Sarah Khadem, an Iranian-born chess player who has just obtained Spanish nationality, has lived a fleeting spell at the World Cup, which has been held in Baku since the end of July. The female grandmaster, who fled her country when she learned she would be arrested after refusing to wear the veil in an international competition, has the excuse that she hasn’t been too focused on the boards in recent months. .
The world number 15, former world champion under 12 and under 16, was one of the seeds in the women’s draw of the competition, so she went directly to the second round. She was also a clear favorite against the Indonesian chess player. Medina Auliahis first rival, who has a disadvantage of 133 Elo points, a significant difference.
The World Cup has a knockout format, like tennis tournaments. In the early rounds, hepaired players play two games, one with white and one with black. If they finish tied, the ranking is decided in quick games.
In her first game, Aulia played with great quality and took advantage of the inaccuracies of the Spanish player. On his Twitter account, Khadem wrote, still upbeat: “The first round didn’t go well. I’ll try to fight tomorrow.”
Indeed, this Thursday presented ready to put up a fight and come back, even though he was wearing the black pieces. Unlike his defeat the day before, Khadem agreed to enter the Spanish opening, although he chose an unusual variation, to try to ‘get his less experienced opponent out of the book’.