Rugelach

The pasionaria Anna Olehivna Muzychuk from Ukraine is one (and another) of the “dethroned Queens” who pass thru the changeless intervals of the live chess broadcasts on their way to gender justice. After refusing to sell herself out by playing chess in a “World Championship” in which not everyone was allowed to participate, she started a new life in Spain, especially in Catalonia, where she is always welcomed by the civil society as a honoured guest on various cultural events (not only chess-related). Although she became an icon of women’s rights, she regards herself more as an egalitarist than a feminist: “I would not like to be associated with radical feminism, but rather with reasonable egalitarianism, so that women and men are treated in the same way”, she told Javier Toledo, who interviewed her for Radio Montecarlo CX20-930 AM. Asked about the “machismo” in the world of chess, she prefers to emphasize the inequality of economic treatment, since a man can even win ten times the prize money of a woman. Then, finally, an invitation came. Muzychuk will play the 4th Gideon Japhet Cup to be held from 1–6 July in Jerusalem, Israel along with Boris Abramovich Gelfand, Vassily Mykhaylovych Ivanchuk, Georg Meier, Ian Aleksandrovich Nepomniachtchi, and Pyotr Veniaminovich Svidler. “It will be a challenge”, Muzychuk says, as the lowest Elo rating in the tournament belongs to her. On the other hand, she is only relatively interested in the final result. More important for her is “to make experience playing with the very best and learn”. Muzychuk, who speaks six languages, admits she does not have much free time to devote to her interests, because chess absorbs much of her life. When it is possible, however, she likes “to do what most people do: meet and go out with my friends, enjoy the company of my family, traveling, going to movies and doing sports”. Photo: EFE.