Reactions on FIDE apology letter

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The Indian capital New Delhi hosts the third leg of the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix 2022/23 series. The event takes place from March 24 to April 5, and was supposed to kick off with the first round on Saturday, 25th of March.

However, the first round was postponed due to organizational issues which led to withdrawal of one player. The 12-player round-robin tournament got shortened to 11-player format as GM Zhansaya Abdumalik withdrew from the event after bad reception at the airport.

FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich sent an apology letter to the players. In a FIDE tweet a blame is passed onto the local organizer: “The FIDE President, Arkady Dvorkovich, has apologised to the participants for the local organisers’ errors regarding the Women’s Grand Prix tournament in India, which led to one player’s withdrawal.”

This “blame game”, the withdrawal of Abdumalik, together with the earlier withdrawal of Ukrainian players Mariya and Anna Muzychuk, sparked an outrage among the chess fans on Twitter. Some reactions below:

3 players withdrew though, why aren't the Muzychuks mentioned https://t.co/V13kYbiAHe

— MrDodgy (adventurer) (@ChessProblem) March 25, 2023

As a fan of chess and insincere apologies this is my super bowl.

"…the local organizers errors" 😙🤌 Amazing!

Only apologizing for 1 of the 3 that withdrew? 😙🤌 Beautiful!

It's like if my wife cheated on me and apologized for "her handsome personal trainer's errors" https://t.co/Gs4gXxKD70

— NoJoke (@NoJokeChris) March 25, 2023

If there is no FIDE official at the venue, no FIDE official can mess up! pic.twitter.com/UqsFhMTNt5

— Patricia Llaneza (@PattyLlaneza) March 25, 2023

Who among your top paid execs were present in Delhi? Why hotel, breakfast and transportation were not managed by them? And blaming local organizers for your own ineptitude is unprofessional. It is a FIDE event, so, take full responsibility.

— Nabarun Choudhury (@c_nabarun) March 25, 2023