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Chess, played by women, aims at defusing conflict

Chess, a game stereotyped as the preserve of men in tweed suits, eccentric geniuses and unbeatable super-computers, has developed a new role in peace-keeping.

Dozens of the world's top female chess players will fly into the middle of a bitter conflict next week, hoping that their calm, measured thought may ease tensions.

On 12 May, the World Women's Chess Championship will be held in Batumi, the port capital of Adjaria, a breakaway region in the former Soviet republic of Georgia. Chess's brightest female stars, including Russian prodigy Alexandra Kosteniuk, whose sideline of modelling has led her to be dub-bed the "Kournikova of chess," will fly into the heart of a war zone.

Violent conflict has been brewing in the region for months because of a tense stand-off between the new Georgian government led by President Mikhail Saakashvili, who ousted Eduard Shevardnadze in a peaceful revolution in November, and the feudalistic head of Adjaria, Aslan Abashidze.

Abashidze, who maintains an authoritarian grip on the region, brutally suppressing political opponents, has refused to recognize the presidency of Saakashvili. In turn, the central government in Tbilisi has called Abashidze a "sixteenth-century feudalist" whose time is up.

Batumi, a busy port set below the beauty of the Georgian hills, regularly hosts chess tournaments. Yet Goka Gabashvili, Georgian Minister for Sport and Culture, said recently the championship could not be held there because, owing to illegal armed groups in the region, "Georgian authorities cannot ensure security of the participants."

Tensions rose last week when the Adjarian authorities reportedly ordered a "general mobilization" of the population, many of whom have weapons at home, to defend the region. Tbilisi also ordered massive war games to start miles from Adjaria on Friday, bringing violent conflict ever closer.

Yet on the same day, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the head of FIDE, the International Chess Federation, travelled to Georgia to try to mediate in the conflict. Ilyumzhinov, one of the last foreign visitors to meet Saddam Hussein when he was in power, is also President of the tiny Russian republic of Kalmykia, a Buddhist enclave on the Caspian Sea.

"We hope that sport, like chess, can play a positive role in problems and conflicts, and we hope to take this negotiation in a peaceful direction," said Zurab Azmaiparashvili, a senior official at FIDE. He and Ilyumzhinov will later meet Abashidze.

Yet just hours before the chess delegation met Saakashvili, police and special forces troops were violently dispersing an opposition rally in Batumi.

The conflict between Saakashvili and Abashidze has brewed since the former came to power in January.
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