Two-time world chess champion Anna Muzychuk has said she will not attend a tournament held in Saudi Arabia because of the way the kingdom treats women as “secondary creatures’.
The landmark event and its record $2m (€1.7m) prize pot comes as crown prince Mohammed bin Salman looks to repackage his oil-rich nation as more welcoming – and moderate.
But the event has already been dogged by a refusal to give Israeli players visas and doubts whether Iranians and Qataris would come.
On Christmas Eve Muzychuk said she would not attend the tournament, citing the kingdom’s restrictions on the movement of women.
“I am going to lose two world champion titles - one by one,” she wrote on Facebook.
“Just because I decided not to go to Saudi Arabia. Not to play by someone’s rules, not to wear abaya, not to be accompanied getting outside and altogether not to feel myself a secondary creature,” she said.
“Exactly one year ago I won these two titles and was about the happiest person in the chess world but this time I feel really bad. I am ready to stand for my principles and skip the event, where in five days I was expected to earn more than I do in a dozen of events combined.”
Her sister, also a chess player, will also miss the event.
The World Chess Federation’s governing body FIDE had claimed success when it got the authorities to loosen up their traditional demands for full-body abayas with a “historic” dress code: high-necked white blouses.
The King Salman Rapid and Blitz 2017 tournament opened on Monday, but just a day later Israel’s chess federation said it was seeking compensation from FIDE over the rejection.
The Israeli team was not the only one to find itself caught up in the broader chess game of Middle East politics.
Players from Iran and Qatar – both locked in their own regional rivalries with Riyadh – were also a major doubt.
As reports swirled that the Iranian and Qatari delegations were not granted visas, FIDE insisted they could show up – even if they chose not to in the end.
While the chess tournament might have been dented by the controversies, it has still drawn the game’s biggest names, including world number one Magnus Carlsen.
