Anna Muzychuk Refuses to Play in Corrupted 2017 World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships in Saudi Arabia

A few international chess stars stand up for what is right.  I wish more of them had the guts to stand up against this kind of thing and give FIDE and countries like Saudi Arabia the permanent middle finger.

From The Washington Post

Chess champion refuses to defend titles in Saudi Arabia to protest treatment of women

Des Bieler, December 28, 2017

A Ukrainian chess champion is prepared to lose her two world titles rather than defend them in a tournament held in Saudi Arabia. Anna Muzychuk said she would skip the lucrative event to protest the treatment of women in that country.

Muzychuk, 27, is the reigning women’s world champion in both rapid and blitz chess. In a recent Facebook post, she said she “decided not to go to Saudi Arabia” because she did not want “to play by someone’s rules,” including being made to “wear [an] abaya,” the loosefitting garment the country usually requires women to cover themselves with while in public.

Muzychuk also said she was opposed to being “accompanied getting outside,” and to being made to feel like “a secondary creature."

By skipping the World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships, which began Tuesday in Riyadh and end Saturday, Muzychuk said she was aware that not only was she set to “lose two World Champion titles — one by one,” but also to pass up an opportunity to “earn more than I do in a dozen of events combined.” The $2 million prize fund for the championships, which have been named for Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, was declared by the World Chess Federation (FIDE) to be “almost 350% more than the previous event."

The federation also said that the dress code for the event would entail “dark blue or black formal trouser suits, with high necked white blouses” for women. “There will be no need to wear a hijab or abaya during the games, this will be a first for any sporting event in Saudi Arabia,” FIDE announced in November.

Nevertheless, neither Muzychuk nor her younger sister Mariya, a former world champion in her own right, are competing at the championships. “I am really happy that we share this point of view,” Muzychuk said on Facebook.

The Riyadh tournament has also created headlines for the absence of chess players from Israel, who were denied visas. Saudi officials have said that they cannot issue the visas because their kingdom has no diplomatic ties with Israel, while the chess federation in the latter country is seeking financial compensation.

“There needs to be a clear separation between sports and politics,” said Lior Aizenberg, a spokesman for the Israeli Chess Federation. “We want our players to play in all competitions. What is going on in the Arab world does not interest us."

Hikaru Nakamura, the U.S.’s top-ranked rapid and blitz chess player, is also skipping the event. “To organize a chess tournament in a country where basic human rights aren’t valued is horrible,” Nakamura said in a November tweet. “Chess is a game where all different sorts of people can come together, not a game in which people are divided because of their religion or country of origin."

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is leading an effort, called Vision 2030, to modernize aspects of his society, and in September the government announced that women will be allowed to drive, starting in mid-2018. However, women in Saudi Arabia still need the permission of male guardians to marry, get divorced, attain employment, travel or have elective surgery (per CNN), and mixing with men in public places is still largely forbidden.

“As to whether it was right or wrong, there will certainly be people who will support me and people who will condemn me,” Muzychuk told Reuters of her decision to boycott the tournament. “But I took this decision and I am responsible for it."

2015 FIDE Women's World Chess Championship

Hola darlings!

I missed it all - and didn't miss it at all, to tell you the truth.  I think the knock-out format is a joke and is not a true measure of the relative skills of the players.  Oh well.

The event was held in Sochi; I hope the Russian army was not out killing stray dogs like they did before the Olympics.  Official website has photos galore and daily reports/interviews, along with round by round results, video, and the games.

U.S. players were Tatev Abrahamyan and Irina Krush; Tatev got knocked out in the first round by India's Dronavalli Harika and Krush got knocked out in the second found, also by Harika.  Harika rendered an excellent performance, making it all the way to the semi-finals before being knocked out by Mariya Muzychuk; likewise, veteran player Pia Cramling (one of the first female players to earn a GM title in the 1980s in the traditional way) made it to the semi-finals and lost to Natalia Pogonina.  The semi-finals devolved into tense tie-break battles to determine who advanced:

Semifinal pairings / results Player Fed Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 G8 G9 Pts Muzychuk, Mariya UKR 2526 ½ ½ 1 0 ½ 1 3.5 Harika, Dronavalli IND 2492 ½ ½ 0 1 ½ 0 2.5 Player Fed Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 G8 G9 Pts Cramling, Pia SWE 2495 1 0 ½ 0 1.5 Pogonina, Natalia RUS 2456 0 1 ½ 1 2.5

Pogonina went to the final round and lost to Muzychuk, who is now the 15th FIDE Women's World Chess Champion.

Final rairings / results Player Fed Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 G8 G9 Pts Pogonina, Natalia RUS 2456 ½ 0 ½ ½           1.5 Muzychuk, Mariya UKR 2526 ½ 1 ½ ½           2.5

Congratulations to GM Mariya Muzychuk.

From the FIDE website, here is the prize structure:

3. 9. Prizes for the Women’s World Championship 
3. 9. 1. Prize list
1st round 32 losers x 3.750 = 120.000
2nd round 16 losers x 5.500 = 88.000
3rd round 8 losers x 8.000 = 64.000
4th round 4 losers x 12.000 = 48.000
5th round 2 losers x 20.000 = 40.000
6th round 1 loser x 30.000 = 30.000
Women’s World Champion = 60.000
TOTAL: 450.000 USD

Evidently the knock-out championship was planned to be held in 2014, with a Women's World Championship "match" to be held this year in October.  Oops!

According to the FIDE website, bidding on the Women's World Championship "match" is open until April 20, 2015, with a minimum prize fund of $200,000 and various bribes administrative fees to FIDE, etc.  Well, who knows, somebody could bid on it and it could actually happen, and then Mariya Muzychuk would have to defend her title six months after winning it!