Switzerland denies Russian grandmaster visit Geneva

Switzerland has refused to issue an entry visa to the Russian grandmaster, the 12th world chess champion Anatoly Karpov, to attend the demonstration of the film "World Champion" at the UN headquarters in Geneva, which was scheduled for September 26.

The announcement came from Gennady Gatilov, Permanent Representative of Russia to the UN Office and other international organizations in Geneva this week.

“We wanted Anatoly Karpov to come and made the most vigorous and necessary efforts. But at the last moment, unfortunately, the Swiss authorities did not issue him an entry visa,” TASS quotes Gatilov as saying.

The Russian film “The World Champion” (2021, directed by Alexei Sidorov) tells the story of a 1978 chess match for the world champion title in the Philippines between a Soviet grandmaster and the current world champion Karpov and grandmaster challenger Viktor Korchnoi, who emigrated to Switzerland.