Nona Gaprindashvili, five times world champion and Georgia's best-known woman chess player, has strong objections to the official stance. "The position of my country's top and its Foreign Ministry baffles me. Don't they see it tarnishes my country's public image?" she said to Novosti.
The games will give central authorities a good chance to make peace with the autonomy, she emphatically added.
"I am sure the contestants will not run even the slightest danger in Batumi. All present goings-on look like settling political scores," remarked Miss Gaprindashvili.
In yesterday's written message to Kirsan Ilumzhinov, FIDE President, Salome Zurabishvili, Georgia's Foreign Minister, insistently called the World Chess Federation to change the venue of the contest, scheduled for May 27 into June 7. She highlighted Adzhar instability and presence of paramilitary units, which might endanger the contestants.
Miss Zurabishvili forwarded similar messages to all international organisations and the Foreign Ministers of countries with which Georgia has established diplomatic relations.
Salome Zurabishvili, ethnic Georgian and French Ambassador to her ancestral country, received dual citizenship by President Mikhail Saakashvili's special decree to accept the portfolio.
