RACE ROW AT CHESS WORLD CUP
Canadian told he must wear long pants to play
LONDON • The World Cup of chess has been engulfed in a race row after a Canadian grandmaster claimed he was told he could not wear short pants because he “looked like a Gypsy.”
Anton Kovalyov, from Montreal, stormed out of the US$1.6 million event minutes before his third round match Saturday.
Kovalyov, 25, had turned up wearing the same stripy shorts he wore in the previous round when he knocked out Viswanathan Anand, India’s former world champion.
But 15 minutes before the start of play, Kovalyov was accused of breaking the dress code imposed by the game’s world governing body FIDE, and ordered to change into long trousers.
Kovalyov refused, saying he did not have any, before Zurab Azmaiparashvili, FIDE Vice-President and head of the European Chess Union, intervened. It ended with Kovalyov storming out, forfeiting his match with Maxim Rodshtein of Israel, claiming he was racially abused, “bullied” and “treated like garbage.”
On his Facebook page, Ukrainian-born Kovalyov said, “The issue was 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. Then came Zurab, he was very aggressive, 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 ‘Yes’ by somebody from the organization. Zurab, in a prepotent way, said he doesn’t care, he’s the organizer now.
“I asked him why he was so rude to me, and he said because I’m a Gypsy.”
Kovalyov said at that point he had to leave.
He went on, “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 too 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 aggressive behaviour from Zurab. He was clearly provoking me.
“I am disgusted by these type of people. I don’t want the money. I’m coming back home.”
When asked about the incident Azmaiparashvili made no mention of allegations he said Kovalyov looked like “a Gypsy”.
“He [Kovalyov] just became angry and he left the room and did not come back,” he said.
In an interview in the Russian media, Azmaiparashvili tried to defend his comments by saying “Gypsy” was meant in the sense of “vagabond”.
He said: “We in Georgia have an expression, ‘Dressed like a tramp.’ Do not fool around, everyone understands what I mean.”
The incident is not the first time a row has broken out over a player wearing shorts.
At an event in Serbia in 1987, a Hungarian player protested about the British Grandmaster Nigel Short’s shorts. In that case a compromise was reached.
Under FIDE wardrobe rules, which the World Cup tournament follows, shorts are not expressly prohibited, although players are expected to maintain a “dignified appearance” at all times.
“Those with unkempt and greasy hair should be admonished, as well as those wearing old or torn jeans and battered attire generally,” the organization’s handbook states.
I THINK MANY PEOPLE WOULD HAVE PUNCHED THIS PERSON IN THE FACE.