Sara Khadem is a chess player, she is 26 years old and is number 15 in the international ranking. On Sunday she will debut as a Spanish in the World Cup, in Baku (Azerbaijan). It was a natural step, after he settled in Andalusia months ago. Khadem had fled Iran along with her son and her husband, film director Ardeshir Ahmadi.. The regime did not forgive the player who refused to wear the veil at the World Rapid Chess Championship held in Kazakhstan.

Sarasadat Khademalsharieh soon began the procedures to become a Spanish citizen. In the interview given to EL MUNDO during the Salamanca Festival, in April, the female grandmaster confirmed that she was in talks to change her nationality, but asked that nothing be published yet because she feared that it could interfere in the negotiations..

The chess player, who came to have a meeting with the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, saw how her file was resolved in the Council of Ministers last Tuesday. Khadem, world champion under 12 and under 16, received Spanish nationality by letter of nature, “in attention to the exceptional circumstances” that met her request.

This time there were compelling political reasons, unlike in other recent cases of express nationalizations, such as that of the basketball player Lorenzo Brown just before the Eurobasket. On the other hand, Khadem had an ace up his sleeve, the so-called 'golden visa' obtained by non-EU citizens who invest in real estate of more than half a million euros..

The Spanish Chess Federation helped Khadem navigate the legal and bureaucratic process. FIDE, for its part, invited it to the World Cup and exempted FEDA from the costs of the 'transfer'. For his Elo, 2488 points, the change meant paying 2,000 euros to FIDE and another 6,000 to Iran as compensation. For chess players with more than 2700 points, the cost reaches 50,000 euros.

One month of competition

Sara Khadem is the great Spanish hope in Baku, although in the last year her preparation has been altered for obvious reasons. The competition will last almost a month, until August 25. Precisely another nationalized chess player, Alexei Shirov, is the only Spaniard who has achieved a medal in the test. In 2007, she lost the final to Gata Kamsky, a Russian-American..

The other Spaniards present in Baku are Paco Vallejo, David Antón, Jaime Santos and Eduardo Iturrizaga. Lance Henderson de la Fuente from Malaga, a young promise, will play with another flag, since last year he went to live in Andorra with his family.

Ivanchuk's drama

In Azerbaijan, Vasyl Ivanchuk, a legend of the boards who was about to be left out of the World Cup, will also finally be able to play, given that as a minor under 60 he needed a special permit that his government was reluctant to grant, partly because he feared that FIDE, led by the Russian Arkady Dvorkovich, used his presence for propaganda purposes.

The former world champion in rapid games is 54 years old. In April he was able to go to Salamanca, where he met and played against Khadem, but this time the negotiations seemed stuck. He finally flew to Azerbaijan on Wednesday after several grandmasters, including Carlsen, Anand, Nakamura and Caruana, wrote to Ukraine's Minister of Youth and Sports asking him to release Ivanchuk from Lviv.

Ivanchuk himself has confirmed that he will play in the World Cup, but he does not know what will happen if he has to face a Russian player. According to what a director of his federation told him, “if this situation arises, a decision will be made.”.

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.