All posts tagged: Sutovsky

No fine or sanction for Koneru Humpy for Candidates withdrawal, says FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky | Chess News

No fine or sanction for Koneru Humpy for Candidates withdrawal, says FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky | Chess News

Published by Webster

4 min readApr 7, 2026 06:11 PM IST FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky has said that India’s top female chess player Koneru Humpy will not be fined or sanctioned for her last-minute withdrawal from the Candidates chess tournament at Cyprus. Humpy had pulled out of the prestigious tournament just days before the event citing security concerns related to Israel and the USA’s war with Iran. Humpy’s concerns were rooted in an incident at the start of the war when a drone hit a British airbase in Cyprus. Humpy was replaced by Ukrainian grandmaster Anna Muzychuk. The official FIDE regulations noted that any player who withdraws from the Candidates without a valid reason after signing the contract could be fined up to €10,000. Sutovsky said that Humpy would not face any sanctions. “We are not going to find her or take her under any sanctions because quitting the tournament was not based just on nothing, it was based on some real concerns. But I think it was just taken out of proportion,” Sutovsky told Chessbase India in …

FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky confirms Candidates chess tournament will go ahead as planned | Chess News

FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky confirms Candidates chess tournament will go ahead as planned | Chess News

Published by Parlour News

3 min readMar 15, 2026 11:44 PM IST FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky has confirmed that the Candidates tournament will go ahead as scheduled despite a drone hitting a UK RAF airbase in Cyprus earlier this month. The Candidates tournament, which is held to finalise a challenger to the world champion, will be held in Cap St Georges Hotel and Resort, a five-star coastal venue near Cyprus’ Paphos. The drone was said to be launched by Iran’s proxy Hezbollah after Israel and USA started a war against Iran. Cyprus is a Mediterranean island flanked by Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and Israel. Of the 16 players who will compete in the Candidates and the Women’s Candidates events, there are four Indian grandmasters in action: Praggnanandhaa competing in the Candidates event to earn the right to challenge D Gukesh while Koneru Humpy, Vaishali Rameshbabu and Divya Deshmukh are competing in the Women’s Candidates event to earn the right to fight against Ju Wenjun in the Women’s World Championship. However, despite the attack at a British base earlier this month, …

After Magnus Carlsen comments, FIDE’s Emil Sutovsky says ratings spot for Candidates could be eliminated

After Magnus Carlsen comments, FIDE’s Emil Sutovsky says ratings spot for Candidates could be eliminated

Published by Webster

Like past editions of the Candidates, the race to qualify for the eight-player event has gone down to the wire with multiple players trying to scramble to secure a spot in the event. Like previous editions, there was some controversy about the way players earned the ratings spot to the Candidates, which is given to the player who is rated highest in the FIDE rating list but has not qualified through other pathways like the FIDE World Cup, the Grand Swiss and the FIDE Circuit. Now, FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky has said that he will table a proposal to eliminate the ratings spot pathway altogether from the next world chess championship cycle. The Candidates is the second-most prestigious tournament in classical chess, an eight-player event that finalises the candidate to challenge the world champion. With World No 1 Magnus Carlsen not interested in playing in the Candidates or the World Championship, Hikaru Nakamura earned the rating spot. But due to a FIDE regulation on the number of games a player has to play in a …

‘Removing women-only events would kill Women’s Chess’: FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky

‘Removing women-only events would kill Women’s Chess’: FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky

Published by Webster

The debate over the relevance of women-only titles and tournaments in chess has been ongoing for several months, with various grandmasters voicing their opinions. Most recently, FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky defended the continuation of such events, claiming that removing them would deprive women players of critical development opportunities. “If we were to remove all the possibilities to compete in women-only events, if we were to remove the possibility to support travel and so on, I think we would deprive many of these talents of opportunity under a false pretence that we will try to prove that women can grow in open tournaments better than they can by competing in women-only events,” Sutovsky said in an interview on FIDE’s official YouTube channel. According to Sutovsky, while top women players previously reached a rating of 2500 at ages 15-17, today only a few are rated above 2400 by that age. Currently, no female player apart from Hou Yifan has crossed the 2600 mark in recent years. “It is also important to rely on real data and not …

FIDE vs players war heats up as Hikaru Nakamura hits out at Emil Sutovsky

FIDE vs players war heats up as Hikaru Nakamura hits out at Emil Sutovsky

Published by Webster

World No 2 Hikaru Nakamura has lashed out at FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky for “personal insults” aimed at him in a long tweet posted on X by Sutovsky recently. In a video posted on his YouTube handle, Hikaru Nakamura called out Sutovsky’s long tweet where the FIDE official took potshots at the American GM. Some of the world’s most prominent players and FIDE have recently argued over the upcoming Freestyle Chess Grand Slam tour, with players like Magnus Carlsen and Nakamura even contemplating pulling out of the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championship in New York. READ MORE: Random piece positions, 960 possible starts: What is freestyle chess, which led to Magnus Carlsen clashing with FIDE? “I’m not the one creating this (the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam tour). So I find this really bizarre that I am the one he chooses to attack. I’m not spearheading this. This is being spearheaded by Magnus Carlsen and Jan Henric Buettner. This is a personal insult,” Hikaru Nakamura said in the video. “I don’t know why he has …