For the second consecutive year, Saudi Arabia refused to allow Israeli chess players to participate in an international tournament, but this year the kingdom was penalized and the World Rapid and Blitz Championships have been relocated to St. Petersburg, Russia.
Seven Israelis were barred from participating in the same tournament in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, in 2017.
Israeli chess grandmaster Ilya Smirin and former Israeli Chess Federation spokesman Lior Aizenberg wrote last month to the International Federation of Chess (FIDE), the sport's governing body, seeking assurances that it would not allow host countries to discriminate against Israelis who want to compete.
Their letter was sent with the assistance of the United States-based NGO Lawfare Project, a nonprofit Jewish civil and human rights organization.
It said that the Israeli players' "inability to participate in this tournament was due to FIDE's failure to secure entry visas to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the Israeli nationals and, correspondingly, its failure to guarantee their equal treatment and to protect them against discrimination on the basis of their nationality."
On Sunday, FIDE said it would move the tournament, scheduled for Dec. 25-31, "due to the policy adopted by Saudi organizers."
The decision was made "in spite of the generous financial offer made by Saudi Arabia," FIDE said in a statement.
"FIDE will no longer stage its official events in the countries that deny entry visas and fair treatment to all the eligible players," it said, adding that "officials in Riyadh could not guarantee an entry to representatives of all the national federations who had a right to participate in the event."
Brooke Goldstein, the executive director of the Lawfare Project, said, "We couldn't just sit and wait for FIDE to do the right thing. We are proud to have supported this action which ensures that no chess player will be banned from a tournament because of their nationality."
"It is hard to believe that in 2018, a country could be allowed to host an international event while practicing such blatant discrimination," she went on to say. "But I welcome FIDE's decision to make sure that last year's scandal will not be repeated."
Israeli athletes have frequently had trouble getting visas to enter Arab countries hosting tournaments.
In August, the Tunisian Chess Federation agreed to allow a 7-year-old Israeli girl to take part in the World School Individual Chess Championships in Sousse, Tunisia, in 2019.
Haggai Frank, the deputy chairman of the Israel Chess Federation and Israel's representative in FIDE, told Israel Hayom: "We greatly appreciate the step that was taken on our behalf. … We were also very moved that current World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen announced he would boycott the competition if it bans Israelis."
