Another day, another scandal in the cutthroat world of online chess. On Monday, Chess.com—one of the largest such platforms in the world—said that it would hit a 2578-rated Georgian grandmaster with a partial ban after he was caught spewing racist vitriol and berating staff on a tournament stream. The grandmaster, Baadur Jobava, launched into the rant last Friday after losing to Xiangyu Xu, a Chinese grandmaster, at a qualifier for the Airthings Masters, according to Esports.gg. In footage of a conversation between Jobava and a moderator that surfaced on Reddit that day, the Georgian player can be heard saying, “This bitch fucked up. Ban all Chinese too. These motherfuckers. Not right. Call them. Not right.” After getting off the call with the moderator, Jobava continued to rant, accusing Xu of cheating and Chess.com of failing to take action, “just sit and commentating bullshit.” In a statement to the “Global Chess Community” on Monday, a Chess.com official said that Jobava’s account would be banned “for all prize events” through the end of the year in light of his “racial and incendiary comments.”
