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The Indian capital New Delhi hosts the third leg of the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix 2022/23 series. The event takes place from March 24 to April 5, and officially opened yesterday. The tournament supposed to kick off with the first round on Saturday, 25th of March. However, due to organizational issues, the first round was postponed.
The 12-player round-robin tournament is shortened to 11-player format as GM Zhansaya Abdumalik withdrew from the event after bad reception at the airport. After leaving India, Zhansaya explained to ChessBase India why she decided to leave the tournament:
“I left the tournament because the preparation for the event was not adequate. I arrived at the airport at 1.30 a.m. and they forgot to meet me. I tried to contact the person who was supposed to wait for me. He didn’t check his messages for one and a half hour. I did everything they said in our email before we arrived but there was nothing at the airport. I don’t think it was hard to organize transfers for only 12 players when there was a huge Olympiad organized last year for thousands of people. I can’t imagine if a top male player was arriving to the tournament and no one is there to pick him up. That was not a good start. The location of the hotel was not great. FIDE knew that unfortunately Delhi has some problems with the air because of pollution. I could see a big landfill from my window where they were putting on a fire or something of that sort. Leaving the hotel is difficult because of its location. The hotel staff told me not to go out because it could be dangerous.
I love India. We had a great Olympiad in Chennai and I have very nice memories from it, but this time something went wrong and I couldn’t imagine myself playing there for two weeks. It’s one of the best tournaments in the world and I just want FIDE to put more attention on women’s chess. It was too much for me and that’s why I decided to leave. We deserve to play in good conditions. Everyone knows that I am a fighter and I would never withdraw from such a tournament without reason.”
