Each participant has a real chance to win Norway Chess, says world No. 8 Anna Muzychuk

New Delhi, May 6 (PTI) World number 8 Anna Muzychuk says each participant in the upcoming Norway Chess, including India's Koneru Humpy and Vaishali R, has a real chance of winning the tournament, dubbed the "strongest women's event" by the Ukrainian grandmaster.

Norway Chess is one of the world's premier chess tournaments, bringing together the top male and female players in a distinctive six-player double round-robin format.

"I think it's the strongest women's event if we are looking at the ratings. It will be super tough. Each participant has a real chance to win it. I think it will be exciting, and I am really looking forward to it," Anna said in a press release on Tuesday.

With reigning world champion Ju Wenjin, Indian legend Humpy, along with Lei Tingjie, Vaishali and Sarasadat Khademalsharieh in the fray, Anna, who finished as the runner-up last year in the inaugural edition, expects a strong and unpredictable competition this year.

Anna's dedication towards chess can be testified by a look at her busy calendar. After a remarkable win at the Nicosia Women's Grand Prix in March, the Ukrainian Grandmaster shifted her focus towards the Austria Grand Prix, currently underway.

While it would be her final Grand Prix of the ongoing cycle, the 35-year-old would travel a week later for the highly anticipated 2025 edition of Norway Women's Chess to compete against some of the top talents of the sport.

"It's great to have successes, but you always have to go forward and focus on the next tournaments and next goals," Anna said.

Her persistence and relentless passion for the sport came from her upbringing. With her parents being chess coach, Anna and her younger sister Mariya began making their moves on the chessboard at a very young age while growing up in western part of Ukraine.

With chess being immensely popular in the region, Anna and her sister, who is also a grandmaster now, and is competing at the Austria Grand Prix alongside her, had to spend a lot of hours training to keep up with the competition.

"I was born in 1990 when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union. It became an independent country a year later, but still all chess traditions were quite developed in our area.

"We had coaches, tournaments and chess was quite popular. There were so many players from our time from where I grew up and we competed together in various tournaments. Many of us went on to become grandmasters, hence our generation was really strong," Anna said.

But the pursuit of excellence always comes with sacrifices and hard choices, especially in sports. Anna explains the challenges that come with a life in chess.

"In chess, we can see young players becoming grandmasters at the age of 12. To achieve that, you have to work a lot," Anna said.

"Nowadays, you cannot start too late if you want to be a top-level player. Every time, you have to think if you are ready to sacrifice your childhood. Whether you want to be a part of fun activities with other children or work on chess and try to achieve more. It depends on the child and also a lot on the parents because they have to be supportive," she said.

The Ukrainian international has already achieved almost every milestone in her career, with multiple world titles in Blitz and Rapid Chess tournaments, and the Grandmaster title among them.

But she continues to hope to one day complete the set by winning the Women's World title in classical chess, something she narrowly missed in 2017.

Anna has also been quite vocal on equal rights for women over the years and also has been an advocate for growth of female players in chess.

With Norway Chess providing equal pay for men and women, Anna feels it will motivate more female players to pick up the sport.

"All the participants are really thankful to the organizers of the Norway Chess for making equal price fund for both men and women. It will give additional motivation to all the girls around the world," she signed off. PTI AH AH AT AT