What are your opinions on "Top Tournaments Ban Karjakin"?

I agree with this. What Karjakin said had nothing to do with chess. 

Well, if you are a public figure and talk a lot about politics... It's a double-edged sword.

I think it's stupid that they banned him. It's his life and he can tell whatever he wants to do. Y'all have never heard that song before.

The issue is not whether chess has anything to do with politics. Nor is it simply freedom of speech.

There is much evidence that many of the Russian population are unaware of what's going on. There certainly is a news blackout. If the rest of the World goes about "business as usual", many of Putin's subjects will never become aware.  Restricting some chess players and athletes is insignificant compared to the murder & destruction in the Ukraine. Anything that affects even a small part of the population helps  get through the message that all is not right.

How will the Russians not know what is going on? They cannot import/export food. The prices of the food are changing etc. It is almost impossible for them to not know what is going on.

I made a music video with a message for peace in Ukraine, with story told by a game of chess. 

I would think most know something is going on (that is sparking outrage from the west). They're just not aware of what exactly that something is; the extent of the war, how badly it's going for Russia, casualties, war crimes, etc.

You don't know the extent of the war. You don't know the amount of casualties taken. Russia is not struggling to any abnormal degree,

You have just listened to the main stream media and absorbed all their lies and tales.

I'm surprised CC hasn't "cancelled" this thread yet due to its politics.

@Klimenko1979 and why is the Russian government cancelling democracy and persecuting dissenters, or criminalizing calling a war a war i.e. calling a spade a spade?

They will just wait and watch

Who is CC?

The CC fora already have threads about global warming or UFOs or "alien sightings" where politics may emerge. A double standard? Instead of a blanket ban against an entire community by cancelling a thread a mod could actually mod-erate, crazy idea I know. Here's an idea, just edit the politics out of an individual post, like they do for other threads that don't get locked. That would at least allow gestures of solidarity towards Ukraine.

Far be it a worthless virtue signalling, all signs of solidarity are welcome and constructive to forming a public opinion, the lawmakers pay attention to us the voters. But, we do get what-about-ism and zero-sum mentality, making the perfect the enemy of the good and saying why do anything unless we can do everything. Those that manufacture memes, mocking those of us expressing solidarity for being guilty of double standards in expressing solidarity, they're the ones guilty of being facetious and frivolous and flippant. You gotta keep things in perspective and proportion. To introduce this what-about-ism at this time isn't constructive or caring about principles, it's often a time wasting tactic, it's a "stupid person's" idea of a smart thing to say.

But, the Russian lobby, if you will, is strong on the site, so we're able to have team matches involving countries guilty of genocide (Burma etc) but not have free speech to take exception or point out the absurdity.

CC = Chess dot com, the dot is silent. A new way of referring to the site. I know, I prefer to just spell it out.

This thread is political in nature, so discussing politics isn't off topic as far as this thread is concerned.

Secondly, this thread is in the "chess news" section, which unlike the other forum sections, actually permits political discussions and threads, as politics is related to the news related side of chess.

Don't be a vigilante and harrass others by whining and ranting, "mods plz close this thread". HAHAHAHAHA!

I don't agree with what Karjakin was saying on twitter, however I don't believe one should be banned from professional chess for their political opinions.

I am so glad that Karjakin did not become world champion. He would have been a terrible ambassador of the game considering his political affiliations. He is also a pretty rotten person from what I have read by eyewitness testimonials from other top players, so I hope he gets blacklisted for a long time.

So true couldn't agree more

Welp, I guess we will be mad forever because Fischer was world champion.

I'm clearly objecting to mods cancelling things too much. But, yes I noticed the thread is political and there's some grey area, I didn't know that political discussion is permitted in the "news" section of CC fora. Is that right?

The plain meaning of words as uttered by me isn't being understood. "A mod could actually mod-erate, crazy idea I know. Here's an idea, just edit the politics out of an individual post, like they do for other threads that don't get locked. That would at least allow gestures of solidarity towards Ukraine." I don't think I gave an endorsement to lock the thread. I reiterate "Far be it a worthless virtue signalling, all signs of solidarity are welcome and constructive to forming a public opinion, the lawmakers pay attention to us the voters."

The subject of the thread, Karjakin, isn't about free speech. Freedom of is often based in freedom from. It's a matter of association and values, if Karjakin express values at odds with free world values then the site has a right to distance themselves or choose who they associate with.

We aren't actively debating political topics, we are answering a non-political question about if a certain player should be banned or not. We've done a good job keeping the political parts out of this forum.