Famous website was blocked following denunciation of world champion who betrayed Ukraine

Federal Communications Agency has blocked the largest online chess platform Chess.com. As of April 24, the resource is not available on the territory of the Russian Federation.

Initially, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office decided to block two pages of the website, "Ukrainian chess players during the war" and "About the war in Ukraine."

The first one tells the stories of our grandmasters during Russia's full-scale invasion, and the second one contains a statement by the site condemning the war and links to humanitarian funds to support Ukraine.

Since Chess.com uses the https network protocol, blocking one of its pages resulted in the complete blocking of the site.

On April 16, Crimean chess player Sergey Karyakin, who renounced his Ukrainian citizenship and once joined the Putin Team movement, called on Roskomnadzor to block Chess.com.

Earlier, the chess portal banned the two-time winner of the World Team Championship with Russia (2013 and 2019) from participating in prize tournaments on the site, and replaced the flags of Russia and Belarus with one-color canvases depicting the world in broadcasts of FIDE tournaments and prize competitions.

On March 21, the 32-year-old native of Simferopol received a six-month disqualification for supporting Russia's military actions in Ukraine.