Paul Goble
Staunton, Jan. 2 – FIDE, the international chess federation, reports that in 2023, 104 chess masters from the Russian Federation became citizens of other countries, a loss to the country of origin all the more profound in its emotional impact because of the pride Russians take in being the world’s leading chess power.
Clearly, most of them who did so were driven to that step by the consequences of Putin’s war in Ukraine as in 2021, the last full year before the start of the expanded version of the conflict, only ten gave up Russian citizenship (m.sports.ru/chess/1115746343-104-rossijskix-shaxmatista-smenili-grazhdanstvo-v-2023-m-pyatero-peres.html).
There was a slight movement in the other direction with five giving up other citizenships and taking Russian: two from Ukraine and one each from Australia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. But these were all ranked far lower than the Russians who gave up their citizenship of birth, six of whom were in the top 100 players in the world.
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