Kyiv: The post of Ukrainian chess player Anna Muzychuk about the boycott of the World Chess Championship became the most popular in the Ukrainian segment of Facebook for 2017.
The chess player wrote that, despite the imminent loss of her two titles, she still will not go to Riyadh for the competition.
"In a few days I will lose two world titles - one after another, simply because I decided not to go to Saudi Arabia." "Do not play by someone's rules, do not wear an abay, do not go out with them, and do not feel at all itself a secondary being, "Anna wrote on Facebook on December 23.
In just a few days the post has collected over 149 thousand likes and more than 69 thousand reposts. Also the decision of Anna users of the social network commented over 19 thousand times. Thus, the post of Anna became not only the most popular in the Ukrainian segment of Facebook in 2017, but also in the history of Ukraine.
"Exactly one year ago I won these two titles and was the happiest man in the world of chess, but this time I feel very bad, I'm ready to speak out for my principles and miss an event where in five days I had to earn more than I I do for a dozen other events, all this is annoying, but the most unpleasant thing is for almost everyone, it's a really bitter feeling, still unable to change my opinion and my principles. "The same goes for my sister Mary - and I'm very happy that we share this point of view, and yes, for t ex-few, who cares not - we'll be back! " - summed up the chess player.
The World Rapid Chess Championship (Rapida) and the blitz of the name of King Salman ibn Abdul-Aziz Al Saud are held in Riyadh from 26 to 30 December. 236 invited chess players from 70 countries of the world participate in it. According to the idea of the inviting party, the event was supposed to make this absolute theocratic monarchy more open to the rest of the world. The winners of the main tournament will receive 750 thousand US dollars, the winner of exclusively women's tournament - 250 thousand.