The Other Queen

On Tuesday, January 21, 2020 — the last free day of the Women’s World Chess Championship match between 居文君 (Jū Wénjūn) and Aleksandra Yuryevna Goryachkina — the Russian Chess Federation and the Timchenko Foundation co-organised a 40-board simultaneous exhibition with four-time Women’s World Chess Champion and Rhodes Scholar 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) and English Grandmaster and FIDE Vice President Nigel David Short taking on, respectively, twenty young opponents of “the fair sex” and twenty of “the strong sex”. The parade was staged, as usual, at the Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU) on Russky Island, Vladivostok, Primorsky Krai, Russia. In what should have been a rhetorical triumph of reactionary conformism and gender-segregated education, with 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) being compelled to commend the foresight of the organisers for making her play only with girls, however, and not unsurprisingly, the official photographer succeeded in snapping a series of non-captioned pictures which tell a story of fashion and passion. Photos © Eteri Kublashvili.