>Tim Hanke wrote:
>>By the same token, all those "in-crowd" people like Jim Eade, Steve Doyle, >>John Fernandez, and their fuzzy-minded apologists on this newsgroup were >>wrong (or lying; hard to tell in some cases).
>Tim,
>What specifically was I wrong about? In events like the World Championship and >Olympiad, drug testing is required by IOC regulations. In addition, it's >required by Slovenian Law. >I don't see how this is a big deal. American players already did this without a >single peep of complaint (Moscow 2001). I don't understand how Summer/Winter >Olympics makes morality easier.
>John Fernandez
John Fernandez often calls people who disagree with him "morons" or "idiots". This time Fernandez is clearly the idiot.
There is a tremendous difference between the FIDE knock-out world championship in Moscow 2001 and the 2002 World Chess Olympiad in Bled. In Moscow 2001, the players were playing for money. Even those players who lost in the first round and were eliminated got a minimum prize of about $5,000 (I do not know the exact amount.)
If anybody did not want to be drug tested, all they had to do was not play. Everybody who wanted to get the $5,000 simply had to agree to be drug tested.
At the 2002 World Chess Olympiad, there are no prizes to be won and nobody is paid to play, except that players from a few wealthy countries, notably the USA, receive salaries from their own national federations. The Olympiad Organizing Committee in Bled will not be paying fees or prizes of any kind to the players.
Nevertheless, most of the leading players in the world do play in the Olympiads. The reason is national pride and honor. It is an honor to be selected to represent one's country.
Now, if one is to be degraded by being subjected to drug testing, that is a different matter. Some players will consider it to be an affront to their pride and dignity to be required to pee in a cup. Others will actually be taking prescribed medication which they will not want the entire world to know about, just as the world now knows about what medicines that lady bridge player from Iceland is taking.
Why not simply refuse to play?, Fernandez will ask. If a player does not play, everybody will be asking: Did you not play because you did not make the team? Are you not good enough? Did you want more money? Or, are you a drug addict?
Also, the national teams will want to finish well in the Olympiad. Does a national team want to have to say, "We would have done better had it not been for the fact that two of our best players could not play because of FIDE drug testing"?
These sorts of questions will invariably be asked and the players will not want to be subjected to them. Remember, they are being paid zero to play and now they will have to put up with this, and for what?
Sam Sloan