Spanish
Bilbao (EFE).- The organization of the 40th Open Basque Country chess tournament has confirmed that the seven Israeli players who were registered to participate in the tournament that begins this Friday in the Biscayan town of Sestao have withdrawn.
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Last Tuesday, the intention of three of them not to participate in the event was already known, and it was early Friday morning when the organizers of the Sestao Chess Club were able to confirm that none of them will be at the Las Llanas front, the venue of the tournament. The competition will bring together around 240 players from 32 countries from four continents. The Sestao Chess Club, organizer of the tournament, had invited the chess players from Israel registered "in the first place not to participate in the tournament and if they did, to play under the FIDE flag". In a statement from the Basque entity issued last Sunday, in which it condemned "Israel's genocide in Gaza", it was also reported that all the players "rejected both proposals" and the response of the International Chess Federation "was forceful, obliging the tournament to respect the rules governing FIDE". "Otherwise, the Open Basque Country would lose its official recognition, would not award category points to its participants and would practically be doomed to the suspension of the tournament with more than a hundred foreign players with their trips and accommodations already paid," they explained. "The possible cancellation that would even seriously endanger the continuity of the Sestao Chess Club. That is why the players from Israel, complying with those FIDE rules, appear in the official lists represented by their flag," the organization clarified then.
