Three of Israel's seven chess players have dropped out of the Sestao tournament starting this Friday

Three of the seven Israeli players enrolled in the 40th Open Sestao Basque Country, which will be held from 12 to 18 September at the Las Llanas Municipal Fronton in Sestao, have been discharged in the hours leading up to the start of the tournament, as reported by the Open International Basque Country Sestao and the Sestao Chess Club.

The Sestao Chess Club, in repudiation of Israel's "systematic violation of human rights" in Gaza, last week invited Israeli chess players not to participate in the tournament and, if they did, to play under the flag of the FIDE (International Chess Federation), because as an 'open' category, organizers cannot prevent licensed players from participating.

In principle, all Israeli players rejected both proposals, and FIDE warned that if the rules were not respected, the Open Basque Country would lose its official recognition, would not distribute any category points to the participants. The risk of suspending the tournament would be that the travel and accommodation of more than 100 foreign players would be paid for, and the decline would "seriously jeopardize" the continuity of the Sestao Chess Club itself.

In view of this situation, and in accordance with the rules of the FIDE, Israeli players appear on the official lists with their own flag. But the symbols of the gambling hall, in this case the Las Llanas Municipal Fronton, are the exclusive responsibility of the tournament, and therefore the organizing committee decided that there will be no flag at the tables and facilities where the gamesare to be played, only from the Autonomous Communities where they are represented, and a Palestinian flagas a "humble expression of solidarity" from the Open Basque Country and the Sestao Chess Club.

The message read by the club at a joint appearance with the Sestao Palestine platform is clear: "Israel is not welcome in Sestao."

Sestao City Council unanimously signs an institutional declarationdemanding consistency from the International Chess Federation. Municipal representatives consider that the alleged neutrality it intends to impose is not such and urge it to apply "criteria that have been applied in other precedents".

The attitude of all these actors and the pressure exerted by movements against Israel's participation have led to the withdrawal of three of the seven Israeli participants from the tournament.

Pro-Palestinian organizations will maintain the mobilizations called for Friday afternoon and Saturday morning.

The tournament starts this Friday at 5:00 p.m. and this year will be a push to be a reference date in the state calendar, "both for the number of players and the amount of money that will be given in the awards." 

The Sestao Chess Club organizes this competition, which will distribute more than 20,000 euros in prizes, and has registered 240 chess players from 33 countries on four continents, about 10% of whom will be women, "above the average in this type of competition."