Vladimir Fedoseev

Slovenian GM

“They revoked all my Russian titles that I had. Was it expected? I can say that I found out about it from the newspapers. I woke up in the morning and saw messages: ‘Did you know they revoked all your titles today?’ I could imagine something like that might happen, but I only realized it after the fact.

It doesn’t affect me at all. This is purely their internal Russian matter. I don’t see how it concerns me. It’s their issue — the Ministry of Sport and the Russian Chess Federation probably know why it’s happening.

And honestly, let’s be real, these Russian titles… The question of how much they matter compared to international titles doesn’t even come up. They have no relation to international titles at all. What are they related to? That’s something they can explain themselves — why it’s so ‘prestigious’ to be a Grandmaster of Russia or a Master of Sport of Russia. To me, that is unclear right now.

For me, this was mostly recognition of my achievements. These things wouldn’t happen if people in the chess world didn’t acknowledge certain strengths in me.

Overall, it just surprised me a little.”