Israel will not be allowed to participate in next year’s chess Olympiad in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) because the World Chess Federation’s General Assembly decided last year to hold the tournament in Dubai, which has since refused entry permits to Israeli players. The UAE said it did not grant the permits because Israel and the UAE are in a state of conflict. The discussion of this ban was a major topic of discussion at the Federation’s conference last week in the Austrian city of Graz.
Israel Belfer, the Israeli delegate to the conference, said Israel is realistic enough to know that it will not be able to break the ban for 1986. But, he said, “we want the principle reviewed that never again in the future could a Federation event take place without Federation members being granted visas.”
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