One of Iran's top grandmasters was expelled from an international chess tournament after he refused to play a match against an Israeli opponent, the director of the tournament said. The Iranian, Ehsan Ghaem Maghami, was scheduled to play Ehud Shachar in the fourth round of the Corsica Masters, a pairing determined by computer. The director, Leo Battesti, said in a telephone interview that Maghami had asked him to change the pairing but was told that doing so would violate tournament rules. Maghami then failed to appear at the scheduled time to play Shachar.
