Facts
The International Chess Federation (FIDE) charged Shaun Press, the player, for a violation of the Anti-Doping Rules. On October 28, 2004, during the Chess Olympiad in Calvia, Mallorca the player refused a doping test.
History
On October 30, 2004, there was a hearing of the FIDE Doping Hearing Panel. The statement of the player Shaun Press was the following. He confessed that he refused to submit to the doping control. The written statement of doctor Eduardo Ribot is not correct. When the doctor asked him to submit to the doping control, he asked to the doctor if there was any evidence that he had used forbidden substances. When the doctor said no, he refused because he can not be obliged to produce evidence against himself. He did not know the possible sanctions at that moment. In the meeting of team captains on october 15, 2004, before the first round the chief arbiter told that there would be doping controls in the last week of the tournament, but he did not say anything about the possible sanctions and he did not say that there were new anti-doping regulations that were different from the regulations that were accepted in Bled in 2002. When a team captain asked a question to the Chief Arbiter about the anti-doping regulations, the Chief Arbiter did not answer the question. Neither at any other moment had been told to the team captains or the players that there were new anti-doping regulations. FIDE did not inform the federations that there were new anti-doping regulations. During the Olympiad in Bled in 2002 there were refusals and nobody had been sanctioned. He presented a written statement by Stuart Fancy, in the last 15 month president of the Papua New Guinea Chess Federation, that he is not informed during that time by FIDE of any anti-doping regulations and that he has not been asked to check on any website of such regulations. He also presented a written statement of zone president Gary Bekker that he was not be made aware of the new anti-doping regulations prior to the 36th Olympiad. Further he was not all the time accompanied by a doping official in the hour between the refusal of the original test and the second visit to the doping room; so if he would have wished to take the test, then it would have been void. That is contrary to the anti-doping regulations. From the doping control form it is not clear which authorities are responsible for the doping controls. It was not known what would happen with the samples after the control. In the forms there was no information about the regulations of procedure. In Australia chess is not a sport. He has a FIDE-rating. He did not play any FIDE rated event between the Olympiad in Bled in 2002 and the Olympiad in Mallorca in 2004. He is an amateur player.
The panel considers: the refusal to submit to the doping control is a violation. The fact that the player was not accompanied by a doping official in the hour between his first visit and the second visit to the doping control and a test might be void, is not a good reason for a refusal. The new doping rules where available on the website www.fide.com. It is not assumable that the player was not able to get this information. The refusal of submitting a sample means that the player is considered to be positive tested. However, the Panel has discovered that the FIDE Anti-Doping Regulations are not well known in a part of the federations in FIDE. Further, Shaun Press is an amateur player who came on his own cost to the Olympiad. The FIDE Anti-Doping Regulations are in the first place meant for the professional players of whom there are many in chess. For these reasons a majority of three members of the Panel judges that next to the cancelling of the points gathered during the Olympiad, there is no place for an exclusion, but only a warning should be given.
Decision
1. The sanction is a warning.
2. The points obtained at the Chess Olympiad are cancelled.
