Moved from US Chess Issues to All Things Chess.
Caring about what the players wear is absurd, puritanical, and authoritarian, take your pick.
tmagchesspgh
Whatever. But, totally within the province of the organizer, who may wish for an upscale environment which to some, may be simply “old school”. Do not like, do not come, simple as that.
But instead of puritanical lets use CLASS, STYLE, and QUALITY EVENT.
Rob Jones
I placed it there because the topic I introduced was US Chess’s prospective response & FIDE relations.
To the extent permissible, I have redacted my prior posts in this thread even though they don’t reflect poorly on anyone associated with US Chess. In the redacted posts, I referred to or quoted a slur made by a FIDE official.
FIDE does not put its best foot forward to the general public. When we discuss FIDE’s problems in a forum open to all, we’re not presenting chess in the best light to the US public, even though these problems are not attributable to us. I think of the final years of GM Evans’s syndicated column: he got wrapped up in “chess politics” and forgot to promote the great game we have.
There is I think a distinction between glossing over unpleasant truths (US Chess’s problematic relations with the World Chess Federation) & addressing these truths in a media-savvy & general-public-friendly fashion.
My feeling is that “dirty laundry” is best addressed on the Issues Forum…even when the laundry isn’t ours.
Of course, reasonable people will disagree with me. Just my two cents.
Naaa. Let’s go with petty, superficial, and silly. You could have a bunch of duffers sweating in suits in the heat and this would have nothing to do with class or quality. The class, style and quality of a chess tournament can be found on the board, not in the suitcase.
From the Canadian Chess Association web page.
"Anton’s two posts on facebook:
from Monday, Sept 11: facebook.com/anton.kovalyov … 0010301896
from Saturday, Sept 9: facebook.com/anton.kovalyov … 7282103699
and Zurab Azmaiparashvili’s Statement on the event homeage:
tbilisi2017.fide.com/2017/09/11/ … statement/
The contrast between the two different views is fascinating. Anton’s perspective – dignity is more important than money – and Zurab’s – money and power makes the law – are an irreconcilable difference between a 20th century Western understanding of civilization, and a long-surviving pre-modern mentality. It is not simply that Zurab is a crude bully and his FIDE backers are unwilling to admit he has done anything wrong because they want to protect FIDE’s image. Rather, from their pre-modern view of the world, they have done nothing wrong: Zurab gets money for big events, so Zurab gets to be the Big Bad Boss.
While it is comforting to think that Anton will be supported because his complaint is just, there are still a lot of places in the world where money and belligerance pass for competence and authority. Readers might be able to think of a few without prompting.
*Note: Calling it the “Kovalyov Incident” would avoid ambiguity, since there are no other Kovalyov incidents, but that would suggest Anton was to blame. Calling it simply the “Azmaiparashvili Incident” wouldn’t narrow it down enough… though adding “at the 2017 World Cup” mightn’t be precise enough either, since the event is ongoing. Maybe FIDE and chess journalists could start numbering Azmaiparashvili Incidents!?"
chess.ca/newsfeed/node/1001
On the other hand, the organizer can point to more mainstream press coverage of the tournament. 
thestar.com/news/canada/201 … ament.html
telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/09 … -race-row/
washingtonpost.com/news/ear … 336f91f910
And if one looks at ChessBase’s photos from the Round 3 Tie-breakers:
en.chessbase.com/post/fide-world … he-last-16
- Levon Aronian wore a T-shirt featuring a blue-faced pink cat;
- The two female volunteers are wearing fashionably torn jeans (although they carry it off well, looking MUCH better than Caruana’s second, GM Rustam Kasimdzhanov).
- Boris Gelfand appears to one of the few persons in the room not wearing sneakers, and he’s not playing in the Tiebreaker round.
- The number of seconds, other World Cup players, press, and spouses appear to outnumber the local spectators – even though a rapid & blitz tiebreaking round day is usually more spectator-friendly than classic chess.
Have to agree with one poster that the Dress code appears only to apply to Anton Kovalyov (and then, only on his fifth game).
If I were a corporate sponsor, this would confirm my worst suspicions about grandmasters:
This guy comes to the most prestigious tournament of 2017 and he only brings one pair of pants for a month-long event.
Did he only bring one shirt? Does he own another pair of pants?
Unlike nearly all of the other World Cup players, Anton Kovalyov is only a “Part-time” player – he’s a college student.
He brought only one large carry-on duffel bag (probably containing only the one pair of short pants) to the tournament, likely because:
- Save on fees for checked baggage. If Kovalyov has as little money as I did during my undergrad years, this approach is understandable, especially due to:
- Kovalyov was a slight ratings underdog for Round 1, and looking ahead to Round 2, he certainly never would have imagined/planned that he would defeat Anand to reach Round 3. It’s only a “month-long” event for the two players who reach the Finals.
Underdog players/teams in other sports that have knock-out format tournaments also arrange their plans that they will be early casualty.
It looks like the Canadian federation is mad and will be filing a formal protest on behalf of its player. With any luck, he will get paid his prize money. From the pictures shown on the event, it appears that Kovalyov was singled out and bigger named players skated free from being confronted by the organizer or the arbiters. The organizer indicated that some of the arbiters will be disciplined for not making the players conform to the dress code. I still cannot get over the shirt Aronian wore with the pink cat with the blue face. Citing that alone should be enough to win a protest. There will likely be a settlement of some kind.
Don’t bet on it. These guys at FIDE are absolutely shameless. They believe (with considerable supporting evidence) that they can get away with anything. They don’t even try to hide their most outrageous acts (unlike the officials at FIFA), they just shrug and ignore all protests. They have been doing this for decades without the slightest consequences to them. Why would they change now?
– Hal Terrie
+1
Aronian wore a cat shirt and no one said boo 
I saw an interview with Anton after his second round win over Anand. It was right after the game which I would guess was the biggest win of his chess career.The interviewer asked how he was enjoying the event and I am paraphrasing here" not at all too much stress" -I thought when I heard this answer that this young man (as extremely talented as he obviously is) would be better of doing something different.My guess is he thought so to
Here is an update, fresh from the “I Told You So” Department. The Canadian Chess Federation sent a formal letter of protest to FIDE. First, here is that letter:
Letter from Chess Federation of Canada
The Chess Federation of Canada protests in the strongest terms the abusive treatment of the Canadian player Anton Kovalyev at the 2017 World Cup at Tbilisi.
The incident has been widely covered in the international press and does not need repetition here. The issue is not the dress code for players, which is regrettably unclear and inconsistently applied at this, and other FIDE events. This should be corrected in the appropriate forum.
The issue is the behaviour of chief organizer Zurab Azmaiparashvili in taking it upon himself to insult and threaten our young Canadian player just minutes before his scheduled third round game, resulting in the latter’s withdrawal. Mr Azmaiparashvili’s behaviour in this case clearly violated the rules and norms of FIDE. The perpetrator must be subject to appropriate discipline to ensure this sort of thing never happens again.
The CFC will be making a formal complaint to the Ethics Committee of FIDE and will be seeking to have Mr. Azmaiparashvili barred from the playing hall for future events.
Sincerely
Hal Bond
FIDE Zone 2.2 President and Delegate, Canada
Below is the official response from FIDE.
Canadian GM Kevin Spraggett (who now lives in Europe), posted the letter on his web site with this introduction:
“FIDE just keeps on protecting its own. Responding to the Canadian FIDE representative’s letter of September 13, acting FIDE President Makropoulos responded with a letter that just stopped short of awarding Azmaiparashvili a medal!”
Dear Hal,
Thank you for your letter of 13 September.
The incident with GM Anton Kovalyov in Tbilisi makes no one happy. However, we have to be accurate in evaluating the whole situation.
The rules concerning the appearance of players in top events are very clear in requiring all players to be dressed properly and in a dignified way, emphasizing the need to preserve the image of our sport to sponsors. Even the Code of Ethics, in article 2.2.8, has such a requirement for players.
A similar example is that the FIDE rules require the players to behave properly during a game. Can anyone imagine an arbiter allowing a player to behave badly during a game because the rules do not state explicitly what behavior is considered acceptable or not? The answer is obvious.
Concerning GM Zurab Azmaiparashvili, please note that Mr. Azmaiparashvili is head of a team that has brought over 14 million dollars to chess during the last 5 years. You can understand how better positioned our sport would have been, worldwide, if chess had more fundraisers like Mr. Azmaiparashvili on a global scale. You can also understand that under such psychological pressure to secure these funds, especially for the Chess Olympiad next year, it is not strange that an organiser expects the players to have a proper appearance and show respect to sponsors and the public. This does not mean that organisers cannot be held accountable for their actions:
FIDE has regulations and procedures in all top events allowing players to appeal against any action or decision of any FIDE official.
I hope the above will help you in evaluating again the whole incident and I am looking forward to our next meeting in Antalya.
Best regards,
Georgios Makropoulos
FIDE Deputy President
As I predicted, FIDE just brushes off the whole thing. After a bunch of irrelevant platitudes and distortions of the facts, Makropoulos finally gets to the point: it’s all about the money. Not only does he not try to hide this, he flat out states it! (Also as predicted.) When you are running what amounts to a professional criminal enterprise, any behavior by your chief enforcers will be tolerated as long as they keep raking in the cash.
– Hal Terrie
Money talks as always with FIDE. However, this is where I fault the European chess federations who tolerate this garbage from the president of the ECU.
I could not have stated it better. FIDE is utterly bereft of any sense of ethics…I passed the Senior TD exam about 25 years ago, so for the past quarter century I have been eligible to become certified to direct FIDE rated events. I have not done so because I don’t want to be associated with these people, or send them the $28 fee they charge to become an NA. I have friends who are FIDE certified, and I don’t think less of them for doing so. To me it’s a personal decision each person must make. I need to feel comfortable with the guy looking back at me from the mirror, and I could not be if I sent money to these people.
It’s appalling to me that Kovalyov “stormed out” and went home. What kind of sportsmanship is it, to give Rodshtein a free pass after beating Anand? Almost anything Kovalyov could have done, such as standing there and saying nothing, would have had a better outcome. The worst that could have happened was, somebody would have gone off to buy him a nice new pair of pants. But no, he had to win the testosterone battle with Azmaiparashvili.
As for the CFC and FIDE, they were just playing the roles they had to play. I’m sure there are people at the CFC who understand what their man did wrong, but what can a national federation do in this situation, not file a protest? And as for FIDE, what are they going to do, “discipline” the organizer of the tournament, who is also the organizer of next year’s Olympiad? Don’t forget, as rude as Azmaiparashvili may have been, he didn’t kick Kovalyov out of the tournament. Frankly, my take on his behavior is, old guys can be kind of cranky sometimes. Maybe when I was Kovalyov’s age I didn’t have such a sanguine attitude, but now I think, deal with it.
Bruce, are you going to wear Bermuda shorts at the Pittsburgh Chess League tomorrow? You can if you want to. We will not berate, threaten you, or call you a “gypsy.” You will not have to worry about being arrested by the FSB, GRU, or city police because of a disagreement with the organizer. You will also not be compelled to testify against any arbiter or any other player because of failure to conform to a dress policy. In fact, you can wear anything you like and have freedom to come and go as you please. Kovalyov knows what it is like to live in an authoritarian land and a country as free as Canada. He was naturally spooked by the incident and wanted to get out of there as soon as he could before something happened to him. OTOH, if you were to wear Baltimore Ravens or Cincinnati Bengals attire… 
Cleveland Browns attire? 