Russian grandmaster: “Any preferences to Teimour Radjabov should be given in the next cycle”

Russian grandmaster: “Any preferences to Teimour Radjabov should be given in the next cycle”
# 29 March 2020 15:46 (UTC +04:00)

“In his speech Teimour Radjabov mentioned the existence of danger of coronavirus infection in Yekaterinburg. But nobody has been infected there”, said in a statement the Russian chess player and commentator Sergey Shipov, Apasport.az website reports.

The grandmaster has commented on the dispute between the FIDE and the Azerbaijani chess player Teimour Radjabov. Our representative who asked for postponement of the Candidates’ Tournament held in Russia’s Yekaterinburg city due to coronavirus pandemic, and refused to participate in the competition because his request wasn’t satisfied, was replaced by the French GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.

After postponement of the tournament upon completion of its I half due to coronavirus, Teimour came up with demand to return him his place among participants of the competition. Shipov said it is impossible to to satisfy this demand: “Yekaterinburg proved to be completely safe place for chess players. Everybody is returning home from here in good health and wholesome and alive. In this case, Teimour tries to forestall himself. He had the right to play in the place of Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. He could travel here as everybody else, and play his game and return.

And as things stand now it is necessary to remove one of those GMs who attended the competition and played their round just because Teimour didn’t play his game? It is quite impossible to replace once again Maxime Vachier-Lagrave with Radjabov. Vachier-Lagrave has signed a contract of the backdrop of Radjabov’s refusal, and now he is one of the competition’s leaders. It is impossible to remove him from the competition. All other chess players can also say on the same grounds that they have acted legally, attended the competition, played their round and are ready to hold the second half as well. And how should we act now? I declare that there is nothing to do in such a situation. The tournament should be continued at any time. And any preferences should be given to Teimour Radjabov in the next cycle. This is the sole possible solution”.

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