Karjakin, who was born in a village in the Crimea, played for Ukraine in all country tournaments until 2009. Since then, the former top 10 player has gone through life as a Russian and has regularly expressed patriotism. In 2014, for example, he was an outspoken supporter of the Russian invasion of Crimea.
Karjakin has now reinforced that reputation by posting a number of striking Tweets in recent days. For example, he wrote that the ‘Russian spring’ has started, he accuses the Ukrainian government of protecting war criminals and screens with images of Russians suffering from what he calls ‘Ukrainian bombings’.
The world chess federation FIDE is not pleased with the statements of the former chess prodigy. FIDE has referred Karjakin, who already earned the title of ‘grandmaster’ at the age of 12, to the Ethics and Disciplinary Commission, which will now investigate whether the Russian’s statements will have consequences for his chess career. In the same statement, FIDE condemns the Russian invasion and no events will take place in Russia or Belarus indefinitely.
Karjakin clearly does not like this and continues to tweet despite FIDE’s appeal to him to keep quiet. “I can also tell you about a woman from the Donbas region (the region where Russia invaded Ukraine, ed.) who lost her legs in Ukrainian bombings. She called her husband just before she died. Do I have to send the images?”
Russian athletes
The investigation will have to show what sanctions are attached to those statements, but the Russian cannot count on much support from the chess world. For example, his compatriot Ian Nepomniachi, who lost the world title to Norwegian Magnus Carlsen last year, wrote on the day of the invasion that history has known “many black Thursdays”.
,,But this one is blacker than any other Thursday’, said ‘Nepo’. The world champion himself was also heard. ,,Peace is cool† War not exactly,” wrote the Norwegian with a message from a chess site condemning the Russian invasion.
Other Russian athletes have also previously stated that they do not support the Russian invasion. This is how tennis player wrote Andrej Rublev after a won tennis match in English ‘no war, please’ on a camera. His female colleague and compatriot Anastasiya Pavlyuchenkova also strongly condemned the invasion in a strong statement on Twitter.