Express press service

MAHABALIPURAM: Wesley So was born in the Philippines. Temur Kuybokarov was born in Uzbekistan. Alina Kashlinskaya was born in Russia. Amir Bagheri was born in Iran. At the Olympics, So represents the United States. Kuybokarov plays for Australia. Kashlinskya wears the Poland jersey. Bagheri is on Monaco’s top board.

Welcome to the world of elite chess, where citizenship documents can be incidental as long as one federation wants a player and the other federation is willing to grant the player in question a No Objection Certificate (NOC ). This year alone, the World Chess Federation (FIDE) has granted more than 150 player transfers.

Evidence of how easy it is to switch federations – the exact word used by the event’s deputy chief referee, Gopakumar Sudhakaran – can be found in various team rosters at the Olympiad. Take the United States for example. The Open category seeds are So (Philippines), Levon Aronian (Armenia) and Leinier Dominguez (Cuba), who were all born outside the United States and played for the federations of their birth before transferring their allegiance in the USA.

So, one of the highest-rated active players in the world right now, was very intimate with the issue during Friday’s post-match press conference. “They say the United States is a land of immigrants. Basically, everyone in the United States has come from somewhere else at some point. Right now chess is doing very well in the United States. There are many private sponsors who love the game. Personally, changing to the United States is the best decision I’ve made in my life.

“I received much more support, training and very good training partners. For Levon too, it was a very good decision to change considering the politics that are going on in Armenia. It was also the right decision for him Even Dominguez already lived in Miami and later moved to St Louis (Saint Louis is the chess capital of the United States) Generally, people have the right to live wherever they want.

“There are also a lot of other nations trying to sign players. Romania signed Richard Rapport recently, Spain signed new players and Russia signed (Sergey) Karjakin several years ago. is normal. It’s an interesting game of chess. Because if you’re a chess professional, it’s important to be in the right place at the right time.”

Players are apparently changing allegiance after disagreements with their home federations or if they feel their chess career needs more support. For So, 28, it was an opportunity to advance his career. “When you are a grandmaster and trying to level up, it is also very important to be in the right country (federation) at the right time. Otherwise your strength will stagnate.”

It is even more remarkable in Australia. Of the two teams and the 10 players who are in the Olympiad, seven of them were born elsewhere. Captain Jack Rodgers called the team “one of the most diverse in the Olympiad”. “I believe we have one of the most diverse teams in the Olympiad,” he told the daily. “Of the 10 players, seven were not born in Australia.

Most of them stayed in Australia long enough to get citizenship, of course. We also have a high proportion of Indian players in Australia. It’s exciting to have this diversity because it brings different characteristics to our chess. We will continue to have diverse teams. We have an Uzbek player, one of Russian origin, one of Chinese origin here.”

Kuybokarov, the 22-year-old who moved to Australia as a teenager, said he has represented the country since 2019. “I was born in Uzbekistan. I moved to Australia five years ago in 2017. My dad had a visa business so he moved to Australia. I started representing Australia in 2019.”

There was another example in Sunday’s match between the Indian women and England. Lan Yao, who faced Tania Sachdev, was born in China and won the Chinese National Youth Championship at the age of 14. But Yao, who is currently studying at UCL, switched allegiance to England after realizing coaches in China would not train her. until she dropped out of school altogether. She hopes to work in England after graduation.

This type of open border policy is due to FIDE regulations. They have a cooling off period, but it is not as strict as some of the other international federations. As a hypothetical example, if Magnus Carlsen wants to leave Norway to represent India, he could do so after serving a cooling off period as long as the AICF (the Indian chess body) approves it and the Norwegian Chess Federation (NCF) provides an NOC. Other than that, there has to be some element of compensation paid to NCF for the time and money they put into developing Carlsen.

“They have to apply to the world chess federation and they need an NOC from the previous federation. If it is a high level player (wanting to change federation), there is a compensation that must be paid to the previous federation. If you are a normal player, there is a charge of 50 euros. The compensation part comes if the player is a GM because the country has spent a lot of money to play this game” , explained Sudhakaran. The compensation of a great general manager like Carlsen is in the order of $60,000.

“FIDE has no problem if the two countries are in the same boat. Players hold a passport from another country and play for another country,” added one of the country’s top referees.
Just another one of those quirky chess things.

MAHABALIPURAM: Wesley So was born in the Philippines. Temur Kuybokarov was born in Uzbekistan. Alina Kashlinskaya was born in Russia. Amir Bagheri was born in Iran. At the Olympics, So represents the United States. Kuybokarov plays for Australia. Kashlinskya wears the Poland shirt. Bagheri is on Monaco’s top board. Welcome to the world of elite chess, where citizenship documents can be incidental as long as one federation wants a player and the other federation is willing to grant the player in question a No Objection Certificate (NOC ). This year alone, the World Chess Federation (FIDE) has granted more than 150 player transfers. Evidence of how easy it is to switch federations – the exact word used by the event’s deputy chief referee, Gopakumar Sudhakaran – can be found in various team rosters at the Olympiad. Take the United States for example. The Open category seeds are So (Philippines), Levon Aronian (Armenia) and Leinier Dominguez (Cuba), who were all born outside the United States and played for the federations of their birth before transferring their allegiance in the USA. So, one of the highest-rated active players in the world right now, was very intimate with the issue during Friday’s post-match press conference. “They say the United States is a land of immigrants. Basically, everyone in the United States has come from somewhere else at some point. Right now chess is doing very well in the United States. There are many private sponsors who love the game. Personally, changing to the United States is the best decision I have made in my life. “I had a lot more support, training and very good partners training. For Levon too, it was a very good decision to change considering the politics unfolding in Armenia. It was the right decision for him too. Even Dominguez was already living in Miami and later moved to St Louis (Saint Louis is the chess capital of the United States). Generally, people have the right to live where they want. “There are also a lot of other nations trying to sign players. Romania signed Richard Rapport recently, Spain signed new players and Russia signed (Sergey) Karjakin several years ago. is normal. It’s an interesting game of chess. Because if you’re a chess professional, it’s important to be in the right place at the right time.” Players are apparently changing allegiance after disagreements with their home federations or if they feel their chess career needs more support. For So, 28, it was an opportunity to advance his career. “When you are a grandmaster and trying to level up, it is also very important to be in the right country (federation) at the right time. Otherwise your strength will stagnate.” It is even more remarkable in Australia. Of the two teams and the 10 players who are in the Olympiad, seven of them were born elsewhere. Captain Jack Rodgers called the team “one of the most diverse in the Olympiad”. “I believe we have one of the most diverse teams in the Olympiad,” he told the daily. “Of the 10 players, seven were not born in Australia. Most of them have been in Australia long enough to get citizenship obviously. We also have a high proportion of players of Indian descent in Australia. That’s exciting to have this diversity because it brings different characteristics to our chess. We will continue to have diverse teams. Here we have an Uzbek player, one of Russian descent, one of Chinese descent. Kuybokarov, the young man from 22, who moved to Australia as a teenager, said he has represented the country since 2019. “I was born in Uzbekistan. I moved to Australia five years ago in 2017. My dad had a business visa so he moved to Australia. I started representing Australia in 2019.” There was another example in Sunday’s match between the Indian women and England. Lan Yao, who faced Tania Sachdev, was born in China and won the Chinese national youth championship at the age of 14. But Yao, who is currently studying at UCL, switched allegiance to England after realizing that coaches in China would not train her until that she quit school completely. She hopes to work in England after graduation. This type of open border policy is due to FIDE regulations. They have a cooling off period, but she does not is not as strict as some of the other international federations.As a hypothetical example, if Magnus Carlsen wants to leave Norway to represent India, he could do so after serving a cooling off period as long as the AICF (the Indian chess body) approves it and that the Fed Norwegian Chess (NCF) ration provides NOC. Other than that, there has to be some element of compensation paid to NCF for the time and money they put into developing Carlsen. “They have to apply to the world chess federation and they need an NOC from the previous federation. If it is a high level player (wanting to change federation), there is a compensation that must be paid to the previous federation. If you are a normal player, there is a charge of 50 euros. The compensation part comes if the player is a GM because the country has spent a lot of money to play this game” , explained Sudhakaran. The compensation of a great general manager like Carlsen is in the order of $60,000. “FIDE has no problem if the two countries are in the same boat. Players hold a passport from another country and play for another country,” added one of the country’s top referees. Just another one of those quirky chess things.