“People were threatening us...” — Nepo Was Forced to Change Russian Flag at a Tournament in France

Yannick Gozzoli

French GM

“In France, there’s a chess federation rule that prohibits Russian players from participating in French tournaments. And in that case, French tournaments wouldn’t have official status.

We could list Nepo as a FIDE-flagged player, but he’d still be listed as Russian in the FIDE database. The problem is, if, for example, I simply change his flag so he plays in France under the FIDE flag, someone would check it on the FIDE website and see that he’s still listed under a Russian code.

We received threats. They told us outright: ‘If this happens, we’ll report you’. And that jeopardized the tournament’s official status, the rating system, and everything else. People were threatening us.

We had to find a solution. And Nepo said very clearly: ‘There’s no way I’m changing my code.’ The federation couldn’t do anything. It was too late. Although their regulations are essentially outdated because the Olympic Committee voted to allow it. At the Roland-Garros tennis tournament, a Russian woman won.

So, we had to ask Ian to change his code, something he didn’t necessarily have the right to do. He sent us his passport and other documents, and they were able to confirm that he was indeed ready to do it. I think now, looking back, Ian might be thinking: ‘Maybe I shouldn’t have done that’, considering how many ranking points he lost.

It was quite a complex experience for him.”