Vishy Anand: Pool effect to lift women’s chess
Former World Champion and the Deputy President of the International Chess Federation (FIDE), who arrived at the event today, shared his thoughts about women’s chess.
“This event has been very exciting, as has the whole Grand Prix,” Anand noted.
He pointed out that any plan for women’s chess has to take the long-term into account.
“We need to have circuits like the Grand Prix that showcase the best players, but also the World Rapid and Blitz Championships, the World Cup, the Grand Swiss, and FIDE needs to continue increasing the prize funds. In fact, we need a pool effect. We need young girls to say, ‘that [chess] looks like an exciting career’”.
The five-time World Champion and current official also pointed out the importance FIDE is giving to women’s chess: “One of the commitments President Arkady Dvorkovich has made is that we have to stay on course and keep working on women’s chess, and I think the plan is going well”.
When asked about how far off the world is from seeing another Judit Polgar, the former World Champion responded: “She was one of a kind”, adding that “Judit had this dominance and showed she was able to climb as high as number seven in the ranking list, and do that for many years, becoming a household name for chess. And that is something which is still a long way off. But having said that, I believe that this dual approach is important: we need a thriving women’s circuit where they get the opportunities, but they also need to compete in the Open tournament [format] as that’s the easiest way to improve their game”.
Round six starts on Sunday, May 11, at 3PM CET
Round 6 pairings:
Nana Dzagnidze – Anna Muzychuk
Nurgyul Salimova – Tan Zhongyi
Lela Javakhishvili – Alexandra Kosteniuk
Vaishali Rameshbabu – Olga Badelka
Mariya Muzychuk – Zhu Jiner
Written by Milan Dinic
Photos: Przemysław Nikiel