ARE RUSSIA AND BELARUS NOT SUSPENDED FROM THE ICCF?

Russia and Belarus seem to have not been suspended from the international correspondence chess federation ICCF.

The ICCF Extraordinary Congress tried to suspend the Russian and Belarus federations.

Online voting was carried out from 27 April — 09 May 2022.

ICCF's homepage does not provide a clear result. I do not see it. The link to that Congress disappeared recently (and later, it is changing again!).

The downloadable table of the voting results does not show at once what country made what decision.

An excerpt from the results:

EC 2022-003 Suspend the Russian Federation — Void if EC 2022-001 is Defeated

For 33, Against 10, Abstain 14

I calculate that FOR: 58%.

EC 2022-01 — Amendment of ICCF Statute Article 17 — required 2/3 votes. The result was:

For 34, Against 10, Abstain 13

I calculate that FOR: 60%, which is less than the required 2/3 or 67%. 

Thus, it seems that the ICCF failed to change its Statute to allow the suspension of Russia and Belarus based on majority voting.

Unfortunately, in my homeland Estonia, there is no information available on how our representative voted (if he voted) and based on what considerations. 

The national federation has not officially responded to my question sent through the ICCF server. I also do not see any relevant news on the national federation's website.

KARJAKIN, CARLSEN AND VOLTAIRE

The international chess federation FIDE banned outstanding grandmaster Karjakin from participating in FIDE tournaments for 6 months because Karjakin publicly justified the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

The world champion Carlsen has taken a stance concerning Karjakin's attitude and also FIDE's ban. Among other things, Carlsen said: 

"Obviously, I don't agree with Karjakin in anything, but is it correct to ban people for opinions we don't tolerate?"

Tarjei Svensen, 

Carlsen on Karjakin: “These types of attitudes can't be accepted”, 

Chess24, 5 April 2022

As a philosopher, I strongly support Carlsen's attitude.

Voltaire was one of those philosophers who defended freedom of speech. Often, the following sentence is attributed to Voltaire:

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

This quotation is in good accordance with Voltaire's views. Unfortunately, it was not Voltaire who said so. It was someone else. — It was Evelyn Beatrice Hall in the 1906 book The Friends of Voltaire by S. G. Tallentyre which was the pseudonym of historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall. See, for example: 

Quoteinvestigator, "Voltaire". 

Thus, some of Carlsen's attitudes are similar to Voltaire's attitudes. 

CARLSEN KARJAKINI MÄNGUKEELUST

Carlseni arvates pole Karjakinil Ukraina sõja küsimuses õigus, ent sellest hoolimata polnud õige ka FIDE otsus keelata Karjakinil võistlustel osalemine sel põhjusel, et Karjakin väljendas oma vaateid Ukraina sõja kohta. 

Tarjei Svensen 

Carlsen on Karjakin: “These types of attitudes can't be accepted” 

Chess24, 5 April 2022 

Filosoofina ma tugevalt toetan Carlseni hoiakut. 

Carlseni hoiak on sarnane filosoof Voltaire'i hoiakule. Sõnavabadus tuleb jätta ka neile, kelle arvamus meile ei meeldi.

JUSTIFYING THE UNJUSTIFIED WAR

Chess grandmaster Sergey Karjakin received a six-month ban from the international competitions, and his appeal was dismissed. When the international chess federation FIDE initiated the case, it accused Karjakin of supporting the unjustified war:

“FIDE Council condemns any public statement from any member of the chess community which supports unjustified military action…”

(The concepts of “justified war” or “just war” can be found in the encyclopaedias.)

However, Karjakin not only approved that war but also presented some arguments to convince us that this war was justified.

In sum, Karjakin’s fault seems to be the following:

He tried to justify the unjustified war.

If a sportsperson tries to justify the unjustified war, it results in 6 months ban from international competitions.

But what if a sportsperson presents strong arguments to justify the unjustified war? Whether the punishment should also be more serious? For example, it results in a 6-year ban from international competitions.

But what if a sportsperson succeeds in justifying that war?

He presented compelling arguments to justify the unjustified war.

Probably, that sportsperson should be jailed for 170-years. Because it is impossible to justify the unjustified war, and if someone succeeds in doing the impossible, it should be regarded as the greatest crime.