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Chess Player Fined Over Her 'Sports Shoes'

Dutch player Anna-Maja Kazarian was forced to change them, despite ambiguous dress code
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 28, 2023 1:15 PM CST
Updated Dec 31, 2023 10:38 AM CST
Chess Player Fined Over Her 'Sports Shoes'
Anna-Maja Kazarian displays the offending shoe.   (YouTube)

It's been a year of weird, even gross, controversies in the world of chess. And now comes one last one for the books: The International Chess Federation fined a player 100 euros ($111) for wearing "sports shoes" during a tournament in Uzbekistan and made her change them before continuing play, reports the New York Times. The offender is Dutch player Anna-Maja Kazarian, who expressed incredulity in a tweet and in a YouTube video in which she displays the canvas Burberry sneakers gifted to her by her sister. She said the way she was treated by federation officials made her feel like a "criminal."

The federation, known as FIDE, encourages players to dress up for tournament play, and the 23-year-old Kazarian says she thought she was doing just that by wearing the "fancy" sneakers. As a post at sportskeeda notes, there's some confusion over FIDE's dress code. "Sneakers" are OK, but "sports shoes" are not. And nobody seems able to explain the distinction. Pavel Tregubov, FIDE's technical delegate at the tournament, tells the Times the federation will try to clear up the confusion and revise the dress code. "If she felt like a criminal, I'm very sorry for that." (More chess stories.)

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