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The 2022 Chess Olympiad Scheduled for Minsk
October 3, 2020
The 45th Chess Olympiad was scheduled for Minsk, Belarus in 2022
https://forum.chesstalk.com/forum/ch...-minsk-belarus
But this from Peter Doggers at chess.com:
The International Chess Federation has reopened the bid for the 2022 Chess Olympiad. According to FIDE, the Belarus organizers failed to perform their organizational and financial duties.
2022 Olympiad not in Minsk
The 2020 Moscow Olympiad has been moved to the summer of 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. The next Olympiad is planned for 2022, but it's now unclear where it will be held.
The 2022 Olympiad was scheduled to be held in Minsk after the Belarus organizers won the bid, which was approved by the General Assembly in October 2018. This has now been overturned by the FIDE Council.
The reason given by FIDE is a breach of financial duties: the Belarusian Ministry of Sports could not guarantee advanced payments and insurance. Chess.com's request to make more details available, such as their contract with the Belarus organizers, was rejected by FIDE.
"We should note a violation of certain financial obligations on the part of the organizers," FIDE's legal advisor Aleksandr Martynov wrote in an email. "Out of respect for the organizers, we would not like to specify the amounts, but these are quite significant violations."
According to Martynov, talks between FIDE and the Belarus organizers were ongoing for months to no avail: "FIDE has been conducting negotiations in good faith for several months, but, unfortunately, they have not been successful. The violations and their significance are not disputed by the organizers."
It was FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich who made the decision to reopen the bid, which he reported to the FIDE Council. The FIDE delegates will be informed at the next General Assembly, scheduled to be held online in the second week of December 2020.
Besides the 2022 Olympiad itself, which is expected to take place in August 2022, the new bidding process includes the organization of the 2022 FIDE Congress. Furthermore, the 2020 FIDE Women’s World Cup (postponed to April 2021) and the 2021 FIDE World Cup (planned for September 2021) need new organizers as well.
Combined with the COVID-19 pandemic, the ongoing political crisis makes it hard to organize large international sports events in Belarus. Over the last eight weeks, the country has seen political demonstrations and protests since President Alexander Lukashenko has claimed victory in the presidential elections in early August, while opposition candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya has claimed to have received 60–70 percent of the votes.
Speaking to Chess.com, FIDE President Dvorkovich emphasized that the financial problems the Belarus organizers are facing are hardly related to the political unrest. "Of course, it doesn't help, but this is definitely not the primary reason. Already early summer, before the elections, they told us they could not organize the events."
See the whole article at:
https://www.chess.com/news/view/bela...chess-olympiad
For Minsk jokes see:
https://forum.chesstalk.com/forum/ch...-olympiad-2022
October 3, 2020
The 45th Chess Olympiad was scheduled for Minsk, Belarus in 2022
https://forum.chesstalk.com/forum/ch...-minsk-belarus
But this from Peter Doggers at chess.com:
The International Chess Federation has reopened the bid for the 2022 Chess Olympiad. According to FIDE, the Belarus organizers failed to perform their organizational and financial duties.
2022 Olympiad not in Minsk
The 2020 Moscow Olympiad has been moved to the summer of 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. The next Olympiad is planned for 2022, but it's now unclear where it will be held.
The 2022 Olympiad was scheduled to be held in Minsk after the Belarus organizers won the bid, which was approved by the General Assembly in October 2018. This has now been overturned by the FIDE Council.
The reason given by FIDE is a breach of financial duties: the Belarusian Ministry of Sports could not guarantee advanced payments and insurance. Chess.com's request to make more details available, such as their contract with the Belarus organizers, was rejected by FIDE.
"We should note a violation of certain financial obligations on the part of the organizers," FIDE's legal advisor Aleksandr Martynov wrote in an email. "Out of respect for the organizers, we would not like to specify the amounts, but these are quite significant violations."
According to Martynov, talks between FIDE and the Belarus organizers were ongoing for months to no avail: "FIDE has been conducting negotiations in good faith for several months, but, unfortunately, they have not been successful. The violations and their significance are not disputed by the organizers."
It was FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich who made the decision to reopen the bid, which he reported to the FIDE Council. The FIDE delegates will be informed at the next General Assembly, scheduled to be held online in the second week of December 2020.
Besides the 2022 Olympiad itself, which is expected to take place in August 2022, the new bidding process includes the organization of the 2022 FIDE Congress. Furthermore, the 2020 FIDE Women’s World Cup (postponed to April 2021) and the 2021 FIDE World Cup (planned for September 2021) need new organizers as well.
Combined with the COVID-19 pandemic, the ongoing political crisis makes it hard to organize large international sports events in Belarus. Over the last eight weeks, the country has seen political demonstrations and protests since President Alexander Lukashenko has claimed victory in the presidential elections in early August, while opposition candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya has claimed to have received 60–70 percent of the votes.
Speaking to Chess.com, FIDE President Dvorkovich emphasized that the financial problems the Belarus organizers are facing are hardly related to the political unrest. "Of course, it doesn't help, but this is definitely not the primary reason. Already early summer, before the elections, they told us they could not organize the events."
See the whole article at:
https://www.chess.com/news/view/bela...chess-olympiad
For Minsk jokes see:
https://forum.chesstalk.com/forum/ch...-olympiad-2022