24-09-2014, 07:44 PM
From an interview with Moshe Slav, presidnt of the Israeli Chess Federation, given to chess-news.ru
"The state allocated money for the event. I called the Chancery of the President explaining this is an important issue... Jerusalem, our capital, is the city of all religions. The entire Europe, the best players will visit it to play chess. It's a spiritual city which spiritally inspires a lot of people; everyone will like the city of culture.
...We want to have two free days at the event, so people will be able to visit holy places - Jerusalem, Nazareth, the dead sea... There will be different opportunities."
Thanks Graham, I'd forgotten the football analogy.
I'd like to play the European Individual but Jerusalem isn't where I'd want to go to do so, and having an extra day added for 'religious sight-seeing' is a joke. Let players add an extra day or week or month to their trip themselves if this interests them! (It's the first time an extra day has been added.)
Not-withstanding human rights/political/moral problems with playing in Israel, I'd have thought it a financially ridiculous decision for the majority of European players?!
"The state allocated money for the event. I called the Chancery of the President explaining this is an important issue... Jerusalem, our capital, is the city of all religions. The entire Europe, the best players will visit it to play chess. It's a spiritual city which spiritally inspires a lot of people; everyone will like the city of culture.
...We want to have two free days at the event, so people will be able to visit holy places - Jerusalem, Nazareth, the dead sea... There will be different opportunities."
Thanks Graham, I'd forgotten the football analogy.
I'd like to play the European Individual but Jerusalem isn't where I'd want to go to do so, and having an extra day added for 'religious sight-seeing' is a joke. Let players add an extra day or week or month to their trip themselves if this interests them! (It's the first time an extra day has been added.)
Not-withstanding human rights/political/moral problems with playing in Israel, I'd have thought it a financially ridiculous decision for the majority of European players?!
Quote:We need to be careful as a nation that we don't "take sides" in international issues.As a member of FIDE perhaps Robin, but last week's vote further distances Scotland as a 'nation' from having a say in this kind of decision