Candidates 2020 - FIDE declares "safety is our priority"

Once more, FIDE works in dark ways. With a global pandemic state, full countries lock down, players from high risk areas... what was they thinking? UEFA stopped Euro2020. I can say that action is somewhat costly and unthinkable than candidates... And they stopped it, no hesitation... FIDE should have delayed the tournament. I really hope nothing will happen there, namely for the players, our idols. It would be a shame for FIDE and for chess world.

Welcome to my chess laboratory where safety is #1 priority.

Hi @lichess . Thanks for the article. Surely you can't fail to see the irony (if you want to be charitable, but the word 'hypocrisy' comes to mind as well) behind the admittedly valid criticisms you level against FIDE, the ECU, Nigel Short, Emil Sutovsky, Arkady Dvorkovich, etc, etc, but *not* declining to have a "Lichess representative" at the event? Let's hope against reason that somehow none of the people present at the Candidates is carrying the virus. If that happens to not be the case, I hope your representative isn't one of the unlucky people that gets sick there.

"Safety is our top priority," they're all bunched up with 2000 ppl in a room.

FIDE is a greedy organisation and this is the source of not stopping the competition just yet. Trying to sqeeze every last drop out of what can be done.

I'm with Nigel Short on this one. The author of this blog sounds like a pansy.

@Hibernating You make a somewhat valid point. Keep in mind, however, that lichess isn't as big and powerful as say chess.com to say "No" to such an important tournament. They are just pawns in this game.

Did FIDE really decide to go ahead with this tournament? I ask because it seems more like something Donald Trump would do.

@Hibernating Not a very good point. Lichess didn't criticise FIDE, ECU, Sutovsky or Short for going there themselves but for organising a competition under these circumstances, which can facilitate the spread of the virus not only among the participants but to the whole local society/country, ignoring even the host country's Ministry of Sports decision to cancel all international sport events in the country. So it's not about putting one's self at risk but about putting others at risk.

Lichess' decision didn't put any other party at risk. Even their representative is not asked to go there but rather a chess enthusiast who wanted himself to be there and is just facilitated by lichess.

So no irony there, no contradiction.

Grischuk thinks there is a 50% chance the Candidates won't finish. I wouldn't take that as a vote of confidence and FIDE have made themselves look ridiculous. I think Kramnik is right about this, and Radjabov was right to withdraw.

@Loosy I'm not following. It's not clear to me what you mean when you say that Lichess didn't criticize FIDE or the ECU for "going there themselves," and if you reread my post, you'll see that's not what I'm saying either. To speak to what I believe is your point, that "it's not about putting one's self at risk but about putting others at risk", under the present circumstances, the latter (putting others at risk), is done by the former (putting one's self at risk -- i.e. by being among the ~2000 individuals at the Candidates Tournament). Lichess's decision decidedly did put someone at risk, namely whoever their representative is -- and by extension, if that person happens to be a carrier of the virus, any number of others. Lichess is not the catalyst, but is contributing to the potential for the spread of the virus. It's also not clear to me what you mean when you say that "[e]ven their representative is not asked to go there but rather a chess enthusiast." That individual is both a risk and at risk, irrespective of their identity or motivations for being there.