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Why double chess champion Anna Muzychuk boycotted Saudi Arabia tourney
Ukrainian chess champion Anna Muzychuk won’t be defending her world titles because she is averse to being treated like a secondary creature in Saudi Arabia.
Grandmaster Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine has pulled out of the world chess event organised in Saudi Arabia owing to the host country’s discriminatory laws against women.
In a statement, the 27-year-old said she would not take part in a tournament held in Saudi Arabia because the country treats women as ‘secondary creatures’.
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“I am going to lose two world champion titles - one by one. 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,” the double world chess champion wrote on Facebook.
“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,” said Muzychuk, who is the defending world champion in two disciplines of speed chess - rapid and blitz.
Muzychuk’s sister, also a chess player, is not going to take part in the event either.
The $2 million event is being organised by Saudi Arabia as the crown prince Mohammed bin Salman wants to project his oil-rich kingdom as a welcoming and moderate place before the world.
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However, the event got mired in controversy even before its commencement as Israeli chess players were denied visas.
Earlier, Saudi Arabia’s top cleric, Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al Sheikh, had said in 2016 that chess is “forbidden” in Islam because it wastes time and can lead to rivalry among players.
Similarly, top Iranian clerics had also discouraged the country from hosting the game, saying it could lead to gambling, which was not permissible in Islam.
