Sometimes minorities make history

In the end only two players openly boycotted the King Salman World Rapid & Blitz Chess Championships in Saudi Arabia: a woman and a man. Namely, Anna Olehivna Muzychuk from Ukraine, and Hikaru Nakamura from United States. Others, of course, did not participate as well, but most of them preferred not to expose themselves to FIDE’s retort and apologised for having other commitments. Nakamura rightly objected that FIDE shouldn’t have organised a World Chess Championship — however in fast format — in a country where not all peoples are welcomed due to racial and religious discrimination. Leonard Barden, in his The Guardian column, has explained quite well the reason for which FIDE sacrificed Israel to the Saudi Arabia money. For a very similar reason FIDE roughly sacrificed Armenia at the time of the 42nd Chess Olympiad in Baku, Azerbaijan in 2016. Anna Olehivna Muzychuk, the holder of the two titles, motivated her decision to give up both the medals and the (likely) prize money for first in more emotional words, making it a point of honour “not to play someone else’s game, not to wear a veil, not to be escorted around, and finally, not to feel myself as a child of a lesser God”. Beyond the veils, however, it is quite manifest that the women’s chess circuit is suffering a systemic crisis due to the wrong choices made by FIDE in the past. The format of the Women’s World Chess Championship — centred on the “knockout audition” — is radically bad as it implies the criteria of the “best offer” by a potential challenger. Such a format is profitable for FIDE only, and — not by chance — the proposal to “accept the challenge of any player who can contribute to the prize fund and the costs of holding of the match”, was rejected by the General Assembly of FIDE. So it seems quite a contradiction to continue defend the indefensible. Just another too asymmetrical Women’s World Chess Championship match is no longer in anyone’s interest. And it certainly would not be in Anna Olehivna Muzychuk’s interest as she has all the rights and titles to become a challenger through a fair selection process — such as a Candidates Tournament — without having to pass through the “knockout audition” with the result, should she have the luck to win the lottery, of having to personally fund the purse. Whatever it will be, Hikaru Nakamura, Anna Olehivna Muzychuk, and Mariya Olehivna Muzychuk will participate, from January 21 to February 1, in the 16th Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival at Catalan Bay (La Caleta). So good luck to all three of them!

Anna Olehivna Muzychuk. Photo: Sergiy Karazy/Reuters/TT