From the Toronto Star:
Canada’s chess federation has filed a formal complaint over the treatment of a Canadian grandmaster at a signature event just minutes before he was to play one of the biggest matches of his career.
Anton Kovalyov, 25, said in a Facebook post he pulled out of the World Cup in Republic of Georgia last weekend because an organizer complained to him about his shorts and called him a gypsy.
The Chess Federation of Canada has protested against Kovalyov’s treatment to FIDE, the World Chess Federation, as well as to the organizers of the $1.6-million event.
Kovalyov said an organizer berated him about his shorts just minutes before his third-round match.
The Ukrainian-born Montrealer, currently a university student in Texas, had worn the shorts in previous rounds without incident.
"The issue were not the shorts, but how I was treated," he wrote.I have a soft spot for the the organiser in question, Zurab Azmaiparashvili, because he was one of the last people to play my favourite opening, the Modern Defence, at the top level. But is fair to say he is a controversial figure.
Oh, and the Daily Telegraph reminds us that a Hungarian player complained about Nigel Short's shorts at an event in Serbia in 1987.
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