LAUSANNE: One of the world's top chess players has been banned from competitions for six months over his support for Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Russia's Sergey Karjakin, a former challenger for the world title, expressed "complete support" for Russian President Vladimir Putin in an open letter shortly after Russia sent troops into Ukraine last month and has posted regularly on social media in support of Russia's campaign.
A disciplinary panel of the International Chess Federation, known as FIDE, ruled Karjakin had broken a rule against tainting the reputation of the game of chess or the organizations that administer it. He can appeal the decision but told Russian news agency Tass he does not plan to do that.
The 32-year-old represented Ukraine until 2009 before switching allegiance to Russia and was born in Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.
He was at one time the youngest player to achieve the title of grandmaster and unsuccessfully challenged world champion, Magnus Carlsen, in 2016, losing on a rapid tie-break.