The Iranian Grand Master Ehsan Maghami Gahem informed me of his refusal to play against his opponent of the fourth round, the Israelian Fide Master Ehud Shachar.
I told Mr. Gahem Maghami that as an organizer of a sporting International competition, I could not accede to his request to change the pairings, for him to play against another player.
The presence of five Israeli players in this tournament is known by all participants since saturday, october 22. It honors our competition as well as the presence of Iranian players and about thirty other nationalities.
The motto of our Federation is Gens una sumus, we develop in Corsica awareness of the positive aspects of chess sport on our youth, being complicity of any form of segregation would be unworthy, and in total contradiction with the foundations of our sport action.
So regretfully I have to exclude the player who unfortunately has persisted in his choice, inspite of my imprecations. I regret it. But I could not escape from our responsabilities.
Léo Battesti
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I told Mr. Gahem Maghami that as an organizer of a sporting International competition, I could not accede to his request to change the pairings, for him to play against another player.
The presence of five Israeli players in this tournament is known by all participants since saturday, october 22. It honors our competition as well as the presence of Iranian players and about thirty other nationalities.
The motto of our Federation is Gens una sumus, we develop in Corsica awareness of the positive aspects of chess sport on our youth, being complicity of any form of segregation would be unworthy, and in total contradiction with the foundations of our sport action.
So regretfully I have to exclude the player who unfortunately has persisted in his choice, inspite of my imprecations. I regret it. But I could not escape from our responsabilities.
Léo Battesti
Video in english
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