After her final tournament of the year, IM Sara Khadem (Sarasadat Khademalsharieh), who broke the Iranian dress code for women by refusing to wear a headscarf in the 2022 FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships, will not be going home. She is moving to an unknown Spanish city with her partner, film director Ardeshir Ahmadi, and their small child. She hasn’t released an apology to the public as of yet, but two people close to her told the Spanish newspaper El Pais that this information is true.
This information has been made public among protests against the Iranian government that have been ongoing since September, when Mahsa Amini, 22, passed away while in police custody for “improperly” donning her headscarf. As protests burn across the country, Iranian voices—or lack thereof—have been heard far beyond the chessboard. One notable example from the world of sports is the Iranian team’s choice to skip their national anthem before their opening match at the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Right present, the world’s best chess player in my opinion is: Sara Khadem, playing for Iran in Kazakhstan’s World Rapid & Blitz
— Jennifer Shahade
Returning to the chess world, Iranian players made quite some noise in Almaty, Kazakhstan, during this year’s top-speed chess championships. As the event progressed this week, images of Khadem and WGM Atousa Pourkashiyan—a person of Iranian heritage who lives in the United States—flooded social media on Monday. Many tweets expressed support for the couple. Thousands of individuals have been held since the protests started, with many facing death sentences, so even a seemingly insignificant act of protest can have serious consequences.
Sara Khadem and Atousa Pourkashiyan, two great Iranian women players, deserve respect for showing up to the World Rapid/Blitz Championships without their headscarves! These two brave women have my deepest respect!
— Susan Polgar
Additionally, at this year’s championships, Iranian players were under pressure to knowingly accept their games to Israeli players; this is a common practice at elite chess events and has not changed in many years. As an example, Israeli general manager Boris Gelfand recently won three free points this past week against Iranian opponents without having to make a move. He won two of the points against GM Amin Tabatabaei in the blitz event and one each against IM Bardiya Daneshvar and GM Pouya Idani in the rapid event.
In modern times, Iran has created many excellent chess players, although some of the greatest have chosen to leave the nation. Their most recent opponent, Khadem, is ranked 17th among women players worldwide and 10th in Iran.
The youngest player to break the 2800 rating threshold and the world’s second-ranked player at the age of 18, Alireza Firouzja, a former Iranian general manager, relocated in 2019 and started playing for France last year. When IM Dorsa Derakhshani participated in an international chess competition in 2017 without donning a headscarf, she departed Iran to represent the United States. International arbitrator Shohreh Bayat departed Iran for like reasons two years earlier.
It remains to be seen what this signifies for both Khadem’s chess career and the future of Iranian chess.