A 16-year-old Iranian chess grandmaster wants to change his nationality over the country's policy of keeping away from competitions where contenders from Israel take part, Iranian media reported on Tuesday.
According to the head of Iran's Chess Federation cited by Tasnim News Agency, Alireza Firouzja was eager to participate in an upcoming contest in Russia, but not under an Iranian flag.
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Tehran opted to ban the 16-year-old, who is ranked second globally among junior players by the International Chess Federation, from participating in the event as Israeli competitors were also taking part.
Firouzja, however, would have none of that, apparently, and is planning to compete under either the US or the French flag.
Earlier, in October, two Iranian chess players refused to face off with their Israeli opponents, nixing the scheduled matches at the World Junior Chess Championship.
On a note more similar, Iranian judoka Saeid Mollaei received political asylum in Germany over Iran's judo federation similarly nixing competitions with Israeli involvement.
Later on, Mollaei shared a bromance moment with Israel's judo champion Sagi Muki, exchanging friendly messages on Instagram.
This article was originally published by i24NEWS.
