Chess Players Quarantined in Russia!
Authorities Forced to Act
News today from Russian paper. Players and the Mayor have been in quarantine since the 16th of March! Will the Yakaterinburg Candidates Tournament also soon be closed down by the Russian Authorities?
“The chess tournament that included young players from several countries ended in scandal and the isolation of more than 100 people. Among them the city mayor.
The tournament was held as planned despite warnings from local authorities. On the same day as the event started, regional Governor Andrey Chibis announced that all mass public events that included participation of foreigners must be cancelled.
Still, about 100 young people on the 13th March sat down by the chess boards as part of the Polar Gambit 2020, an open international tournament for young people. On the list of participants were youngsters from Estonia, France and Ireland.
Infected player
As the event came to a close, it became known that one of the players, a young man from Ireland, had contracted the coronavirus. As he was about to leave the Russian Arctic city on the 16th March he was taken from the check-in area at the local airport and subsequently isolated at the regional hospital.
Following his positive testing for the virus, all participants were put in isolation. That included Murmansk City Mayor Yevgeny Nikora, who had been shortly at the event to welcome participants.
Nikora was placed in total isolation at the Murmansk Regional Hospital. The same was at case with a journalist, a member of the local parliament and two of the event organizers, newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda reports.
Hospital isolation
Among the latter is Andranik Musatyan, the Head of the Murmansk Chess Federation. Musatyan is not happy with the reaction from the health authorities and argues that all participants should have been put in hospital confinement.
«Hundred people were at the tournament, but none of them were put under observation. For some reason only we are here, all the rest are in their homes,» he complains.
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