when he refused to play an Israeli—the first Iranian ever expelled from an international event for refusing to play an Israeli.
Maghami, 26, drew Ehud Sachar as his opponent in the fourth round of the Corsica Masters being played this week on the French island of Corsica in the Mediterranean.
Leo Battesti, the tournament organizer, said Maghami told him he could not play the Israeli for political reasons. Battesti said he had no choice but to expel Maghami from the competition.
In international events of all sports, competitors are barred by competition rules from refusing to play against someone for reasons of politics, race, nationality, gender or ethnicity.
The Islamic Republic, however, has a rule forbidding its players from competing against Israelis in any sport or contest. Iranians have routinely phoned in sick when they have drawn Israeli opponents and international sports organizers have looked the other way even though they knew full well the sickness was political.
According to Battesti, however, Maghami did not plead illness and honestly told Battesti his refusal was political.
Battesti said, “Politics has no place in competition at this level. I was forced to expel Ehsan Ghaem Maghami, who unfortunately refused to change his mind. I had no other choice.”
It remains to be seen if international chess authorities will bar Maghami from future competitions or apply the expulsion only to this one competition.
While other Iranians have pleaded illness when drawing an Israeli opponent, the failure to appear usually eliminates them from the competition. In many sports where Iranians are major figures, like wrestling, a loss usually means elimination and failure to appear equals a loss.
Iran quietly dropped its ban on facing Israelis for the 2010 winter Olympics, presumably thinking that no one would notice because Iranians wouldn’t finish high anyway. But one sports writer did notice an Iranian competing in the ski jump beside an Israeli and wrote about it. Iran re-imposed the rule after the Olympics.
Last February, Maghami set a Guinness record for simultaneous chess matches by facing more than 600 players over 25 hours and winning more than 85 percent of his games. Ironically, he took that record away from an Israeli, Alik Gershon.
In Corsica, more than 800 players from 30 countries were gathered for the chess match. The players included about 40 Grandmasters and International Masters of chess. Maghami is a Grandmaster.
