Being There

The “court of miracles” has finally gathered all in Kazan, Russia to inaugurate the long-awaited new deal for women’s chess. The 8-player Candidates Tournament will start tomorrow, giving the winner the right to directly challenge the Women’s World Chess Champion. But what may be regarded as a political success of 7th FIDE President Arkady Vladimirovich Dvorkovich is quite shadowed by the absence of four-time Women’s World Chess Champion 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán), who, in spite of her being the world No. 1 woman, is neither the World Champion nor one of the eight challengers. Dvorkovich is not apparently responsible for such a paradox. 居文君 (Jū Wénjūn) legitimately became World Champion within the “old” system — from which 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) dropped out in 2016 — and, on the other hand, the four-time World Champion had good reasons for not accepting Dvorkovich’s invitation to join the candidates’ queue and start everything over again from the bottom. First, 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) is completing, by virtue of a Rhodes Scholarship, a one-year Master of Public Policy (MPP) at the University of Oxford — and that could be enough. Secondly, however, a proud spirit will rarely be content with agreeing on a severance compensation pay. So how will it end? Well, no one knows, but whatever it will be like, it just won’t be an easy reign.

Tourists take selfies in front of the Kul Sharif Mosque in Kazan, Russia. Photo: Dmitri Beliakov for The Guardian.