user109: I was reading the following wikipedia article on Mark Taimanov and I was very shocked (I guess I shoudn't be knowing how the Soviets took chess so seriously) that when Taimanov lost to Fischer 6-0 , the Soviet Government was embarrassed and found it "unthinkable" that he could lose a match so badly to an American, so they ended up taking away his salary and did not let him travel overseas.  Later, they "forgave" saying the reason for punishment was that he brought a book by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn into the country, but from the article, I guess many speculate that Fischer's defeat of Bent Larsen 6-0 probably had more to do with the Soviet government "forgiving" Taimanov.  So in a nutshell, do these things types of things still happen, not just with the countries that used to be a part of the USSR, but in other parts of the world?  This maybe difficult to answer, because I guess if it did happen, it would be kept very secretive?

user70: Authoritarian governments will punish its representatives who do not live up to the standards they set.
Iraq - Saddam later appointed Uday head of the Iraqi Olympic committee and soccer federation, and ... tortured athletes who failed to win.
China - Players that towed the party line and upheld Marxist values were rewarded. Those that didn’t were punished.
Bear in mind, these standards are not necessarily reasonable or attainable.

109: <p>I was reading the following <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Taimanov" rel="noreferrer">wikipedia article on Mark Taimanov</a> and I was very shocked (I guess I shoudn't be knowing how the Soviets took chess so seriously) that when Taimanov lost to Fischer 6-0 , the Soviet Government was embarrassed and found it "unthinkable" that he could lose a match so badly to an American, so they ended up taking away his salary and did not let him travel overseas.  Later, they "forgave" saying the reason for punishment was that he brought a book by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn into the country, but from the article, I guess many speculate that Fischer's defeat of Bent Larsen 6-0 probably had more to do with the Soviet government "forgiving" Taimanov.  So in a nutshell, do these things types of things still happen, not just with the countries that used to be a part of the USSR, but in other parts of the world?  This maybe difficult to answer, because I guess if it did happen, it would be kept very secretive?</p>
 70: <p>Authoritarian governments will punish its representatives who do not live up to the standards they set.</p>

<p>Iraq - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uday_Hussein">Saddam later appointed Uday head of the Iraqi Olympic committee and soccer federation, and ... tortured athletes who failed to win.</a></p>

<p>China - <a href="http://factsanddetails.com/china.php?itemid=1007&amp;catid=12&amp;subcatid=79">Players that towed the party line and upheld Marxist values were rewarded. Those that didn’t were punished.</a></p>

<p>Bear in mind, these standards are not necessarily reasonable or attainable.</p>
