The Worldwide Chess Federation fined a 23-year-old chess participant from the Netherlands at its World Speedy and Blitz Championships in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, for sporting “sports activities sneakers.”
FIDE, because the federation is thought, fined Anna-Maja Kazarian 100 euros ($111) for sporting what the group’s arbiters deemed “sports activities sneakers” throughout the match this week. It additionally required Ms. Kazarian, who streams her video games to greater than 34,000 followers on Twitch, to alter into extra formal sneakers in between video games.
Failing to alter into different sneakers, which she wanted to retrieve from her lodge room throughout the river from the match’s venue, would “lead to not being invited within the pairings for the following spherical,” based on the official warning, which she acquired on a yellow laminated card.
The sneakers in query are plaid, canvas Burberry sneakers with white rubber soles. She held them up in a YouTube video that she recorded after the incident, and mentioned that the sneakers had been a present from her sister.
“I barely ever put on them as a result of they’re fancy,” Ms. Kazarian mentioned within the 48-minute video, wherein she recapped the day and her video games.
The primary rule of FIDE’s costume code for the match is “costume to impress,” the federation’s web site states. The costume code is meant to advertise a “good and constructive picture of chess” and “shall be strictly enforced,” based on the web site.
Typically, sneakers are allowed, however “sports activities sneakers” aren’t. The distinction between the 2 will not be clearly acknowledged within the costume code.
For ladies particularly, the next will not be allowed: “sport’s sneakers, clacking sneakers, any sort of denims, any sort of inappropriate material (e.g. torn material or material with holes, unclean material), sport caps, solar glasses, revealing apparel.”
The principles for males are related. “Sports activities sneakers, T-shirts, any sort of denims, any sort of inappropriate material (e.g. torn material or material with holes, unclean material), sport caps, solar glasses” aren’t accepted.
The paradox of the definition of “sports activities sneakers” is hard for gamers deciding what to put on, mentioned Pavel Tregubov, FIDE’s technical delegate on the match and a chess participant. “I perceive her perspective,” he mentioned of Ms. Kazarian. FIDE will work on a clearer definition of sports activities sneakers for future costume codes, Mr. Tregubov mentioned.
Ms. Kazarian wasn’t the one one who acquired a yellow card with a warning throughout the match this week. Arbiters gave out two yellow playing cards within the open part for all gamers and three within the girls’s part, Mr. Tregubov mentioned, including that every one of them had been issued due to sports activities sneakers. The arbiters gave out the playing cards solely in circumstances wherein they had been 100% certain that the sneakers was too sporty for the match, he mentioned.
The yellow playing cards that got out at this yr’s match, which has 330 members, had been a brand new characteristic to make it possible for extra folks adopted the costume code, Mr. Tregubov mentioned.
Ms. Kazarian was the one participant who objected, Mr. Tregubov mentioned, including that “all different gamers accepted it.”
Critics on the web had been fast to sentence the strict costume code, with some folks arguing that the chess group has the mistaken priorities.
Others questioned why a male participant was allowed to put on white sneakers on the match, as seen in an image posted by FIDE itself, whereas Ms. Kazarian’s had been deemed inappropriate.
In a cellphone interview on Thursday, Ms. Kazarian expressed her disappointment with how FIDE had dealt with the state of affairs and mentioned that being rushed from the venue and pushed to the lodge had been hectic and unsightly. Within the YouTube video, Ms. Kazarian additionally mentioned that she felt she had been handled as if she had been a legal.
“If she felt like a legal, I’m very sorry for that,” Mr. Tregubov mentioned. “Normally the arbiters are shy,” he added. “It’s not like in soccer.”
Ms. Kazarian mentioned the expertise left her careworn and unfocused throughout her rounds of chess video games on Thursday, a day after the incident. On Thursday she wore heels, she mentioned.
“They need to modify the rule so it’ll be clearer,” Ms. Kazarian mentioned, including {that a} blanket ban of all sneakers would have been simpler to comply with.
After Ms. Kazarian took a automotive to her lodge on Wednesday and altered out of her sneakers, she returned to the venue to complete the day of video games. However she was preoccupied by the state of affairs, she mentioned, which reverberated into the following day.
“They acted as if I didn’t learn the costume code,” she mentioned. “Their angle towards me simply was not pleasant.”
