Australia’s top-ranked women’s chess player has sparked a global debate about Israel’s participation in international sporting tournaments by becoming the first player to boycott Israel over its genocide of Palestinians at the Chess world’s biggest tournament — the 46th Chess Olympiad currently taking place in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
On Wednesday, Heather Richards announced she would not take part in Australia’s round seven match against Israel at the Olympiad, a biennial tournament involving 205 countries that served as the chess world’s premier international competition since 1927.
Richards, a mechanical engineer who lives in Gladstone, Queensland, is currently Australia’s women's chess champion. She said that she was participating in a sporting boycott of Israel because the country was committing a genocide.
