With the Tata Metal Masters chess event in full circulation, the principle focus has been on D Gukesh and R Praggnanandhaa. Gukesh, who’s the reigning world champion, is main the standings, carefully adopted by Nodirbek Abdusattorov and R Praggnanandhaa.
Nodirbek Yakubboev snubs Vaishali Praggnanandhaa’s handshake.
Followers have additionally been disillusioned by the absence of Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura and Hans Niemann. In the meantime, the event has additionally been on the receiving finish of an issue, involving primarily Nodirbek Yakubboev and Vaishali Praggnanandhaa.
Each gamers confronted one another in Spherical 4 of the Challengers’ Part, and it started with a scandalous incident. The Uzbek grandmaster was late for his sport in opposition to Vaishali, and on turning up, ignored her and snubbed the customary handshake. The Indian’s response was of utter confusion, however she had the final chortle.
She was at her greatest and tactically overpowered Yakubboev, who forgot to take care of his weakened king. After his defeat, he as soon as once more ignored Vaishali and left. In the meantime after the sport, Yakubboev acquired criticism from followers and present gamers, who criticised him and accused him of sexist, racist behaviour.
Nodirbek Yakubboev apology to Vaishali Praggnanandhaa
He went on so as to add that he revered Vaishali and her youthful brother. Then he said that ‘chess is not haram’, and identified that he had shaken Divya Deshmukh’s hand in 2023, which was flawed of him. He additionally revealed that for his sport in opposition to Irina Bulmaga, he knowledgeable her and he or she agreed to it. Then he additionally accused the arbiters of urging him to ‘Namaste as a gesture’. He clarified that he ever bought the possibility to tell Vaishali, which led to ‘an awkward situation’.
“2) I respect Vaishali and her brother as the strongest chess players in India. If I have offended her with my behavior, I apologize. I have some additional explanations: 1. Chess is not haram.
“3) 2. What I did before (referring to the game with Divya in 2023 and cases like that) I consider it wrong for me. 3. I do what I need to do. I do not insist others not to shake hands with the opposite gender or for women to wear hijab or burqa. It is their business what to do.
“Today I told Irina Bulmaga about it. She agreed to it. But when I came to the playing hall, the arbiters told me that I should at least do Namaste as a gesture. In the games with Divya and Vaishali I couldn’t tell them about it before the game and there was an awkward situation”, he added.
It’s value mentioning that Nodirbek has missed out on the truth that he additionally met Divya in an earlier spherical on the ongoing event, and was seen in a stay broadcast, fist-bumping her earlier than their match started.
Reacting to the incident, German grandmaster Elisabeth Pahtz wrote, “Well let us put the question this way: Why does such behaviour have 0 consequences for him? As Organizer as well as for the ethics commission it should get on the agenda, unless he has religious or serious personal reasons for refusal which I honestly doubt.”
Nodirbek is at the moment the World No. 67, with a FIDE score of 2659. Vaishali has been in good kind recently, and within the stay scores has climbed three spots increased to sixteenth place within the girls classical world standings.