The Iranian chess player Sara Khadem who refused to compete with a veil makes her debut as a Spaniard in the World Cup

On Sunday the 30th, the World Chess Cup begins in Baku, one of the great events of the year, which will last almost a month, until August 25.. The favorite is the number one, Magnus Carlsen, although he is no longer the world champion and despite the fact that this tournament is the only important one missing from his record. Also noteworthy is the presence of Sara Khadem, a chess player born in Iran 26 years ago, number 15 in the women's ranking, who was forced to flee her country after playing without a hijab in the last Rapid Chess World Cup and who will represent Spain for the first time. time.

Installed in our country for months, last Tuesday she obtained Spanish nationality, published in the BOE and approved by the Council of Ministers in response to “exceptional circumstances”. FIDE has accepted that he will now play in the World Cup under its new flag.

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The former world champion under 12 and under 16 participated last April in the Salamanca Festival, where she coincided with the Ukrainian Vasyl Ivanchuk. The grandmaster, a legend of the boards, has been on the verge of being left out of the World Cup, since his Government resisted granting him the necessary permission to travel to Azerbaijan.

The former world champion in rapid games and winner of four gold medals at the Chess Olympiads is 54 years old. As under 60, he needed a special permit to leave his country. They granted it to go to Salamanca, but the Ukrainian Ministry of Youth and Sports ignored the first requests of the International Federation and the organizers of the World Cup.

Finally, he was able to fly to Azerbaijan on Wednesday, after a bitter controversy broke out. Some of the world's best grandmasters, including Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand, Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So and Boris Gelfand, had signed an open letter to Ukraine's Minister of Youth and Sports Vadym Gutzeit to try to that Ivanchuk could leave Lviv and represent his country once more.

The visa of discord

Minister Gutzeit, however, did not want the presence of Ukrainian players to be used for propaganda purposes in competitions organized by Russians and with participants from that country.. The politician went so far as to deny that he had received any official request for Ivanchuk to attend the World Cup.

Ivanchuk himself has declared in an interview with Gordon that he does not know what will happen if he has to face a Russian player. “If that situation arises, a decision will be made on the situation,” an official from his federation told him.. The grandmaster believes that all sports disciplines and the Ministry of Sports of his country should have a clear and unanimous position on the matter..

At the moment, the tournament table seems designed to postpone a Russian-Ukrainian duel as long as possible. In the case of Ivanchuck, both he and the Russian Andrey Esipenko (who has publicly criticized the invasion of Ukraine) should overcome several rounds before a hypothetical meeting in the quarterfinals..

Before granting the permission, the Ukrainian sports minister had criticized FIDE for the conflict created. “The World Chess Federation, which is led by the Russian Dvorkovich, is causing this situation by allowing the Russians to compete,” he said.

The World Cup is not only important in itself and for its prizes, a bag of 2.3 million euros. Also because it serves as a passport to participate in the next Candidates tournaments, female and absolute, from which the candidates for the World Championship will emerge.. The first three classified in each category will get a direct place in the next Candidates.

Participants

The number and category of the participants also speaks of the strength of the competition: 103 players and 206 chess players in the open section. In the latter, the favorites are, in addition to Carlsen, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, Anish Giri, Wesley So, Gukesh D and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, as well as the reigning champion, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, and the local stars Teimour Radjabov (winner in 2019) and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.

In the women's draw, the current world champion, Ju Wenjun, Aleksandra Goryachkina, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Tan Zhongyi, Anna Ushenina and the Ukrainian sisters Anna and Mariya Muzychuk, among others, stand out.. Sara Khadem seems a step below and has played less than normal in recent months, but the World Cup format, by knockouts, could be conducive to the only Spanish representative. From the outset, he goes directly to the second round, as the seed.

Among the chess players, however, the participation is greater, since Paco Vallejo, David Antón (both seeded), Jaime Santos and Eduardo Iturrizaga will play in Baku. Lance Henderson de la Fuente from Malaga, a young promise, will play with the Andorran flag, as he has been doing since last year.

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