Despite being only two weeks away from the date announced for resumption of the Chess Candidates Tournament in Yekaterinburg, the World Chess Federation (FIDE) is conspicuously silent about the event.
Apart from Wang Hao’s outburst of displeasure with the attitude of FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich, when he also expressed strong concern over the galloping second wave of the Covid pandemic, there have been no official statements or announcements.
It should be noted that Anish Giri, who is participating in the Candidates Tournament, withdrew from the currently ongoing Altibox Norway Chess due to pandemic.
The number of infected in Russia is growing by the day, reaching 13868 on 13th October. The reserve venue is Tbilisi, Georgia, but FIDE might be much too late with the transfer of the event.
The arrangement of travel to whichever physical venue and obligatory quarantine for the players and officials appears to no longer be possible and the second leg of the Candidates Tournament is most likely going to be pushed back.
It is quite possible that an option of concluding the event online is being considered, having in mind the recent success of European Chess Union in this domain. However, a string of failures of FIDE and its preferred online partner chess.com is still fresh on everyone’s mind.
Would FIDE announce the reschedule, postponement or venue movement anytime soon altogether with explanations or we need to wait for player’s private social media announcements?
Not much time left to be seen, the clock is ticking out and the event is supposed to be continued on 1st of November.
