The Spanish chess champion who demands that the tournaments not be mixed: "They make me feel empty"

Mónica Calzetta has won the Spanish Championship seven times and has represented the country in 14 Chess Olympiads, which are held every two years.. On November 19, she was proclaimed world champion of veterans in Italy, in the over 50 category.. It seemed logical to think that talking to her would be a party, minutes after her victory. But not. The conversation turned into a lament, an open check.

«I am happy to finally achieve an important result. I had some a long time ago: I won two zonal championships and a European Union Championship, but they didn't have much impact either,” he comments, although his seven national titles are not within everyone's reach: “Yes, but now I won't be able to participate with the national team.. “They left me out.”

In fact, Spain played without her in the European Championship held a few weeks ago in Montenegro. Just on the eve of his last game in the World Cup, which he had already tied up, the Spanish Federation (FEDA) informed Calzetta that his appeal had not been successful.. “I'm going to have to go to the Higher Sports Council,” she says.. «In the bases it says that the team is formed in strict order of Elo and I had 35 points more than another player who is going to participate. It is not at the discretion of the selector. “They interpret it differently, but it is very clear in the regulations.”

The controversy of the selection

It is worth clarifying that Calzetta believes that, according to the norm, the team must be formed from the latest Elo list, while the FEDA considers that an average of the latest classifications should be made.. With this last criterion, the world champion has been left out by tenths.

The captain of the team himself, Iván Salgado, who recently took office, claims the power to choose the players, or at least a few, without being bound by a criterion that he considers “absurd.”. “The formula is what it is and I think it is well applied, but very big structural changes must be made,” he says.

The coach also wants to be able to include more players in the concentrations prior to the big tournaments and have a preselection of eight or ten chess players in them.. He also remembers that last year he himself was left out of the World Cup in Israel simply because they forgot to call him.

In Calzetta's opinion, the treatment she has received is not by chance. «It has been many years since I have been called for any concentration. Sometimes they have done previous training and they have not taken me. Once they did it very close to my house and they didn't let me go either.

Why this abuse? I don't know. They have been ignoring me for years. I try to play chess and forget stories. I don't understand why they treat me like that. With the other players the treatment is correct. The problem is with the Federation. Something happens there. They haven't told me clearly, but there are people who have told me that I am on the blacklist. A women's championship, the reason

Calzetta believes that it all started when, 20 years ago, several players sent a letter “to ask that the Spanish women's championship not be removed.” In the last mixed edition, three women were among the top 20, but this formula does not satisfy all chess players.

“It hurts us a lot,” says Calzetta. «We are the only country in the world where there are no women's national championships. Since I showed that I was not satisfied, they treat me worse. “I won the Spanish Championship and I had to pay for the European Championship out of my pocket.” She will be able to attend the next World Cup, as current champion, invited by FIDE. “Goodness. “I'm going to continue playing, unless they sanction me, which is the last thing I would need,” he adds.

The world champion explains why she considers a Spanish Women's Championship necessary in a sport like chess: «There is the Women's World Championship and the European Championship.. To qualify, it must be done as fairly as possible. The current Spanish Championship is an open tournament and there the result is not usually the fairest, because the players face other chess players who fight for other things or for nothing, directly.

Why are there a lack of women?

“Neither France, nor England, nor Italy, nor Germany do it like this,” he insists.. «In all of them there is a national women's championship. In Spain, for a strange reason, we are more feminist. They all play together and that does not improve the level of the players. Even María Eizeguerri said it when she won the Spanish Youth Championship. If I had lost the last game, I wouldn't have even been the women's champion.. It's a lottery. We can play many mixed tournaments during the year to train, but to choose the best we have to measure ourselves.

Why do women have worse results, in general? Many stop chess at school age and we are less. The girls see that they have no way out or recognition. If a player's image never appears, who do they want to look like? There is a lack of female references. Mine was Judit Polgar and we have been lucky that the series 'The Queen's Gambit' came out, which is a reference, even if it is fiction. Since then, more girls have signed up for competitions and classes.. I now have many more students. If there were more references like that, there would be more female players and they could reach the same level as the men.

Mónica Calzetta complains that not even she, with such an impressive track record, has been able to make a good living from chess. «I have been able to earn a living by teaching, but competing certainly not. It bothers me in the sense that the prizes for the women's championships don't motivate much either.. In that sense, I think that FIDE is doing very well and they promote women's chess a lot, which was already. The FEDA needs to do it too,” he concludes.