Lausanne Court ruled on 22nd April
The second and final hearing of the court case of the Turkish Chess Federation against ECU was held in Lausanne/Switzerland on 30 March 2009. On 22 April the Court decided as follows:
1. The claim of the Turkish Chess Federation was partly acknowledged.
2. The decisions of the ECU Board regarding the European Individual Championships (men and women) 2009, the European Club Cup (men and women) 2009 and the European Youth Championship 2009, are canceled.
3. The Turkish Chess Federation has to pay court fees of CHF 3,686, ECU the amount of CHF 3,729.
4. ECU has to reimburse to the Turkish Chess Federation costs of CHF 6,843.
5. All other final motions of the Turkish Chess Federation (including the claim of CHF 50,000) were rejected.
The ECU Board will ask the court for a written statement of reasons. Thereafter it has to be decided whether an appeal will be lodged. (ECU Circular Letter No. 04/2009)
President of the Turkish Chess Federation Ali Nihat Yazıcı issued an open letter in connection with the Court ruling. The letter is posted on the Turkish Chess Federation website.
President of the European Chess Union Boris Kutin in his comment for Chessdom.com briefly stated that “Court decision is shocking for chess players” and added that “Mr.Yazıcı’s only interest is to build himself a portrait”. The ECU Board will issue an official statement upon receiving all formal documents from the Court.
