues, one of appropriate attire and FIDE rules governing attire and one of abuse at the hands of an arbiter.  Why you should make the mistake of assuming that both are somehow mutually exclusive and a contradiction has taken place is perhaps a testimony to your rather poor grasp of logic.  The player knew that his attire was borderline, this is one issue.  The arbitrator abused the player, that is another issue although related.  Furthermore it appears to have been motivated by something other than the players attire.  There is NO contradiction in criticising both player and arbiter and its ludicrous to assume that there is.

About the insulting behavior from the staffmember.  Maybe its a cultural thing where he lives to be abusive when critisising  what they think is violation of the reglement?                

Troll confirmed. No one is this delusional.

Zurab should have handled it better.  There was no need to insult Anton, however, the idea that he went to this tournament with only a single pair of shorts to wear is hard to imagine. 

They were a gnarly pair of shorts too I am might add.  I don't think Anton was ironing them either because I saw a picture of him from the fourth round and they looked wrinkled.  

He could probably sell the infamous shorts on Ebay and at least get something for them.  He needs to wash them first though! 

Have you seen who's running FIDE? The old expression "a fish rots from the head down" comes to mind. 

I don't know if this refers to new information. 

Here is a link to FIDE Ethics Commission's official response:

https://www.fide.com/component/content/article/1-fide-news/10440-fide-ethics-commission-statement-in-regard-to-the-kovalyov-case.html

They state that 'the lack of a statement from the player as to what exactly transpired between him and the organizer', is quite frankly nonsense.  Perhaps in an official capacity he said nothing but he did make it very clear what transpired on his social media page and one gets the impression that he wants absolutely nothing to do with FIDE.  In some countries the treatment that he received may well be construed as a criminal offense. 

Sometimes he does mess with the wrong people...

Lets hope some gypsies in short trousers did for him!

I just got around to reading this post and I am laughing out loud for many reasons. Foremost, the issue is so childish and unimportant when the world around us has REAL problems. Secondly, it is obvious that the dispute has been overblown to the point that the parties involved are so self-absorbed that they are meaningless shrift.

It would have been great if the remaining players had shown up for the next day's games wearing similar shorts.  Sad that they did not.

At least he didn't show up with his underwear...outside