‘Norway Chess strongest women's event… Anybody can win': World No. 8 Anna Muzychuk
"It's great to have successes, but you always have to go forward and focus on the next tournaments and next goals," Anna said.
With reigning World Champion Ju Wenjin, Indian legend Koneru Humpy, along with Lei Tingjie, Vaishali R and Sarasadat Khademalsharieh in the fray, Anna, who finished as the runner-up last year in the inaugural edition of Norway Chess Women's tournament, expects a strong and unpredictable competition this year.
"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," she further added.
Anna's persistence and relentless passion for the sport came from her upbringing. With her sister Mariya also a chess player, and her parents being coaches, she began making her moves on the board at an exceptionally young age while growing up in Western part of Ukraine.
With Chess being immensely popular, Anna and her sister, Mariya, who is also a grandmaster now, and is also competing at the Austria Grand Prix, 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 further added.
The Ukrainian international has already achieved 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, a title she narrowly missed out in 2017. With her focus on her sporting goal, is Anna now able to find a balance between personal and professional life?
"It's always difficult. We see that some players manage both parts of life. But even if you are not at the very top, it's still hard. Right now, I am not married and do not have kids. So when I do have them, then I will be able to better tell how I am managing both," she said.
In her free time, whatever little she could find, Anna prefers to be with her friends and family, or attend some musical concerts. She also has a keen interest in learning foreign languages, programming, and also recently found a keen interest in hairstyles. "If not for a chess player, maybe I was doing something in the hairstyle industry," she said with a laugh.
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.
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