Recently, on about 04 November 2023, I published my text
I published this appeal in both English and Estonian.
The core of this Public Appeal was the following call:
… I call on all chess organisations to either immediately lift the restrictions imposed on Russia and Belarus or to impose the same restrictions on Israel, whose disproportionate and indiscriminate military action is killing a catastrophic number of civilians in the Gaza Strip every day.Suppose it is permissible to obstruct Russian sports persons to get Russia to stop its military aggression against Ukraine. In that case, it must also be permissible to obstruct Israeli sports persons to get Israel to stop its war crimes and to punish the perpetrators.
In Estonia, I sent this Public Appeal to several chess organisations and one chess magazine, but none of them even replied that they had received my letter. I also officially sent the letter to the Estonian Correspondence Chess Federation via the ICCF server.
Therefore, in the future, I don’t want anything to do with organisations like the Estonian Correspondence Chess Association, the Estonian Chess Federation, or the Estonian Chess Support Group or whatever it was called. I also no longer wish to have any contact with the publication “Eesti maleelu” [= “Estonian Chess Life”].
I also sent this Public Appeal to one of the mailing lists of Estonian correspondence chess players. There, I received a reply from only one Israeli supporter, who tried to frame me as an anti-Semite, and to whom I replied that I refused to talk to him or play chess with him in the future.
I also sent this Public Appeal to several international chess organisations, as well as some national chess organisations. Only one of them responded, stating that it was not within its competence to lift the sanctions.
Conversation on the FICGS Chess Platform
On 05 November 2023, on the chess platform’s FICGS Forum, I also launched a discussion entitled
This conversation can probably only be read by a registered user. Also, I’m unsure if this conversation will remain there, for example, after I leave FICGS.
Apart from me, there were only three people there.
Ilmars Cirulis took part in the conversation episodically. He expressed his condolences for the civilians killed on both sides in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and said that both Netanyahu and Hamas should be in prison. I replied that I had roughly the same view.
Two people participated in the interview at length: Herbert Kruse, a highly rated chess player there, and Thibault de Vassal, who, by his own admission, is one of the organisers of the FICGS chess platform.
Several months ago, I had told Thibault de Vassal that I no longer wished to speak to him. At the time, the discussion was about the chess sanctions imposed on Russia and Belarus, which I criticised. Still, I eventually interpreted Thibault de Vassal’s replies as pure demagogy and personal attacks. At that time, I decided I would no longer play chess on the FICGS platform because of the chess organisers and chess grandmasters’ inappropriate style in the Forum discussions.
This time, it went even worse.
In my view, Herbert Kruse and Thibault de Vassal completely ignored the text and the arguments I put forward in the Public Appeal and then completely ignored the arguments I put forward during the discussion. In doing so, both of them constantly changed the subject and the context and interpreted what I had said in a completely arbitrary and illogical manner.
Herbert Kruse made one after another series of irrelevant arguments, and when I replied to them, he was already changing the subject again. His favourite topic was Jews and anti-Semitism, completely ignoring the fact that my Public Appeal had stated clearly, emphatically, that we should not impose chess sanctions based on the chess player’s nationality.
In the end, however, things took a criminal turn.
I quote below the most characteristic parts of this conversation.
Personal attacks
HERBERT KRUSE:I wished you Had more emphaty for the victims
JÜRI EINTALU:Herbert Kruse:“I wished you Had more emphaty for the victims”After all, you are directly insulting and slandering me.Get lost, Mr Herbert Kruse.
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JÜRI EINTALU:The 07 October attack is quite recent, and I would not say that all the circumstances are clear. For example, I am not sure that Hamas “chose” to kill civilians.The only thing that is sure is that some number of civilians were killed by Hamas. It is sure, because Israel accuses Hamas of killing the civilians, and one of Hamas leaders has publicly admitted, that during that attack, Hamas killed some civilians “accidentally”.Killing civilians may make it a war crime. Intentionally killing civilians may make it an act of terrorism.
HERBERT KRUSE:“I am not sure that Hamas “chose” to kill civilians. “for that u dont need empathy, u need to be in prison!
JÜRI EINTALU:Me:“I am not sure that Hamas ‘chose’ to kill civilians.”Herbert Kruse:“for that u dont need empathy, u need to be in prison!”My answer:Please arrest this man with the name “Herbert Kruse”. He is obviously a fascist.
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HERBERT KRUSE:now the russian trolls are here too, its sad
JÜRI EINTALU:Herbert Kruse:“now the russian trolls are here too, its sad”I do not know, perhaps Herbert Kruse kept in mind, for example, the following section from my Public Appeal:“Suppose it is permissible to obstruct Russian sports persons to get Russia to stop its military aggression against Ukraine. In that case, it must also be permissible to obstruct Israeli sports persons to get Israel to stop its war crimes and to punish the perpetrators.”Or, perhaps the following one:“However, the civil war in Ukraine, which started in 2014, had killed around 20,000 civilians by 2022. But, by November 2023, the Russian invasion that began in 2022 had already killed hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers.”You are a moral and intellectual bastard, Mr. Herbert Kruse.And what if someone says here, on the Forum of the chess platform:“Now the paedophiles, sodomites and corpse-eaters are here too, its sad.”How would you publicly prove here, on the Forum, that you are not a paedophile, sodomite and corpse-eater?
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THIBAULT DE VASSAL:Juri, you probably spread fake news:___________________________Social media users recently circulated video footage they claimed shows an Israeli helicopter killing Israelis at an Oct. 7 concert in Israel. (…)In doubt, such news (probably fake news) have no place here… Thanks in advance.Now we heard your message (and I did respond to your public appeal), feel free to let chess organizations decide what they have to do, no need to discuss it more here.
JÜRI EINTALU:Thibault de Vassal:“Juri, you probably spread fake news:…”“In doubt, such news (probably fake news) have no place here… Thanks in advance.”I have NOT shared that video here, on the Forum, neither a link to it. And I have NOT mentioned that video here, on the Forum.You are a sick slanderer, Mr. Thibault de Vassal.Don’t worry, I will not play a single chess game on the platform FICGS anymore. I decided so already half a year ago.
Summary
Herbert Kruse and Thibault de Vassal, chess masters and organisers, slandered me openly and to my face.
I repeatedly told them that the attack of 07 October was not relevant to my Public Appeal because Hamas cannot be expelled from FIDE or ICCF because it never was there and never could be. I also pointed out that the text of the Public Appeal had already explained why it was not wise to talk about chess sanctions against Hamas. I also stressed that the attack of 7 October cannot be a justification for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Israel.
Despite my protests, they continued to talk about the attack of 07 October to distract attention from the massive war crimes committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip.
In doing so, they sought an opportunity to attack my person.
Concerning the attack of 07 October, I only reported the following:
- Hamas claimed that it also killed civilians in the course of this attack, but Hamas claimed that it was accidental.
- It is possible that Israel itself killed some civilians.
- I am not yet confident about all the facts of this attack of 07 October as a recent event.
- The details of this attack do not change the question of Israeli war crimes and the need to impose chess sanctions on Israel, as they were imposed on Russia.
In fact, the very next day after Herbert Kruse made the scurrilous accusations to me, the Israeli newspapers themselves reported Israel itself killed some of the civilians on 07 October. The Israeli news mentioned, among other things, an Israeli attack helicopter and also claimed that Hamas, when it launched the attack, did not know that the dance party was still going on.
Nowhere and to no one have I claimed that any video of an Israeli helicopter is authentic, certainly not in a conversation on the FICGS Forum, nor did I share such a video there.
All in all, we can see that sport, including chess, is being politicised and politicised in a biased way: Russia, which started the war, is being punished, but Israel, which is committing genocide, is not.
However, supporters of such policies, such as Herbert Kruse and Thibault de Vassal, avoid engaging in substantive debate and are eager to find ways to incriminate and falsely accuse those who make arguments that do not suit them.
There has been no substantive debate.
