Chess champ refuses to defend titles at Saudi event

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 loose-fitting 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 being made to feel like “a secondary creature.”

By skipping the World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships, which began Tuesday in Riyadh and end on Saturday, Muzychuk said that 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 events combined.”

The US$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 to be “almost 350 per cent more than the previous event.”

The federation also said 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,” the federation announced in November.

The Riyadh tournament has also created headlines for the absence of chess players from Israel, who were denied visas.