Anxiety hangs over the three Afghans who have been under house arrest for a week after traveling to Samarkand, Uzbekistan, to compete in the Chess Olympiad. The players were arrested upon their return to Afghanistan, where chess is banned. Khaiber Farazi, Habibullah Amini and Habibullah Guldoost are awaiting punishment from the Taliban authorities, though there are grounds for hope: EL PAÍS has learned that the International Chess Federation (FIDE), the European Parliament and the Spanish government are all working to support them.

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Garry Kasparov, 63, is the only one still alive of three very prominent opponents of Vladimir Putin who were threatened in 2012; the other two were Boris Nemtsov, murdered near the Kremlin in 2015, and Alexei Navalny, who survived a poisoning attack in 2020 and who died suddenly in a Siberian prison in 2024. The U.S. Department of Justice has now revealed a plan by agents linked to Russian intelligence to kill the chess player and activist—who is highly critical of Putin on a daily basis—last summer in New York, where he lives. The former world champion, who holds a Croatian passport, ties his fate to that of Ukraine.

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Three of the four Afghans who left their country to compete last week in the Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, were detained at the border on Monday when they returned to Afghanistan, where chess is banned by the Taliban government. The players are under house arrest in Kabul and face penalties that could include corporal punishment. The fourth player has been able to return home without reprisals.

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