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chess

Chess Grandmaster Quits Abruptly During Game, Fueling Cheating Scandal

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Chess World Champion Magnus Carlsen abruptly quit an online chess match against Grandmaster Hans Niemann Monday, sending shockwaves throughout the chess community. Commentators are speculating that Carlsen believes Niemann cheated during their previous match.

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ESPN

ESPN To Air International Sporting Events Amid Coronavirus Concerns In The US

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This week, ESPN aired a Korea baseball contest as part of an agreement between the United States and Korea that claims the US’ sports network will air up to six KBO games a week. Those who watched the first aired game this past week may have noticed a slew of technical difficulties that occurred throughout the game, most of which were actually expected. 

Since all professional sports in the US are paused indefinitely amid the coronavirus pandemic, sports fans all over the country are craving some sort of entertainment to turn on while they pass the time in quarantine. This was the main motivating factor in the collaboration between KBO and ESPN; and the other live sporting events that are beginning to start up again around the world which ESPN will also be attempting to air on their network. 

“I think there was an absolute hunger and desire to watch live sports programming. This is the time of year where baseball is played. And if you can provide that meal to a hungry audience, they’re going to eat it,” ESPN announcer Karl Ravech said. 

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The United States is the most infected country in the world currently, with over 1.3 million positive cases of Covid-19 and over 78,000 deaths, there’s no telling when we’ll fully return to a life of normalcy here. Luckily, other countries around the world, mainly in Asia, that are seeing a flattening of the curve are beginning to bring some sporting competitions back for online viewing. 

As previously mentioned, South Korea’s baseball league began playing again this week, while Taiwanese baseball began last month. There’s been some pressure put onto Europe as their lockdown policies begin to life, as fans are craving the country restarts their European Soccer season, as well as Australia for their Rugby season. However, Australia did recently announce that their National Rugby League would resume play at the end of May; Australian Football is also set to begin again in June. 

The goal worldwide is to provide streams of these global sports leagues and offer a sense of normalcy to those of us who are unsure when sports will begin again in our country. For the recent KBO game that was initially aired on ESPN this week, Americans watched two opposing Korean baseball teams that they knew nothing about go head-to-head, and minus a few minor differences in game regulation, the game was essentially like any other one. 

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Fans reacted positively to hearing commentary from Ravech and Eduardo Perez, the ESPN announcers who they all know and love. Hopefully, having their commentary over international sporting events will hold everyone over, because as of right now it’s totally unclear when the MLB season here in America will begin. There’s been some talk to sequester all 30 MLB teams to Arizona to play games in one crowd-less arena for the whole season, but having all of those players temporarily move to Arizona for an entire baseball season during a pandemic has made that plan complicated. 

“We have tried to be cautious about trying to go too soon, based on what the public health situation is. I think it’s incumbent upon us to turn over every stone to try to play the game in 2020 if there’s any way we can in the environment,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said.

Players in KBO are required to wash their hands and use hand sanitizer often throughout the games/practices, and also must receive daily temperature checks. Every player is also, for the most part, required to wear a mask and gloves (medical gloves not baseball gloves), except when on the field. Social distancing measures still must be put in place as much as possible, although it’s quite hard in any multiplayer sport to keep your distance. 

If any player tests positive, the entire league will be placed into quarantine for 14 days and the league will then review if it needs to be suspended or not. 

For now, it’s unclear when Americans will be able to turn on ESPN and see a normal jam-packed stadium cheering for their favorite teams again. In the meantime, sports fans all over the world are opening up their internet browsers and either watching past highlights, or doing their research on Korean baseball.

Olympics

Russia Has Been Banned From The Olympics Following Anti-Doping Scandal

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Russia has officially been banned from all major international sporting competitions for the next four years over non-compliance violations made apparent by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). This ban means that Russia is no longer allowed to compete in major sporting events coming up such as the World Cup, and more notably the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. 

The ban’s initial case review was in response to Russian Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov exposing Russia’s Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) for dozens of falsified drug reports/cover-ups. Rodchenkov was the former head of Moscow’s anti-doping laboratory before he took on the “whistle-blower” title, exposing the lab for using a systematic doping program with false reports which benefited over 1,000 athletes between 2011 and 2015, according to CNN.

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Russian Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov holds a press conference in Moscow

“Finally, Russia’s many doping and obstruction sins will now get some of the punishment they richly deserve. For far too long, Russia has weaponized doping fraud and state-sponsored criminal activity as a tool of foreign policy. When doping conspiracies become a crime under the Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act, cheaters will be in U.S. prisons and clean athletes will be better protected,” said Rodchenkov via his lawyer Jim Walden, in a statement sent to CNN.

The Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act has been adopted in the U.S. in 2018 after the initial whistle-blower comments were made. The act itself criminalizes international doping fraud conspiracies, such as the one that has now ignited a full on Russian ban from international sporting events. The announcement of the ban gives RUSADA 21 days to either accept the ban or take the matter to court, more specifically the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The CAS is an institution “independent of any sports organization which facilitate the settlement of sports-related disputes through mediation by means of procedural rules adapted to the specific needs of the sports world.” In simpler terms, it’s sports court.

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President of the Russian Olympic Committee

Russia is expected to announce its decision regarding the ban as soon as possible, but it’s expected that they will take the matter to court out of fairness to all of Russia’s athletes who legitimately are clean and didn’t need to cheat the system to get ahead. The ban itself, however, wouldn’t actually ban any legit clean athletes; it would just mean that they have to compete as neutral and not under the Russian flag. 

The harsh punishment is being dealt by the WADA due to massive inconsistencies in data that the WADA received in January 2019. The data itself didn’t line up with reports from a Moscow lab, where Rodchenkov worked, and showed how RUSADA wasn’t abiding by the official anti-doping policies of the WADA. 

“Russia was afforded every opportunity to get its house in order and rejoin the global anti-doping community for the good of its athletes and of the integrity of sport, but it chose instead to continue in its stance of deception and denial. As a result, the WADA ExCo has responded in the strongest possible terms, while protecting the rights of Russian athletes that can prove that they were not involved and did not benefit from these fraudulent acts,” said WADA President Sir Craig Reedie in a statement.