A rising young star in the world of chess was left ‘feeling like a criminal’ after falling foul of a ban on sports shoes when she arrived for a game in a new pair of upmarket canvas Burberrys.
Anna-Maja Kazarian, 23, was fined $111 for wearing ‘strange shoes’ while competing at a tournament in Uzbekistan.
The rules specifically allow ‘sneakers’ and Kazarian is demanding to know what sports chess bosses think she could play in her thin-soled leisure shoes.
‘It hurts to even walk in those and I definitely don’t want to use my Burberry sneakers for sports,’ she said.
The young Dutch master who livestreams games to more than 34,000 followers on Twitch was among 330 entrants at the World Rapid and Blitz Championships in the former Soviet republic.
Anna-Maja Kazarian, 23, showed her thousands of YouTube followers the ‘sports shoes’ that landed her in trouble with the game’s authorities
Russian grandmaster and tournament official Pavel Tregubov was unforgiving when she complained about the sanction
Kazarian demanded to know what sports chess bosses think she could play in her thin-soled Burberry leisure shoes
She was half-way through a game when she became aware that the authorities were displeased.
‘I see a big yellow sign stating official warning dress code, it’s a huge yellow sign that you just can’t miss and I see it in the corner of my eye like a flash.
‘And I already know it’s going to be for me because he’s walking around and there’s no way that in those 10 boards there’s going to be someone else allegedly violating the dress code.
‘During the game I’m spending a lot of my time thinking about what is going on, what do I do if I get this warning?
Kazarian was half way through her match when she saw the official warning from the corner of her eye
‘Am I going to change my shoes? How? Do I go to my room? Do I get expelled from the tournament.’
The row has once again thrown light on FIDE, the game’s governing body which was rocked by claims that American chess prodigy Hans Niemann used ‘vibrating anal beads’ to beat world number one Magnus Carlsen in 2022.
Niemann sued for $100 million Carlsen after the Norwegian repeated online rumors that he had been told what moves to play through buzzes from a coach transmitted to a sex toy hidden in his body.
‘It must be embarrassing for the world champion to lose to me,’ he told reporters.
‘I feel bad for him!’
He credited a ‘ridiculous miracle’, for his victory, claiming he had watched a video of Carlsen using a similar game plan in a game four years earlier that morning.
The pair settled out of court but the story gained an unexpected afterlife this week when a champion of Xiangqi, the Chinese variant of the game, was accused of using the technique to win the title of ‘Xiangqi King’ at a tournament in the country.
Kazarian was all smiles as she arrived in her shoes for the day’s play unaware that she was about to clash with the game’s authorities
Kazarian was the 2020 Dutch Women’s Internet Chess Champion and has also been an under-16 girls’ European Youth Champion
Yan Chenglong (pictured, right) defecated in a hotel bathroom, and is accused of using anal beads to cheat at the Chinese Xiangqi Association competition
Nineteen-year-old chess prodigy Hans Niemann previously declared he would play naked to prove doubters wrong after rumors suggested he could have used vibrating anal beads
The sport was left in uproar on Monday when national champion Yan Chenglong was stripped off his title after being accused of defecating in a hotel bathroom.
‘Yan consumed alcohol with others in his room on the night of the 17th, and then he defecated in the bathtub of the room he was staying in on the 18th,’ the Chinese Xiangqi Association said in a statement.
‘An act that damaged hotel property, violated public order and good morals, had a negative impact on the competition and the event of Xiangqi, and was of extremely bad character.’
‘Based on our understanding of the situation, it is currently impossible to prove that Yan engaged in cheating via ‘anal beads’ as speculated on social media,’ it added.
Chess fans on social media were quick to point out male players who have not been sanctioned for wearing sports shoes.
‘As a PE teacher I can tell you those are most certainly not sport shoes,’ tweeted @chesslete.
‘They’re sports shoes if you were playing in the NBA 60 years ago,’ added les miens miserables.
The match shook up the chess world – after Niemann, a rising talent from San Francisco, unceremoniously defeated the Norwegian world at last year’s prestigious Sinquefield Cup
‘Not so much these days.’
Pavel Tregubov, FIDE’s technical delegate at the tournament apologized for the upset and said that the governing body is planning to revise its dress code.
‘If she felt like a criminal, I’m very sorry for that,’ he added.
‘Usually the arbiters are shy,’ he added, ‘It’s not like in football.’