This is probably the best that could happen to him and other relevant Russian athletes: If allowed to play will be exposed to a myriad of blood-thirsty journal

This is probably the best that could happen to him and other relevant Russian athletes: If allowed to play will be exposed to a myriad of blood-thirsty journalists asking a chess player to talk about war. Would be asked, required and pressed thousands of times to speak against it or to clarity their position about it. Anything that he says will be politicized. 1) Can choose to talk against the war and Putin, be cheered for a few days and return to Russia, where will be immediately put in jail and silenced, or end in the ever increasing list of people assassinated in this last decades. Or face retaliation against their families... Losing option. 2) Or can choose to say that Putin is a genius and the war is necessary. Will alienate their fan-base, friends and sponsors and end this international career. The championship could be boycotted by furious people. So. Losing option again. Everybody loses (except Putin). At least will not root in a jail. 3) Trying to remain neutral wouldn't work. Remaining silent in the middle of a genocide is the same as supporting it. And their words will be most probably cherry-picked by journalists to make it appear as supporting one or the other option. So the only wining situation is not being allowed to play. Losing a championship or two and keeping a low profile for a while. Low price to pay for keeping his career and life relatively unscathed. Is not his fault if he can't be used as living advertising for the politics of Putin. Will not earn the contempt of other chess masters or the hate of the fans for an parallel event that can't control and wasn't looking for.