More 2025 FIDE Sexual Harassment

As always, opinions are my own, not those of Lichess.org.

GM Moroni from Italy recounts that near the Mitropa Cup, two Team Slovakia players engaged in sexual harassment. FM Stevik and IM Jablonicky entered unlocked rooms of two women from the Slovakian women's teams. After gambling and waking everyone up, they taxied to a different hotel and with a key entered rooms of Hungarian women's teams, who threatened to call the police. (These allegations sound credible, as they are specific and much more plausible than possibilities of a fabrication; and after GM Yoo incidents I think of FIDE being reactive rather than proactive -- it's not as if FIDE immediately intervenes to protect women after one or two harassment incidents, esp. not before a formal complaint is submitted to the correct committee.)

I carefully re-read FIDE Laws of Chess, and I do not see any rule requiring teams or players to continue playing in such situations. There is a rule that a player who accepted an invitation must play, but surely in the context of a team tournament that rule need not apply. You can see as clearly as I can that in round 9, Jablonicky was allowed to play, and did play a game.

Playing a game in a team tournament requires consent from the players, it requires consent from the team captains, and at some level it even requires consent from FIDE members who organize and direct the international event and submit the game results to be rated. You can listen to Moroni recount some timeline details. As of this writing, I haven't seen FIDE rule on a formal complaint about these two players bringing the game into disrepute with their decisions (although from GM Moroni I hear that FIDE is informed).

Image credit: Wim van 't Einde