FSR Vice-President Smagin called Nepomniachtchi’s statement about playing for the national team untimely
Vice-President of the Russian Chess Federation (RCF) Sergey Smagin appreciated the statement of grandmaster Jan Nepomniachtchi about his unwillingness to play for the national team. The words of the functionary are quoted by RBC.
“In my opinion, these are wrong, untimely and unnecessary statements. From my point of view, it was only thanks to the federation that he received total support both in the match with Magnus Carlsen and in the match with Ding Liren,” Smagin said, explaining that thanks to the FSR, Nepomniachtchi found sponsors to participate in both matches for the world title.
The vice president also suggested that the chess player made this statement out of emotion. “These statements are a continuation of the fact that he is basically psychologically unstable, which often fails him,” he added.
On July 21, Nepomniachtchi announced his unwillingness to play for the national team due to relations with the federation. “I don’t want to change sports citizenship. And in general, I do not want to change citizenship. At the same time, I don’t really want to play for the national team in the current relations with the federation, ”the chess player explained.
On April 30, Nepomniachtchi lost to the Chinese Liren in the match for the world title. For the Russian, this was the second attempt to win the world chess crown. In December 2021, he lost to Carlsen with a score of 3.5:7.5.
Source: Lenta
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